Trustees, Board of

The activities of the Trustees for 2022 included the purchase, sale, and maintenance of Conference 1 properties. The Trustees also managed the Conference’s master insurance program. A brief explanation of for the past year follows:

The Board of Trustees is currently managing 35 closed churches, two land-only properties, 9 district 6 parsonages, one episcopal residence, one conference center, five camp and retreat centers, and seven 7 legacy-issue properties. Each property has two trustees assigned to oversee these properties and 8 buildings. The Trustees also work to market and sell the closed churches, land, and legacy properties. They 9 coordinate their parsonage work with district parsonage coordinators to maintain and address issues at 10 each parsonage. District boards of Church Location and Buildings work to support the Trustees on closed 11 church properties within their districts. Peter Abdella from Harter Secrest & Emery LLP serves as our

Conference Chancellor as we work to sell these properties. Working with municipalities (tax exempt issues), private groups (cemetery associations, tenants), real estate brokers and others, we resolve issues

The Annual Conference Board of Trustees maintains an insurance subcommittee who helps to design, implement, and monitor our Conference-wide insurance program. This program has been underwritten by Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company since January 1, 2020. Our local representatives are American

Church Group of New York and agents from American Church Group have completed visits to all our local churches in 2022 and have established accurate replacement costs for all our properties.

Trustee financial activity is accounted for and reported as a separate fund within the Conference. Net

Assets are categorized in accordance with Conference or donor designations as follows:

• Unrestricted Net Assets: Net assets that are not subject to donor-imposed restrictions.

• Designated Unrestricted Net Assets: Net assets that are internally designated for a specific purpose or activity by the Conference.

• Temporarily Restricted Net Assets: Net assets subject to donor-imposed stipulations that may or will be met either by actions of the Conference and/or the passage of time. Also includes camp and retreat centers, the Conference center and district parsonages.

• Permanently Restricted Net Assets: Net assets subject to donor-imposed stipulations that may be maintained permanently by the Conference. Generally, the donors of these assets permits the

Conference to use all, or part of the income earned on related investments for program operations.

There are three-member churches with loan guarantees provided by the Conference with an outstanding loan balance of approximately $620,000 as of 12/31/22.

In 2022, The Upper NY Conference endured our first round of disaffiliating churches. Last year we had eight churches approved for disaffiliation. The trustees have continued to work diligently to keep track of disaffiliation applications and have made efforts to acknowledge each church's wishes. Information needed from District Superintendents and Churches has been fine-tuned to make sure we are adhering to the Discipline and making the process equitable for all churches.

The Trustees continue to work with our legal team and other Conference boards to monitor the lawsuits 9 brought against the Conference. With the guidance of our legal team and the boards involved, we will continue to review cases as they move forward. We will continue to update the Annual Conference and will have further information at the Annual Conference 2023.

Faithfully, 14

Rev. Pamela Klotzbach, Trustee President