Charge Conference Technical Updates for 2020

By: Chris Hampton, Director of Web and Database Administration

Charge Conference "season" is again upon us and just like last year, we will submit all forms completely online. This year we have worked hard to make it even easier to submit your Charge Conference forms digitally. Below are some key points, reminders, and new additions to help guide you this year technically. Please remember that the clergy compensation and church leaders will need to be submitted through your church/clergy dashboard while charge conference forms are submitted under "Submittable Forms" in the Church Dashboard.

Charge Conference reporting and the 2021 Clergy Compensation module will go live on 9/1/2020.

Charge Conference Forms

• To find your church's Charge Conference formvite, you will go to your Church Dashboard (remember that a "formvite" is just a collection of forms. The "formvite" is the portal where all your Charge Conference forms are located). 
• *New for Clergy* -  You can now access your church dashboard from your clergy dashboard. If you are at a multi-point charge, can have multiple church dashboards open at the same time, without logging you out of the previous one. Just click on the "Church Dashboard" link in your Clergy Dashboard.
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• *Reminder* - Please read the instructions carefully. Please also note that your district may have additional instructions to supplement the official instructions. 
• *New* - We copied over ALL of your data from last year to help speed up this process. Instead of "Start this form" you will now see "Edit Form." When you click edit you will be taken to the form with last years data entered. You may change whatever data you need, and then click save at the very bottom.
• *New* - Forms now say "Save" instead of "Submit Form." This helps remind you that you must fill out each form, save it, and then "officially submit" your charge conference forms. Please note that each district varies on what needs to be submitted when and the approval process for each form.
• For more instructions on how to fill out a form and officially submit your documents, please check out this video.

Clergy Compensation 

• Clergy compensation can be accessed from both the church and clergy dashboard. For 2021 compensation, do NOT click "Mid Year Comp Start." You will instead click "New" within the box labeled 2021.
• *New* - We have made it easier to see your current and previous compensation by year.
• *New* - In order for your calculations to be correct, the first thing you need to do is select the effective start date. For this charge conference season, you will select 1/1/2021.
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• *Reminder* -  Every new report starts you out at "Quarter Time." This changes as you enter in your compensation and select the effective start date.
• *Reminder* - Do not enter the signatures until after you have already completed your charge conference AND your district has approved it. Each district will provide instructions for accomplishing this.
• *Coming Soon* - Clergy Compensation 3.0 is coming soon. This will include a new way to fill out the form and a better printable view. Be on the lookout for this within the next month!
• For more instructions on how to fill out your clergy compensation, please check out this video.

Church Leaders

• No major changes to the church leaders module.
• *Reminder* - Do not enter an end date if the person serving is not ending. If you select an end date and then they continue serving into the next year, it may report that your church has no leaders for that position. Unless they are serving for one year only or have a specific end date, please keep the end date blank.
• *Reminder* - Even if you have no changes and the end dates are blank, you must still report that you have completed the church leaders module. It is also important to check contact information. We used that information this year to send out Annual Conference information so it is important to verify that your contacts have valid addresses and emails. If everything has been verified, you can click the blue "I am done" button.
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• For more instructions on how to fill out church leader, please check out this video.

The importance of charge conference reporting yearly helps to move our annual conference forward. We have worked hard to make this process as effortless as possible, allowing you to continue doing important ministry in your area.

If you have any questions or issues, please reach out to your district office administrator, as additional instructions vary from district to district. Their contact information can be found at this link.