Featuring:

Dr. Lovett H. Weems, Jr.
Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership / Director, G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership

 Monday, February 6, 2012
Longview FUMC

 Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Woodlands FUMC

Register by January 16, 2012,  Cost: $15

Brochure and Registration

This application is designed to handle multiple information gathering tasks for the Texas Annual Conference, so you will see a “Switchboard” screen after you logon to the system that has buttons to take you to the specific task you want to accomplish.

The church Level logon screen can be found by going to the conference web site and clicking on the “Login Area”.  Below the link to EZRA is a new choice titled:

Vital Signs, Church Transformation Survey,

and other local church information

which takes you to the actual web page address of

http://www.logicalchurchsolutions.com/Equitable/CTSLogin.aspx

That login is like EZRA, churches use their GCFA number with the generic password.  On the first logon they are asked to set their own password.  If they make it the same as EZRA, both systems will take the same logon.  The logon screen looks like

The video is posted on line and can be viewed by simply clicking the link below. This first video is a short tutorial in how to find the Charge Conference documents in Dove and how to open them and save them back into Dove for future use.

Please click the link below to play the video:

“How to Access Charge Conference Documents in Dove”

http://www.ourchurchvideos.com/77002/txcumc/view_video.php?viewkey=3eee609d05b90c14222f

We will be adding more as we introduce additional technology changes such as how to enter Report Day Data in the new GCFA system named “Ezra”.

Thanks,

Ivan K. Krowl

Group Health Benefits has invited its participant’s carriers to join in for a

day of Q & A. It will be held in room 336 AB in the Hilton of Americas Hotel.

Attendance will be:

Boon-Chapman PPO

Script Care, LTD

Humana Dental/Vision

MHNet – Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

The Methodist Hospital

Humana – Medicare Advantage PPO (Senior Program)

Carlson Consulting – Group Health Benefits Consultant

Group Health Benefits  - Benefits Administrator

Churches, please get your delegate information into your district office as soon as it is available.

This registration is specifically for clergy, clergy spouses and laity delegates to the Texas Annual Conference. Guests and laity who are not delegates do not need to register.

This registration requires a password. Please allow your district office time to send out the information in the coming weeks for your access to the system. Don’t worry if you haven’t received the information yet. You will receive instructions soon. (Download Registration Information attachment)

If you haven’t received information by the end of February you should then contact your district office so they can be sure your information is updated.

It is important that you register in the proper district. If you are unsure of the district you are in, your church staff will have that information.

If you have questions, please contact your district office: http://www.txcumc.org/districts.

For additional information about this year’s event, lodging and relevant forms, please go to http://www.txcumc.org/tac2011.

Also, the system says you must have a print-out, but this isn’t necessary. There is no need to keep the printout – we have a record of whether you registered.

The deadline for pre-registration will be May 8^th at 12:00 noon (central time). The system will automatically shut down at that time and cannot be turned back on.

You may register through the links below by selecting the correct district. This registration is password protected.

Central North District Registration

Central South District Registration

East District Registration

North District Registration

Northwest District Registration

South District Registration

Southeast District Registration

Southwest District Registration

West District Registration

Register as a Guest (for Conference and District staff or specially designated guests only)

Contact event registrar: jervin@txcumc.org

Thanks you guys!

Jan Ervin

Administrative Assistant for the

Assistant to the Bishop

Issues to be addressed by the Task Force and the Annual Conference in May include (among others):

• Structure and Function of the Core Leadership Team of the Annual Conference
• Governance, Budget Procedures, and Communication

The Task Force has already had several meetings.  The first listening session was held on February 17 at the First UMC in Conroe.  There are four more listening sessions scheduled in other parts of the Annual Conference:

March 7 7PM St. Paul’s UMC, Houston  Fondren Hall

March 10 7PM Christ UMC, Sugar Land  Chapel

March 14 7PM First UMC, Longview  Genesis Class Room (3^rd Floor)

March 24 7PM Trinity UMC, Beaumont Youth Center

All members and district leaders are invited to attend.  We want to hear your own perspectives.

Respectfully,

Donald R. House

Chair

The 2011 Session of the Texas Annual Conference will be held May 29, 2011 through June 1, 2011, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.  Our host hotel is the Hilton Americas, but there are many hotels in the downtown Houston area.

We have special rates with the Holiday Inn Express (713-652-9400, ask for the front desk) and Embassy Suites (713-739-9100), both located within walking distance of the George R. Brown Convention Center.

If you plan to attend TAC 2011, and wish to stay at our host hotel, please call the  Hilton Hotel Americas to obtain room reservations.  The phone number for reservations is 713-739-8000.

Or you can reserve online by following this link: http://www.txcumc.org/tac2011

Thank you in advance for your attendance at this year’s Annual Conference.  God’s blessings will abound, and our labors to build Christ’s Kingdom will be strengthened.

Jan Ervin

Administrative Assistant for the Assistant to the Bishop

There is a “blue box” on Line 216. This is the last line of the report and is the Signature Line. You must enter something in this blue box or it will not consider the data entry step ever completed. In the attached I suggest using “OK” but anything will work.

It reminds you that the data entry person now has an approval step required that they did not have last year.

Also, to allow Vital Signs entry to be done on year 2010 items, the default “Start” and “Stop” dates of the Vital Signs entry area are set to start with October 1, 2010 through 12/31/2011 instead of 1/1/2011 through 12/31/2011. This keeps the last 3 months of the prior year visible so the end of year can be done without having to reset the start and stop dates and reload.

I got a question about that messing up the report day carry over, but it does not cause problems. Both the Transformation survey and Report Day report pull from Vital Signs, but each report knows it’s start and stop date for it’s reporting period and uses that to pull the correct data regardless of what you have displayed in Vital Signs entry. If they want to know what is being transferred to the report, they will need to set the display of Vital Signs to be 1/1/2010 to 12/31/2010 and do the “Reload Data” to see what is actually being transferred to the reports. Right now the default covers 15 months of vital signs and the totals at the bottom are for the full 15 months but that is not what the reports receive, the reports pull the correct calendar year entries that apply to the report. If the report did not know what to pull, we would not be able to go back and display a report from an old year and show correct numbers.

If any of this leads to any questions, please call.

Texas Conference UM Youth Midwinter Weekend Retreats:

6th grade midwinter “The Big Event”

November 5-7, at Forest Glen Christian Camp in Huntsville

Registration deadline – postmarked by October 22nd

Cost= $100

Junior & Senior High “Ignite” Midwinter Weekend Retreats:

February 25-27, 2011 at Forest Glen Christian Camp in Huntsville

February 25-27, 2011 at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center in Palestine

March 4-6, 2011 at Forest Glen Christian Camp in Huntsville

Registration deadlines:

Postmarked on or before February 7th, cost =$100

Late registration, postmarked Feb. 8 – 21, cost =$150

*Additional information and links to fliers and forms are available at www.txcumc.org/youth

The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church

5215 Main St., Houston TX 77002-9792 | Phone: 713.521.9383