2020 Charge Conference Information

posted on September 04

2020 Charge Conferences

To:  Pastors, Church Council Chairpersons, Church Secretaries, and Pastor Parish Committee Chairpersons (Please share information as appropriate in your local church with persons who help with charge conference reports.)

Download Complete Information: (Also attached)

• Info Sheet – Charge Conferences - Fall 2020
• Charge Conference Guidelines During COVID-19 Emergency

The business of charge conferences this fall will again be held in each local church/charge.  At this time, we are recommending that charge conferences be held virtually by Zoom, unless it is possible to gather in person in an appropriately safe & social distanced way, with 15 or fewer persons. Furthermore, if you want to meet in person, and your property permits, meeting outdoors is strongly encouraged.

NEW METHOD FOR SUBMITTING CHARGE CONFERENCE REPORTS:

• Your CHURCH DASHBOARD is the place to be! – As of this morning, a link for 2020 Charge Conference Reports, unique to your local church, is now on the “Submittable Forms (Charge Conference, Profiles, etc)” area of your Church Dashboard.
• You will still need to separately complete the online forms for clergy compensation and Church Leaders.

Charge Conference dates have been scheduled, and authorization letters are being emailed to clergy. You will complete the business items of Charge Conference in this manner:

• DEADLINE:  All local Charge Conferences must be held by Tuesday, November 17, 2020.  All required Charge Conference reports, forms, and required minutes must be completed online, and submitted, BY THE EARLIER OF:  (1) two weeks after the date of your charge conference, or (2) Wednesday, November 18, 2020. All charge conference forms & reports for all churches must be completed online, per the online instructions, by November 18, 2020.
• REPORTS REQUIRED TEN (10) DAYS IN ADVANCE:  The following reports will be required to be submitted ten (10) days in advance of the local church charge conference date. The ten (10) days in advance submission will also be done online as indicated above.
  • Clergy Compensation Report for 2021 (draft that will be proposed to the charge conference).
• REPORTS REQUIRED FIVE (5) DAYS IN ADVANCE:  All other online charge conference reports will be required to be significantly complete by five (5) days in advance of the local church charge conference date. The five (5) days in advance submission will also be done online as indicated above.
• Important Notes about Charge Conference Forms & Reports:
  1. The online reports have a “signature” feature for all required signatures for each report. Checking the checkbox and entering a pastor or church leader name will be affirming that the pastor or leader has reviewed the completed online form (or a printout of it) and believes it to be correct and accurate.
  2. As you work on online Church Leader information, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you provide accurate & complete contact information AND dates of service.
  1. We especially need email addresses for all of your church leaders who have email. Information is shared by email at various times with different groups of leaders. We especially need email addresses for the following offices:  Lay Leader, Pastor Parish Relations Chairperson (or a PPRC contact person if on a multi-point charge), Finance Chairperson, Treasurer.  For those four offices, if the actual leader does not have an email, it would be helpful if they could have another person with email to agree to receive email on their behalf. It could be another committee member, or church council member, etc. 
  2. READ THIS CAREFULLY: Start and End Dates – The system is very date sensitive. Here is how to handle dates of service:
     • Start Date – Use the date that a leader actually began the position, and don’t change it from year to year. For example, if a leader continues from 2020 into 2021, leave the start date as 1/1/2020 (or earlier, as appropriate). If a new leader is beginning in 2021, use a start date of 1/1/2021.
     • End Date – If someone is serving a specific term, like a three year term, and you know the end date, put that it in. For example, a three year term beginning 1/1/2021 would get an end date of 12/31/2023. If someone is serving an indefinite term, you can actually just leave the end date blank. This is the suggested method for indefinite terms…then you would not have to update “end dates” every year. Only put a 12/31/2021 end date if you know that is going to be the case.
  3. Be sure to TOTALLY review all of the church leader information on your church dashboard.

Please do not hesitate to call the district office if you have questions. Our office phone number is 336-282-3711. Even as we work remotely, we are able to answer calls at that number.