| New conference center opens By Erik AlsgaardUMConnection Staff  Staff and employees of the Baltimore-Washington Conference have moved to new offices.
Again. And hopefully for the last time for quite a while. For people not keeping score, the move Feb. 13 and 14 represents the fourth move at least in the past 15 months since toxic mold was uncovered at the 9720 Patuxent Woods Drive location in November 2002. The exodus began shortly thereafter. The new conference center is located at 7178 Columbia Gateway Drive in Columbia, in the same building as the current temporary location of the center but in a different wing of the building (see map and directions at www.bwcumc.org/directions.html). I am very thankful to the outstanding staff and employees at the Conference Center, said Bishop Felton Edwin May. We have been through some incredible times, but with faith and perseverance, we have come through to this day. Mission and ministry have continued, and will continue, with the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. The new conference center has undergone extensive renovations, said Martha Knight, new director of finance and administration for the conference. We have made doubly sure that this new center will be a healthy working environment for our staff, employees, visitors and guests, she said. The new building continues to be a fragrance free environment, she said. The new center is 35,000 square feet, slightly larger than the 9720 building, said Knight. The layout and design offers larger meeting facilities for groups, newer kitchen facilities and plenty of small meeting spaces, she added, and is 100 percent handicap accessible. An open house and dedication of the new conference center is set for Feb. 27 from 1 to 8 p.m. During the hours of 4 to 7 p.m., a variety of ethnic foods and cultures, representative of conference membership, will be on display and available. At 7 p.m., the dedication service and a service of Holy Communion, led by Bishop May, will take place. Local churches are asked to bring banners as part of the open house. The banners will be temporarily showcased in the hallways of the new center. Moving four times in just over a year has been an incredible journey, said the Rev. Don Stewart, director of connectional ministries. Weve had to continue our mission and ministry in some incredibly difficult circumstances, he said. That weve been able to continue our program emphases and other ministries has been nothing short of amazing. I am most grateful to our staff and employees, and to the churches in our conference who continue to support us with their prayers, presence, gifts and service. The conference is leasing the building from Corvis Corporation, a Columbia-based company that delivers innovative optical networking solutions that deliver voice, video and data solutions rapidly, flexibly and at the lowest total cost in the industry, according to the company Web site. Corvis provides service providers and government agencies worldwide with scalable optical networking equipment that dramatically reduce the overall expenses associated with building and operating networks. Cost of the lease is $420,000 per year, said Knight, which is slightly lower than the lease at 9720. The conference has entered into a three-year agreement with Corvis. | 
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