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By Erik Alsgaard
UMCONNECTION STAFF

As the Discipleship Adventure continues to go further in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, one aspect of saving local churches money in their apportionments is by reducing administrative costs. This is being accomplished this month in two ways: statistical reports and annual conference registrations being done online.

Filing year-end statistical reports is a task every United Methodist church must do every year. The process often takes hours of tabulation by the local church and used to take hours of staff time at the conference level as people re-entered the information into computers there. No longer.

This year, using the conference?s Web site, www.bwcumc.org, and using the 'Church Dashboard' function on the bottom right corner of the home page, churches will be able, with the push of a button, to send their statistical reports to the conference and have it flow seamlessly into the conference computers, saving valuable staff time and money.

The denomination and annual conference use this information to track local churches progress in evangelism, program areas and stewardship, according to Martha Knight, director of finance and administration for the conference.

Knight said that for each field the instructions are built in as users fill out the form. In addition, the form is already populated with 2004 numbers to help churches in their work. Faxed copies of the instructions are also available by request.

Local churches new to this process won?t be left alone; help is available.

'This year we have a six person help desk team to help churches use the online form,' said Knight. Questions may be directed to (800) 492-2525 and ask for the 'Statistics Form Help Desk.'

Also this year, members to the 222nd annual session of the Baltimore-Wash-ington Conference next May are being encouraged to register online. That process is scheduled to begin Feb. 1.

'Registration for annual conference will be a two-step process this year,' said the Rev. Bruce Jones, chairman of the Annual Conference Arrangements Committee. 'First, people will register online for the conference, and second, they will register for their hotel room on www.Marriott.com.'

The rooms at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, site of the May 25-27 event, are not yet available online, said Jones. An e-mail announcement about when those rooms will be open will be sent out.

In addition, an e-mail will be sent out alerting conference members when the registration process opens.

Please Note: With the increased reliance on e-mail communications, churches, clergy and laity are encouraged to make sure e-mails from the Conference Center get through. Unblock e-mails from 'bwcumc.org' to ensure the flow of information reaches you.