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Rabid Trekkie
06-19-2006, 12:22 PM
Okay, so some of you may remember this little rant I went on a while back. About how this one lady at my church pretty much single handedly stopped my congregation from helping hurricane Katrina victims.

Well anyway, her and her husband have just pulled something else and this time it may even be a legal matter. You see for about the past month her and the husband have been making these really stupid plans that involve tearing down the school my church has now and building an eight million dollar monstrosity in its place. One of the fundamental problems with that though is my church hasn't been able to pay off it's 80,000 dollar debt in almost seven years.

Step one of their plan is to build a new gymnasium that would also work like a public gym so we could try to raise enough money for the rest of this stupid project. Suddenly, when we start talking finances they pop up and tell the congregation that the school has made 40,000 in surplus due to fundraising and tuition. Myself, family, and a few other people in the congregation with more than two braincells didn't buy it, yet the money was there and the pastor was going along with the line.

Today, I heard a rumor about how the school got the money and need to see if I can find out if its true. The rumor goes that while we were helping Katrina victims the lady and her husband got the church and school earmarked for government money, to the tune of 40,000 dollars to make up for the church's depleted funds. Thing is though, money never left the church's bank account. Everything that was done to help the people from Lousianna and Mississippi, came from individual offerings of the members of our congregation. Everything from blankets to the hot meals program we ran came from individual people. According to this rumor, that's why this new gym they want to build must double as a community center (the community center aspect of it had never made sense to me before) otherwise we wouldn't really have anything to do with the government money.

So my question is: Is there anyway I can find out if FEMA gave money to my church and if so, how much?

Michael P
06-19-2006, 12:25 PM
Okay, so some of you may remember this little rant I went on a while back. About how this one lady at my church pretty much single handedly stopped my congregation from helping hurricane Katrina victims.

I do *not* remember this. Linky?

Rabid Trekkie
06-19-2006, 12:48 PM
I do *not* remember this. Linky?

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=86744

It's down a ways in the first post.

Michael P
06-19-2006, 12:54 PM
Jesus. What the hell is wrong with that woman?

In answer to your initial question, I know for a fact that the Post got a hold of the names of some of the recipients (specificlly, ones who were found to have defrauded FEMA), so you should be able to get a list of recipients by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Oh, and does anyone else get a Mr. Potter vibe from all of this?

Paul McEnery
06-19-2006, 04:38 PM
Okay, so some of you may remember this little rant I went on a while back. About how this one lady at my church pretty much single handedly stopped my congregation from helping hurricane Katrina victims.

Well anyway, her and her husband have just pulled something else and this time it may even be a legal matter. You see for about the past month her and the husband have been making these really stupid plans that involve tearing down the school my church has now and building an eight million dollar monstrosity in its place. One of the fundamental problems with that though is my church hasn't been able to pay off it's 80,000 dollar debt in almost seven years.

Step one of their plan is to build a new gymnasium that would also work like a public gym so we could try to raise enough money for the rest of this stupid project. Suddenly, when we start talking finances they pop up and tell the congregation that the school has made 40,000 in surplus due to fundraising and tuition. Myself, family, and a few other people in the congregation with more than two braincells didn't buy it, yet the money was there and the pastor was going along with the line.

Today, I heard a rumor about how the school got the money and need to see if I can find out if its true. The rumor goes that while we were helping Katrina victims the lady and her husband got the church and school earmarked for government money, to the tune of 40,000 dollars to make up for the church's depleted funds. Thing is though, money never left the church's bank account. Everything that was done to help the people from Lousianna and Mississippi, came from individual offerings of the members of our congregation. Everything from blankets to the hot meals program we ran came from individual people. According to this rumor, that's why this new gym they want to build must double as a community center (the community center aspect of it had never made sense to me before) otherwise we wouldn't really have anything to do with the government money.

So my question is: Is there anyway I can find out if FEMA gave money to my church and if so, how much?
There ought to be ways to force an audit of church finances, I'd have thought.

Rabid Trekkie
06-20-2006, 06:04 AM
I think her problem is that she grew up poor, and when she married a rich moron from Harvard she began to feel she could get and deserved everything she wanted. That and she probably hasn't been laid since her daughter was born.

How do I go about filing a request under the Freedom of Info act?

And I could probably force an audit if I had enough people in my corner. Out of the people who actually show up to these "business meetings" I actually may win a vote for one. Problem is the people I'd beat would then say the vote didn't count cause the whole church wasn't there, and then go against the rules of the church and have the vote take place on a Saturday during services. I can get 9 out of 16 (only about 16 show up at business meetings) but because they're the money power in my church most of the congregation, who don't really give a damn one way or the other, will follow the line of the paycheck.