Hispanic Heritage Celebration
The 4th Annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration and Cultural Service will be held on October 3 at 5 p.m. at Millian United Methodist Church, 13016 Parkand Drive, Rockville, MD. The guest preacher is The Rev. Dr. Ediberto Lopez, Professor of New Testament, Seminario Evangelico de PR and the music minister is The Rev. Lydia Muñoz, Pastor of Plumbline Fellowship United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, PA. For more information about the event, please contact Edgardo Rivera at erivera@bwcumc.org.

Special Sundays - World Communion Sundays Support Material
If you are looking for support materials to help educate your congregation about World Communion Sunday, please go to http://www.umcgiving.org/site/c.qwL6KkNWLrH/b.3833897/k.D8EA/Special_Sundays__World_Communion_Sunday__Support_Materials.htm

United Methodist Women Event
The Annual Meeting of The United Methodist Women of the Central MD District will be 1:00 pm on Saturday, October 16, 2010, at the Baltimore Washington Conference Center, 11711 E. Market Place, Fulton, MD.  Reservations for lunch are $10 and due by October 9 to Precious Morrison, 529 Martz Road, Sykesville, MD 21794.  All UMW members--including clergy, are invited to attend this annual celebration of UMW.

GBHEM Announces Online Consortium with 13 UM Theological Schools
The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church is pleased to introduce an Online Continuing Education Consortium in collaboration with the 13 United Methodist Theological Schools. The vision of the consortium is to provide theologically sound, financially affordable, and easily accessible continuing education programs to clergy and lay Christians around the world so they may grow in their theological understanding and leadership skills.
These non-academic credit courses provided by the participation of the 13 United Methodist theological schools ensure the quality of classes offered. Each school designs the course, provides the instructor, handles registrations and payment. They will manage the technological aspects of providing online courses. Costs of these courses will vary, with tuition or fees set by and paid directly to, the theological school that is hosting the online class.
The online consortium catalogue will serve as the gateway, providing a single entry point through an online catalogue and Web links to each theological school that is offering the classes.  It will be open all year round so you will be able to take courses according to your schedule.

Now get started and enjoy learning!


Conference Center Name

As we settle into our new home, it’s a good opportunity to reflect upon why we’re here. As Bishop Schol said the day we broke ground, “We journey upward to a God who seeks to be in love with us and outward toward a world God calls us to love.”

With that journey in mind, we are naming this new building something that reflects our true purpose – The BWC Mission Center. Please be sure to make your church leaders and administrative staff aware of this new name.

Charge Conference Information

Charge Conference Host Church Reminders

With Charge Conferences just around the corner we wanted to thank the “Host Church” for letting us use their church. The host church is responsible for providing breakout space for meetings space, worship space, music, and refreshments if you are able.

All participating churches are expected to worship together and should plan on allotting TWO hours to hold your charge conference and to worship with the churches in your cluster.

This means if your charge conference is scheduled for an EARLY hour, you and your leaders should stay after your charge conference to participate in worship. Or if your charge conference is scheduled for a LATER hour, you and your leaders should arrive in time to participate in worship before your charge conference.

If by chance your church is scheduled for an individual charge conference then your worship will be held at your church before your charge conference.

Please remember to give the congregation 10 days notice and publicly announce the Charge Conference on the two Sundays PRECEDING  the meeting.

You may request a Church Conference which extends participation and gives voting privileges to all of the members. This requires preparation ahead of time with your Church Council. All reports should be brought before your Church Council prior to the Charge Conference, so that they simply need affirmation at the Charge Conference.

Forms
All charge conference sample forms are available online at the conference website http://www.bwcumc.org/content/charge-conference-landing.

Forms not completed online

Many people think that ALL Charge Conference forms MUST be completed on-line. Actually there are five forms which are really PDF documents.

These Documents include:

·        Clergy Sexual Misconduct Form

·        Certification of Compliance Form

·        Charge Conference Signature Close-out Form

·        Lay Leadership Development Form

·        Laity Sexual Misconduct Form (DO NOT TURN IN at charge conference.)

To access them, go to the BWCUMC website, then under Resources go to Charge Conference. You will download the forms, and save them to your hard-drive.

Then go through the form, answering the questions. Once you are satisfied with the content, proofread and spell check the document then print it out and submit them with the rest of your printed copies for the Charge Conference. 

Please make sure your church name and church ID number is on ALL Charge Conference forms.

Charge Conference FAQs

Last year we received a number of calls about completing the Charge Conference Forms. The most frequent calls are listed below. Before you start to complete your forms please read.

Q.   How do I log into the Gateway system?
A.   You should go to the web site at www.bwcumc.org then click Sign In.

Q.   How do I get my log-in information?
A.   Click Sign In then click the Forgot Your Password tab. It is important to only use your last name and the email address that is associated with your Gateway profile. If you do not have an email address in the system then you cannot use this function. In this case, please contact the Washington Region.

Q.   Where do I go once I have logged in?
A.   Once logged in you should go to Member Information on the left hand side of the screen. Then click Charge Conference.

Q.   When I look under Member Information I don’t see Charge Conference? Why?
A.   Does the box to the left of the of Charge show a +? That means the box is closed. Click on the + and it will open and you will see Committee Information and the Charge Conference forms.

Q.   How do I add someone to a committee?
A.   After Administrators have logged onto the system they should click on Committee Overview then Committee Participation and Update then Local Church Leadership Committee. Once your committee members are visible, you can add someone by clicking on the addition sign located at the bottom of the page.

Q.   How do I take someone off a committee?
A.   You cannot delete a person from the list. When a person’s committee service ends the Administrator puts an end date. When you reopen your list that person is not visible but they will show on Gateway’s database. You can enter a future date in this space.

Q.   How do I add someone to a committee? When I look at the Local Church Leadership Committee I don’t see the paper w/ pen or the paper w/+ logos they talked about in Gateway Training? Why not?
A.   Only the administrator will see the two icons you talked about. So if you don’t see those logos you don’t have administrator privileges. If you need the rights to make changes please contact the Washington Region.

Q.   How will my SPRC chair, trustee chair, treasurer and lay speakers get their log-in information?
A.   They can go to the Baltimore-Washington Conference website, click Sign In then click Forgot Your Password. It is important to only use the last name and email address. If they do not have an email address in the system then they cannot use this function. If they are not in the system then they can be added under Create New Account. BUT be careful — we don’t want duplicate profiles. If in doubt call the Washington Region to check to see if they are in the system.

Q    Why can’t I fill out my lay speaker’s annual report?
A.   Only the lay speaker can fill out their annual report. If they do not have access to a computer, they can give someone their log-in information and that person can fill out the form for them.

Q.   I am the pastor and can’t see my compensation form. How can I fill it out?
A.   Only your SPRC chair, treasurer and administrator can fill out your compensation form.

Q.   How do I fill out the Compensation Form if I have more than one church?
A.   You should fill out a compensation form for each church. Bring a copy of each form and the charge conference total with you to your charge conference BUT the charge total shouldn’t be put on-line.

Q.   What if my contact information is wrong in Gateway?
A.   To change your information, you can click on My Contact Information then on Edit. Make your changes then click Save. It is going to ask if your information is correct. Just click the Correct button.

Q.   What if I need to make a change to a form and I have clicked the Complete Your Response button?
A.   I am sorry, but you cannot make any changes once you have click the Complete Your Response button. You will need to start a new form. If you start a new compensation form please contact Penny to let her know you have a duplicate form.

Q.   What about Signatures? Where do we sign the forms if they are online?
A.   Most of the forms have a space for you to type in the name of the person responsible for the information on that form.
     You will also need to bring the Signature Close Out Form with you to your charge conference. This form will be signed by the Pastor, SPRC Chair and the elders conducting your charge conference.
     Please make sure they sign AND PRINT their name and the date they signed the form. This form is a laundry list of the forms that were submitted by your church.  If your church doesn’t have a Lay Speaker and are not submitting that form just put N/A on the Close Out form so we don’t need to check to make sure you didn’t just forget to bring it to the meeting.

Q.   What do I need to bring with me to charge conference?
A.   Please bring hard copies of the forms you filled out online including the Certification of Compliance, Clergy Sexual Misconduct Questionnaire and the Lay Leadership Development Form. 
     You also need to bring the completed Signature Close Out Form but MAKE SURE you put the name of your church, the region your in, and your church 4-digit ID number at the top of the form.

TIP:  Please make sure to keep a printed copy for your files!

Coaching Calls
If you have not scheduled your coaching call with your guide, please contact them as soon as possible to get on their schedule.

Open House Information
As you all know, we will be having our Open House on October 19 to invite everyone to explore the new space and also to welcome Cokesbury. The link below is a bulletin insert you can use on Sundays. It gives a run down of all that will take place on October 19 and also a 30% off coupon to Cokesbury.  Please go to www.bwcumc.org/newbuilding for more information about the Open House and the bulletin insert.