Reminder - Statistical Tables Due
Reminder - Statistical Tables Due
January 20, 2021
Dear Pastor, Finance Committee Chair, Treasurer, Trustee Chair:
Reminder: Statistical Table completion date is January 31. I am sending again the letter sent on December 16th. Thank you to those who have competed – to those who have started. Thank you to those who have asked questions and those who have requested additional training. I trust you will have your Tables completed by the due date! My email is available to receive and questions or concerns!
It is that time of the year! Our Annual Statistical Table process is ready! It is time to get your information together! This is the system in which you will report your 2020 data – Table 1: Membership and Participation, Table II: Church Assets and Expenses, Table III: Church Income.
The Book of Discipline requires pastors to give an account of their pastoral ministries to the Charge and Annual Conference. There may be individuals and/or church committees who collect and provide the data for these tables, but the pastor is ultimately responsible for the completeness and accuracy of the data submitted – the pastor is accountable!
The submitted data is needed by the Conference and the General Church for statistical analysis and to assist:
- Decision making about churches and the conference
- Determining the number of delegates to General Conference
- Determining the number of Lay Members to Annual Conference
- Setting apportionments for the church and conference
- Gathering data about the membership and participation of our churches
The Statistical Tables will be available for approximately 1 month. We anticipate the opening by GCFA on Friday, January 1 until midnight on, Sunday, January 31, 2021. Below is the login information. Please note we will continue with this January due date.
As you are aware certain lines from Table II will be used to determine your church’s 2022 apportionments. Once the data has been submitted, there will be a period during which the staff and/ or the district statisticians will review the data with the churches. Preliminary 2022 Apportionments will be published by the end of March. Again, there will be an opportunity to review the submitted data. Once the final Apportionments are published in late June we will not be able to make any adjustments.
This year we will be reviewing Table I – Membership and Participants with particular attention. Each year more of this data is taken from the Weekly Vital Signs which all churches should be completing. It is important that your membership numbers be accurate and that you are following the procedures outlined in the Church Membership Records Manual. We will be looking at Line 24 on Table II – Market Value of church owned…; remember that this is market value, not insurance value.
New this year will be the request for information relating to your Online worship - Line 7a and your church’s PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) Grant/Loan – Line 27 and 53c. More information and instructions will be available on the website.
For any of the Tables, do not copy or use the data from the previous year. This is your church data for the year just ending (2020) and it will be unique for that year - and yes, we do still have important data in a COVID year. The Tables reflect and capture very important and specific data.
You may find that certain lines have been prefilled from the Weekly Vital Signs that you should be entering on a weekly basis. If these appear to be incorrect it may be because you did not complete the year and this data is averaged. Please communicate with me if this is the case.
As in the past, certain lines are prefilled by the conference Finance Office, such as Apportionment payments, Equitable Compensation, Special Sunday giving, and others. Again, if this data seems incorrect please communicate that to me. These will be uploaded by the third week in January, but you can begin your work before that.
Login Information:
The tables are located at http://ezra.gcfa.org. The system has been set up for two users from each church. We have designated them as "Pastor" and "Office". Your login user name is 341 plus your NYAC church number plus the letter "p" for pastor login or the letter "o" for office login. For example, if your NYAC church number is "12345", your login would be "34112345p" and "34112345o". You can find your NYAC church number on any church statement, HealthFlex/Pension bill or in the NYAC Journal (www.nyac.com/2019journal). Your temporary password is NYAC341 (case sensitive) for both the pastor and office login. When you first logon using this temporary password you will be prompted to change your password.
A detailed discussion of the tables and instructions is available on the conference website, www.nyac.com/tables. Please use this information!
Each district has a District Statistician available to assist you with any questions. They have received training. Their contact information is available on both the NYAC and the EZRA websites (see links above). If you have trouble reaching your statistician you may contact Margaret Howe at confsecy@nyac.com or Judy Walters at jwalters@nyac.com.
Additional training is always available. If you are interested in hands on training, please let me (Margaret) know! One on one training is available – we will set up a ZOOM session and we will work with you.
Please watch the conference website for additional information as it relates to the 2020 Statistical Tables.
This information is critical to the present and future of our churches; thank you for your efforts.
Grace, Peace and Thanks,
Conference Secretary
