CONFERENCE STATISTICS by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 13, 1878

CONFERENCE STATISTICS.

By Editor

The time is approaching when the General Conference will want reports from all the State Conferences, giving full statistics of their numerical strength and financial standing. We notice in the reports thus far given, the same lamentable feature of incompleteness that has characterized the reports of previous years. It appears from the report of the Wisconsin Conference in this number, that of the forty-seven churches belonging to the Conference, twelve gave no report at all, and nineteen gave no church report. Again we ask, Cannot this evil be corrected? Twenty-eight church clerks did their duty, but the nineteen unfaithful ones, not only were negligent of their own duty, but they nullified all the work of the twenty-eight who did report; for so far as our getting an accurate report of the membership of the Conference is concerned, they might as well not have reported at all, because somebody else didn’t do his duty. We would that all could see and feel the evil of such unfaithfulness in the work of the Lord. Is it a fact that so large a proportion of our churches have no one in their membership who has the ability or disposition to do this work with promptness and accuracy?

Again, the reports given by the treasurers frequently present a bad look. To illustrate, in the treasurer’s report of the Wisconsin Conference last year, there was a balance on hand reported, after paying all orders to date of report, of $357.05. In the present report no such balance appears as brought over from last year’s report. What has become of the money? If it is in the amount reported as “received during the year,” it is incorrect; for it was received the year before, and was on hand when the last treasurer made his report, and should not be receipted twice. If it was paid out by the former treasurer it should have been reported as paid out, and not as cash on hand. If paid out by the treasurer last reporting, it should appear as so much on hand at beginning of the year, or as received from the preceding treasurer, and then be included in the amount paid out. We trust that the instruction in business matters lately given in different places, will tend to remedy these irregularities.