How to Take Inventory with Limited Time and Resources
Everyone knows that having an inventory of the valuable items in your church is a good idea.
Should disaster strike, that video, list, or collection of receipts will speed up the settlement
process. However, John Webster, Assistant Vice President of Claims for the Church Insurance
Company of Vermont, has found that parishes rarely have an inventory prepared.
“We’ve had multiple instances over the last five or six years, especially during the hurricanes,
where church leadership had to rely on volunteers, parishioners, and teachers to provide
information about the contents of different areas of the buildings,” John says. He cites one
instance where vestry members needed to question a scout troupe that met on their
property to help construct an inventory.
This kind of reconstruction causes delays in claim settlement and inevitably forgets some
items. John says he often finds that although the building claim gets settled quickly after
a catastrophic loss, the case file remains open much longer while claims examiners wait
for the submission of an inventory that details what was lost.
John believes churches aren’t avoiding the chore; they simply don’t have the personnel
resources to do it. “Especially in small churches, where the rector deals with all aspects and
where volunteers work only in certain areas, it can be difficult to accomplish a project like
this,” he says.
Suggestions for an Easy Taking of Inventory in Your Church
1. Make it a group effort. Rather than saddling an already overburdened volunteer
with a big task, place an announcement in the church bulletin asking for volunteers
to provide just one hour of help after the Sunday service. Divvy up the space to be
inventoried and get it done quickly. You might request that parishioners bring their
own video recorders or hand out disposable cameras for creating a visual record of
valuables.
2. Conduct the inventory over time. Make the process seem smaller and less daunting
by dividing the property into sections. Then, devote a certain afternoon per week to
recording an inventory of each section until the entire property has been inventoried.
3. Appoint a leader. Make sure that someone in the church is invested in seeing the
inventory through to completion. John suggests that a vestry member or junior or
senior warden might step up to lead the project.
Property can be damaged by flood, fire, or natural disaster. Having an inventory prepared
not only speeds the claims process, it also lessens the strain for leadership in the aftermath
of such an occurrence.