Good Enough | Conference Early Rate | THOU SHALT CONDUCT AUDITS | - 6/5/07

[Smartmarriages]

- ROOMMATES? 
- A MARRIAGE THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH
- NOT FAIR 
- THE FAMILY MANAGEMENT LINKS
- PROTECTING AGAINST FRAUD

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- ROOMMATES? 
We have both men and women looking for roommates.  Like a man who is coming
from Beijing China and who is attending the conference plus pre and post
institutes. People say the roommate experience often turns out to be one of
the most interesting parts of the conference.  Let me know if you're
interested in sharing your room.  - diane

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- A MARRIAGE THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH

NPR: A Marriage That's Good Enough
Corrine Colbert 

Talk about getting our expectations in order.  This is a beautiful must
read/must listen essay to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10536016&sc=emaf

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- NOT FAIR 

> I was wondering if there is an option to buy all the recordings of the
> conference at a very reduced rate if you attend the conference?  It is
> hard for me to justify paying the money to go to the conference, when I
> can buy the entire thing for the same price.  I get all the speakers if
> I buy it and only a small portion if I go.  Plus, I would have them for
> a reference for a life time.
> 
> It does bother me that I had to hear of the conference from a peer a
> week ago and now the price is $60 higher.  I think it should be the
> same price until a week before the conference.  It is hard for those of
> us starting our private practices to afford such a conference and then
> to be penalized because we heard about it later does not seem fair.
> 
> Jule Lane 

Yes, there is a $100 difference in recording packages for those that
purchase them on-site.

Also, I want you to understand that the $50 early-discount is an incentive
to encourage people to register early so we can better manage the
conference.  That way we can assign the large workshops to the large meeting
rooms and better fit everyone in, order the handouts, find overflow hotel
space, mail the badges, etc AND thus better serve the attendees.  This is
not some arbitrary "late" penalty - this is an incentive whose price we
absorb to try to better manage things.

And we DO advertise the conference all over the place. We place expensive
display ads in ALL professional publications, mail 200,000 brochures to
licensee lists which we purchase each year, mail an additional 100,000
postcards to the remaining addresses to which we don't mail the brochure,
and work hard to get the conference and the smartmarriages campaign in the
popular press. We do everything we can to get word out. I'm sorry we didn't
reach you.  

The on-site conference experience provides the opportunity to be trained
first hand, visit with over 100 exhibitors and sample their resources, AND
to network with over 2,000 people from all over the country (and world) that
share your interests - swap ideas with them about what does and doesn't work
in different settings. We also make it possible to purchase the entire
conference on MP3 at an extremely affordable price (as you point out).  It
allows people the best of both worlds - the in-person learning and
Networking PLUS the luxury of having ALL the sessions at their fingertips to
listen to all year round.

Note that the pre and post conference training Institutes are NOT recorded.

I hope that helps in your decision-making process.  I encourage you to
subscribe to the FREE list serv so you get the notice of the 2008 conference
in plenty of time. - diane

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- THE FAMILY MANAGEMENT LINKS

> Diane, Here are the links that were in the family coaching article in the
Washington Post:
> www.familymanager.com <http://www.familymanager.com/>
> www.messies.com <http://www.messies.com/>
> www.flylady.net <http://www.flylady.net/>
> www.shesintouch.com <http://www.shesintouch.com/>
> www.gomominc.com <http://www.gomominc.com/>
>  
> and a Lisa Kramer student, I highly
> recommend both her breakout session and the one-day training!
> cheryl labarre

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- PROTECTING AGAINST FRAUD
Dear Diane,
Here is the column I wrote this week that I think would be of interest to
the list, due to the Barbara Markey information. It also includes an
important cautionary tale for all of us: no matter how much you trust your
staff, conduct audits!
       Mike

McManus - Ethics & Religion
May 30, 2007
Column #1,344
Advance for June 1, 2007
Protecting the Church Against Fraud
by Mike McManus

 On May 8 Wendy Ann Thompson Morgan, 37, a daycare worker of First United
Methodist Church in El Dorado, AR, was charged with fraudulent use of the
church's credit card. Earlier this spring, her mother, Carol Ann Thompson, a
61 year old former bookkeeper at the same church, was charged with stealing
$692,629 over eight years..
 
 This is not an isolated case. Two years ago, another El Dorado area United
Methodist pastor pled guilty to misappropriating $201,000, such as altering
61 checks to himself. At least he paid the money back and is serving a
three-year jail term.
 
 Fraud has also plagued Catholic churches. Two priests in Del Ray Beach,
Florida face grand theft charges for stealing a stunning $8.6 million from
their church. Monsignor John Skehan, 79, allegedly embezzled the money over
40 years as pastor, to buy property. His successor used money for an
"intimate relationship" with a  former bookkeeper at his previous church,
and to gamble in Las Vegas.

 More shocking to me is the case of Sister Barbara Markey, an
internationally admired Ph.D. psychologist who created FOCCUS, the most
widely-used  premarital inventory, taken by 500,000 couples a year.  I have
known and respected her for a decade.
 
 She was at the top of her career until a year ago when the Omaha
Archdiocese revealed that more than $300,000 was missing from the 2004-5
FOCCUS account, and turned the case over to police. She used some money to
buy gifts for family members but reportedly spent most of it on casino
gambling!
 
 She has pled innocent but faces both a criminal trial in the fall and a
civil suit by the Archdiocese to recover losses that are now estimated to
exceed $800,000.
 
 Nor are these cases rare. A study by researchers at Villanova University
reports that 85 percent of Catholic dioceses responding to a survey had
discovered embezzlement of church money in the last five years.
 
 Two questions occur to me.
 
 How could a bookkeeper steal nearly $700,000 over eight years without
anyone noticing? Or a priest embezzle millions over a 40-year career and not
get caught? 
 
 The answer is buried on the last page of the Villanova report: "Only three
percent of the dioceses conducted an annual internal audit of their
parishes. Nearly 14 percent responded that internal audits do not routinely
occur but are triggered by a change in key personnel - either the pastor or
parish bookkeeper. Twenty-one percent of the dioceses indicated that they
seldom or never audit their parishes."
 
 Apparently, no audit was conducted during Msgr. Skehan's 40 year term -
only when he retired. Similarly, Sister Markey's books were not audited for
years. Nor were those of the Methodist bookkeeper.
 
 That is virtual permission to steal.
 
 "As a faith-based organization, we place a lot of trust in our folks," said
Chuck Zech, co-author of the study and director of Villanova's Center for
the Study of Church Management.
 
 "We think if you work for a church - you're a volunteer or a priest - the
last thing on your mind is to do something dishonest. But people are people,
and there's a lot of temptation there, and with the cash-based aspect of how
churches operate, it's pretty easy," he told a reporter.
 
 When asked if he trusted Gorbachev to live up to a treaty, President Reagan
replied, "Trust, but verify."
 
 The Omaha Archdiocese has belatedly learned its lesson.  According to
Father Joseph Taphorn, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, a series of new
internal controls and audits have been put in place.  For example, a new
protocol for Sunday collections mandates that contributions be deposited by
a person who cannot write parish checks (i.e., the priest). The audits
revealed thefts in several parishes..  "Our goal is transparency," said
Taphorn.
 
 The Villanova study, "Internal Financial Controls in the U.S. Catholic
Church," made several recommendations that are valid for Protestant as well
as Catholic churches:
 
 1. Annual internal audits of parishes, supplemented by external audits
conducted at least every three years.
 
 2. Establishment of a uniform budgeting process and standardized software
for all diocesan entities.
 
 3. Establishment of communication channels for church workers to report
suspected irregularities or fraudulent activities while protecting their
anonymity.
 
 It is time for church leaders and members to ask some pointed financial
questions: "When was the last time there was an audit of our church's books?
Was the audit performed by a friend of the pastor or someone appointed by
the governing board? Were any irregularities discovered?
 
 The commandment is, "Thou shalt not steal." Especially from a church!
 
 END TXT Copyright © 2007 Michael J. McManus