Information on Lay Members of Annual Conference

Later this month information will be mailed out to the lay members of Annual Conference and it is critically important that every church check to make sure the information on your lay member is correct with the full mailing address in Brick River. Please take a moment this week and check your information in Brick River. If you have questions about logging into Brick River contact Mary Myers at the conference office at mmyers@okumc.org.

One Great Hour of Sharing

On Sunday, March 14^th, United Methodist churches across the country will be taking an offering for One Great Hour of Sharing. This is an important offering to support the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). This offering is used to support the administrative cost of running UMCOR so that 100% of your designated gifts to them can be used for relief efforts.

UMCOR has played and is currently playing an important role in recovery efforts in Haiti. Your generosity for the important ministry of the United Methodist Church makes a huge difference in the lives of so many people here, around our country and around the world.

Update on Haitian Relief Efforts

So far this year the Conference received $348,388 and has provided over 9,200 health kits that are being shipped to the people affected. This is just a part of the $12 million that has been given to UMCOR from around the country for Haiti. UMCOR is on the ground working hard to relieve the tremendous needs faced by the people in Haiti. If you are interested in more information on what is happening, I encourage you to look at UMCOR’s web site to see the progress being made at: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/news/themes/haiti/

Ministry Protection Minute

By Rick Carlin

Now that the Conference Insurance and Risk Management Plan has been renewed, I wanted to highlight once again some of the enhancements that have been added to the program.

They are as follows:

· The property policy now covers appurtenant structures (ex. unattached fences and sheds) up to $10,000.

· Business income and extra expense limits were raised to $100,000.

· The automobile policy now has towing for vans and private passenger vehicles owned by the church. NOT BUSES.

· The general liability policy now covers counseling by members (ex. Stephen Ministries), however, you must let my office know of these ministries prior to coverage being in force.

· There have been changes in workers compensation claim handling to improve service and help injured workers get back to work sooner.

The Ministry Protection Committee is committed this year to reducing claims by improving risk management at the local church. We will be sending Ministry Protection Memos throughout the year and continuing with the PACT webinars on the first Thursday of every month. We will also be conducting workshops, phone surveys and on site visits. The appraisal process is still ongoing and we will appraise another 20% of the total buildings this year. You will be contacted before the appraiser visits your church.

If you have any questions about the program or any risk management tools that are available to you, please call me at 1-800-460-5678.

Connectional Giving

Giving for the month of February was great mostly due to the tremendous support for UMCOR and their relief efforts in Haiti. $1,840,205 was given which is up by $229,852 over last year. Unfortunately, apportionment payments took a hit and dropped by $107,078 at the same time.

Some interesting thoughts though. We have five churches that have already paid 100% of their 2010 apportionments. Unfortunately, we have seven churches that haven’t checked their new 2010 apportionment amounts and have already over paid for 2010. Because the total apportionment amount dropped a little this year, it is important that you check what your church’s apportionments are before you pay them.

It is so easy now to check your payments on the conference web site and I encourage you to do that on a regular basis. The web site is: http://www.okumc.org/ok_ytd_ch.asp

Also, we have discovered that Vanco is having problems reading our computer numbers when you send in multiple gifts using the same computer number like 420 for General Advance Specials. Please bear with us as we make corrections to avoid this problem and also help us by checking your payments on the conference web site to be sure we have posted your contributions correctly.

One Workshop left!

For those of you who were not able to attend your District workshop for Treasurers and Finance Chairs, I have one more workshop to present in the Lawton District on Saturday, March 27^th. The final details have not been completed, but if you have the time, and are interested in attending, please contact my office at bbakeman@okumc.org and we will let you know the time and place. I don’t believe there will be any charge for this workshop.

Ernst & Young Financial Planning Services

Once again, the General Board of Pension and Health Insurance is offering financial planning services at no charge to people in the denomination’s pension plan. This is an excellent service for people who are facing financial challenges from a young family expecting their first baby, to cost of college for their children to planning for retirement.

You can call Ernst & Young at 1-800-360-2539.

News from the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCF&A)

In a recent newsletter from GCF&A, we are reminded that clergy are urged to check on the Clergy Tax Packet that is available on their web site at: www.gcfa.org.

Also of interest is an October 16, 2009 complaint filed in U.S. District Court in California challenging the constitutional validity of the tax exemption for clergy parsonage/housing allowances in Section 107 of the tax code. This suit will affect us all so I encourage everyone to be aware of this. I will try to keep aware of the progress of this suit.