2017 CHARGE/CHURCH CONFERENCE FORM INSTRUCTIONS – Miami Valley District

Charge/Church Conference forms should be submitted online.

Please print out these instructions for whomever will be responsible for your Church Conference form submission.

How to access your Church Conference Forms:

·  All Pastors and Church Data Administrators have access to the online forms. If you’d like for someone else to complete the forms online, contact the District Office to have that individual designated as a Church Data Administrator. Please do not share your login/password with others.

·  To access the forms online, go to www.miamivalleydistrict.com and select “West Ohio Conference” on the red tool bar or go to directly to www.westohioumc.org.

o  First, log in to the website. If you forget your password click on ‘retrieve user name and password’. Do not create a new account if you have one already. If you do, you will create a new record that will not include the permissions that you need to access the forms online.

o  Then, click on ‘My Church’ located in the red tool bar. Then hover over “Charge Conference” and click on “2017”.

o  From here you can print out the packet ofCharge Conference worksheets, which includes a sample Church Conference Agenda. NOTE: Miami Valley Churches will use a customized agenda that is available on the district website. Also, note that if you completed the forms online last year much of that information will auto-fill this year, so you won’t need to reenter much of the data.

·  For any church needing to be trained on Charge Conference paperwork and the online submission process, I will have two training times at the District Office. Wednesday, September 27, 2017 from 1pm – 3pm or Thursday, September 28, 2018 from 10am - Noon. Bring a laptop, if you have one, and any questions you may have. Please contact me to be added to the schedule, .

If you submitted forms electronically last year, these are the sections that will auto-fill:

·  On the Lay Leadership Nominations form, Lay Church Officers will auto-fill from last year and just need updated/new people added. ‘Leadership Team Member/At-Large’ was added to the list of possible church officers to cover any other position not listed. And the required Lay Leadership positions are marked with an asterisk, but they don’t all need to be completed in order to submit the forms, so no need to enter anyone as ‘To Be Determined’. (If you add other Lay Church Officers at a later date be sure to notify the District Office.)

·  On the Ministry Recommendations Page, the Ministry Recommendations and Lay Servants will auto-fill from the previous year into the renewal fields. You can remove them if they are no longer applicable.

·  On the Membership Report, the first-year reading list from last year is set to auto-fill to the second-year reading this year. Just make changes to the list if needed.

·  The Breakthrough Goals will auto-fill with last year’s goals, and below each goal it shows the church’s actual numbers for this year, so you can easily see how close you are to hitting your goals. Just update the numbers to what your goals will be for 2018.

Annual Reporting:

·  There are several reports that have moved from the Charge Conference section to the Annual Reporting Tab. Please hover over Annual Reporting in the red tool bar and select “2017”. You will find the New Parsonage Inspection Report, Fund Balance/Audit Report, Trustee Legal & Property Report, Church History, and Lay Servant Annual Reports. For the Miami Valley District, all of these reports will be due now at Charge Conference. If you have already submitted your Fund Balance/Audit Report this year, I have uploaded it to your dashboard.

·  Lay Servant Annual Reports – These should be completed online by the Lay Servant and submitted electronically, or printed out and submitted to the Charge/Church Conference. They cannot be completed by the Church Data Administrators. Access to these reports for Lay Servants is in the top menu under the Leadership & Ministry tab, Ministry of the Laity, Lay Servant Ministries. Note that there is no longer a category for Local Church Lay Servants.

At your Charge/Church Conference:

·  What do I take to my Church Conference? Print ALL completed charge conference forms to give to the presiding elder and use during your charge conference. Following the meeting, the presiding elder will submit the Worksheet for 2018 Pastor Compensation Report, Resolution for 2018 Parsonage or Housing Allowance Exclusion, 2018 Accountable Reimbursement Policy, the Charge Conference Minutes and the Signature Page to the District Office.

·  If there are any changes that occur during your Charge/Church Conference, make those changes online, upload your Minutes and Signature Page, then finalize your online submission. Copies of your completed forms can be printed at anytime.

Please don’t wait until the days right before your Charge/Church Conference to start the online submission process. Please go online and make sure that you can login and access the forms electronically soon. That will give us time to fix any issues with logins before you need to do the data entry prior to your Charge/Church Conference.

Contact the District Office at any time if you need assistance or have questions.