District News

Baltimore-Metro District Clergy Meeting

The Baltimore-Metropolitan Clergy Gathering is being held at John Wesley UMC on September 27, 2017 from 9:30 am – 12:00 pm, breakfast & lunch will be served,  parking is available at the church.  All clergy are required to attend this quarterly meeting.  If unable to attend, please contact directly.    

Baltimore-Metro Church Conference Information- 2017

Your “Charge Conference” will now be a “Church Conference”

• Like with Charge Conferences, all church members are invited and welcome to attend.  
• Unlike Charge Conferences, all church members in attendance will have voting rights for anything voted upon at Church Conference.

 Church Conference Forms

• Forms are scheduled to be available in the church’s Arena account beginning August 1st and must be completed at least 10 days prior to your scheduled Church Conference.  Please login to your church Arena account before August 1st to be sure you have access.  Your church’s Arena account information is provided on the preceding page.  Pastors and Church Administrators will have access to all forms.  Some forms can also be accessed by committee chairs if they are entered into Arena as such (i.e. Finance Chairs will have access to the Finance Report within their own Arena account if they are identified as “Cmte Chair” of the Finance Committee in Arena).  

 

• Draft worksheets will be available for download on the BWC Church Conference website.  You may choose to use these to collect information prior to entering it into Arena, but this step is optional. (http://www.bwcumc.org/resources/2017-church-conference-forms/) The Candidate for Ordained Ministry form and Clergy Compensation Report will have elements that are entered into Arena but will also require forms to be scanned and uploaded prior to church conference.  These forms will be available for download on the BWC Church Conference webpage.  The Laity Sexual Misconduct form will continue to be a printable form that is submitted directly to you to be kept securely on file at the church.  Please do not send this form to the BWC or bring it to Church Conference.  This form will also be available for download on the BWC Church Conference webpage.  

 

Nominations - Updates to Arena are Mandatory:  

It is imperative that you have updated your committee listings in Arena to date (instructions attached) and that changes are entered at least 10-days prior to your Church Conference.  We will be providing a nominations listing based on what is entered into Arena and per the start and end dates you assign.  Please be sure committee chairs are accurately identified within their respective ministry areas (not just in Church Council) in order to be sure that the correct persons have access to pertinent forms and information.  Furthermore, you (Pastor and/or Church Administrator) or a designee you’ve assigned to manage Arena should be prepared to coordinate, manage, and monitor the completion of all required forms.

Church Conference Scheduling

The calendar for scheduling Church Conference meetings is now available, offering time slots from September 2 – December 10, 2017.  All Baltimore-Metro Church Conference meetings will be held individually, at each of your churches, with Rev. Wanda Bynum Duckett. 

Please review the following instructions to reserve your meeting space:

1. Review available meeting dates & times
2. Choose your meeting date & time
3. Provide the requested information

 

After successfully scheduling your meeting, an email confirming your reserved meeting date & time will follow and my calendar will be immediately updated.  If you need assistance, please feel free to contact .   

Church Conference Trainings

Church Conference trainings are being offered at the BWC Conference Center on August 2, 2017 at 10 am & 7 pm. 

Our District Church Conference training will be held at Elderslie-St. Andrews UMC on Wednesday September 6, 2017 @ 6:30 pm.