712. Apportionments--The council shall recommend to the annual conference for its action and determination the methods or formulas by which the approved budgeted amounts for clergy support, administration, World Service and Conference Benevolences, and other apportioned causes (712.1-.4) shall be apportioned to the districts, Churches, or charges of the conference.
1. The council, on receiving from the General Council on Finance and Administration a statement of the amount apportioned to the annual conference for the several general funds authorized by the General Conference, shall apportion the same to the several districts, charges, or Churches by whatever method the conference may direct, but without reduction.
2. The council shall recommend to the annual conference for its action and determination whether the apportionments referred to in this paragraph shall be made by the council to the districts only or to the Churches or charges of the conference. If the apportionments are made to the districts only, then the distribution to the Churches or charges of each district shall be made as provided in 712.3. The conference may order that the entire distribution to all the Churches or charges of the conference be made by the district superintendents.
3. Should the annual conference make the apportionments to the districts only, the distribution to the Churches or charges of each district shall be made by its district board of stewards, composed of the district superintendent as chairperson and the district stewards elected by the several charge conferences (248.14). In that case the board, meeting on call of the district superintendent as soon as practicable after the adjournment of the annual conference, shall make the distribution to the Churches or charges of the district, using such methods as it may determine, unless the annual conference shall have determined the method of distribution to the Churches or charges.
4. The World Service and Conference Benevolences apportionment to the churches or charges of the conference, whether made by the conference directly, by the district board of stewards as provided in 712.3, or by the district superintendents, shall not be combined with any other General, jurisdictional, or annual conference apportionment made to the Churches or charges of the conference.52
52See Judicial Council Decision 591.
General Conference Webmaster: Susan Brumbaugh
PETS Creator: John Brawn
1992 Book of Discipline: ¶ 712
1996 United Methodist General Conference