GLENWOOD, OH — For the ninth consecutive year, Calvary Bible Fellowship’s annual congregational budget meeting failed to achieve the quorum required to conduct official business, a milestone the church’s finance committee described Monday as “honestly kind of impressive at this point.”

The meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Fellowship Hall, required 31 of the church’s 156 active members to constitute a quorum under the bylaws ratified in 1987. Eleven members attended. Three departed before the opening prayer concluded, citing “something on the stove.” One member, Harold Fitch, 74, fell asleep during the treasurer’s welcome remarks and was not counted as present for procedural purposes.

“We had real momentum this year,” said finance committee chair Donna Appelgate, 58. “I sent the reminder email twice. I put it in the bulletin four weeks running. I even made a flyer.” She paused. “Nobody came for the flyer.”

“Technically we can’t approve anything, so technically nothing is wrong with the budget. That’s one way to look at it.”

Senior pastor Greg Holloway noted that attendance at the budget meeting has never once exceeded attendance at the church’s annual chili cook-off, which draws between 80 and 110 members and requires no quorum. A motion to merge the two events died in committee last spring, also without a quorum.

The proposed 2026 budget, which includes a 3% increase in missions giving and a long-debated replacement for the sanctuary’s aging sound board, will be tabled until April’s rescheduled meeting, where organizers are “cautiously optimistic.”

At press time, Donna had already drafted the April reminder email and was staring at it, unsent, for several minutes.