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Membership Committee Budget

November 1, 2004

Each congregation will have different needs, but generally a budget of at least $600 is necessary to perform minimal membership functions. A budget of $900 to $1,500 is more appropriate for small to mid-size congregations with active Membership Committees.

Membership committees must generally pay for the following, in many congregations:

Production of local brochures and booklets.
Purchase of Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) brochures and booklets.
Costs of special gifts such as books for prospective members and pins and flowers for new members.
Food, unless donated, for new member brunches and visitor receptions.
Creation of name tags for new members and replacement of lost tags.
Purchase of baby gifts (Caring Committee).

A third or more of the Membership budget is commonly consumed by production and purchase of brochures and booklets. New versions of local brochures should be prepared annually, and made available by mid-August when visitor traffic starts to increase.

Here's how one Membership Committee at a two hundred member congregation spends its budget of $940. The committee holds two new-member ceremonies and brunches annually, two sessions of Newcomer Classes and gains approximately twenty members annually.

Publishing brochures	$250
Name Tags (40@$5.50 each)	$220
New Member Brunches (2)	$100
UU Pocket Guide (25)	$125
Gifts (books and chalice pins) for new members	$64
New Member Ceremony flowers	$50
Child care, Newcomer classes	$36
Baby gifts (3)	$40
Miscellaneous	$55
TOTAL	$940

For more information contact interconnections @ uua.org.

Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.