August 12, 2010

Editor: Brian Bakeman, 1501 NW 24^th St, Oklahoma City OK 73106

Phone: (405) 530-2067; Email: bbakeman@okumc.org; Website: www.okumc.org

 

 

 

 

By Rick Carlin

 

Reaching out to your congregation is no longer just church socials but also social networking. If your church has a website, blog, and/or a Facebook or Twitter account then you need to make sure your church has a Social Networking policy and a Website/Blogging policy. Any employee or volunteer working with these sites should read and sign these policies.

 

Some recommendations are as follows:

· Employees must use their own name if posting to a website or blog

· Whomever posts must agree not to disclose sensitive, confidential or private  information

· Do not post advertisements, solicitations or chain letters

· Do not distribute copyrighted material

· Do not post material or links that could contain a virus

· Be careful about what is said about members and employees as well as other churches

· Have someone else review all posted material

 

 

For more information about “Cybersafety for Families and Churches” attend PACT’s webinar on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 3:00 pm central time. You can go to www.umcpact.org to get the login, telephone number and passcode or you can call our office at 1-800-460-5678.

 

 

Thank you for your financial giving during the month of July. McAlester District is leading the pack with 55% of their apportionments paid through July. Ten of those churches having already paid 100%.

 

Designated giving continues strong with UMCOR being the main beneficiary due to all of the disasters around the world that they are currently involved with. Also, $56,004.00 has been received for the special offerings this year. The next special offering is World Wide Communion Sunday on October 3, 2010.

 

Have you checked your apportionment balance lately? Now would be a good time to check your balance on the Conference web site to be sure we have posted your contributions correctly. The link is http://www.okumc.org/ok_ytd_ch.asp. If there are any corrections that need to be made, it is so much easier to do that now than it is on December 31^st. If you have any questions, you can contact Hallie Xie at hxie@okumc.org or 405-530-2001, or Sandie Weldon at sweldon@okumc.org or 405-530-2068.

 

 

 

We are in the process of calculating and printing the 2011 apportionments and hope to have those in the mail by the latter part of next week. The apportionments increased 3.4% this year, with the largest increase being in our health insurance program. The apportionments are based on the previous three years’ data for salary, program and operating expenses at the local church. This information is obtained from the end-of-the year statistical tables, which each church is required to submit. If your apportionments increased more than the 3.4%, then it means that your salary, program and operating expenses for 2009 increased more than the average church in our Conference.

 

 

In a change from previous years, we are asking that churches update their 2011 church officer’s list between December 15^th and January 1^st. This will help us get timely information to the new officers about the training opportunities being offered during the Local Church Leaders Workshops held in January and February.

 

It is critically important when updating your church officers to enter all of the contact information, including their current email address. The Conference is increasingly relying on email communication to contact church leadership. Your help on this is important.

 

 

I have been surprised at the number of phone calls this week about church audits. The question that needs to be asked is why did you wait until now to do your audit for last year? Why not do it when you are working on the end-of-year reports in January and the information is fresh?

 

Also remember, the treasurer and financial secretary can provide the information for the audit, but people who cannot sign checks or reconcile the bank statement must make up the audit committee!

 

Also remember that if you are church that received funds from the Oklahoma Conference in 2009, CF&A’s audit committee set August 1, 2010 as the deadline to receive a copy of your audit, or similar report, outlining your finances for last year. This would apply to any congregation that received a grant last year from Equitable Compensation Commission, or from any of the boards of the Annual Conference Council such as from Congregational Development, Hispanic Ministries or Mission and Service Ministry Team. As of this writing, there are several audits still outstanding.

 

If you have any questions, you can contact Connie Gibson at conniejgibson@att.net or you can contact the Conference Office at bbakeman@okumc.org.

 

 

The General Board of Pension and Health Benefits has just published the average compensation of each of the various annual conferences. The Oklahoma Conference average compensation for 2011 is $62,968.00 or an increase of 2.7% over the current year. This number is important for calculating pension benefits for next year.