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BY CHRISTIE ZIMMERMAN
UMCONNECTION STAFF

The connectional system is one of the hallmarks of United Methodism. Gateway, the database of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, is one of the primary tools for creating connectional churches.

In recent months, conference staff have been collecting feedback and making improvements to Gateway in an effort to make it a more robust and user-friendly resource.

The goal is to have a seamless system that will allow church leaders to provide necessary reports, access valuable information about their church and better understand the discipleship ministry.

A few new features are now offered. They include a deposit now, pay later system at BWC camps.

This is a new way for families to pay. Using a new feature programmed into Gateway, registrations for camps can be completed and reserved using an option to place a $100 credit card deposit. The feedback has been excellent and the use of Gateway registrations has skyrocketed, saving staff time and resources. The process continues to be improved with the anticipated offering of automatic installment payments in 2012.

Through Gateway, BWC members will also now begin seeing the option to register for events online, even if they do not have access to a credit or debit card. The first event to offer pay-by-check is the Discipleship Academy and will be expanding into other events as we move into 2012.

Moving forward, Gateway will also be offering an “e-check” option for payment.

In addition, pastors, church treasurers and finance staff will soon be able to see all of their conference related financial transactions in one condensed and easy to read statement. The statements can be printed or downloaded in a variety of formats, including Word and Adobe PDF, for ease of distribution and Excel or CSV format for integration into the church’s internal reports of additional analysis.

In addition, users will now be able to get help when they need it. A support request form that will automatically route questions to the regional administrators has been added.

Help and training resources are also in the works to offer easy access to common Gateway questions on the BWC website.