The Eagle Eye

January 2007

	was then a revolutionary new tool called "email," or perhaps it was as simple and boring as something about exchanging data that was common among the agencies. But I do remember what happened at that meeting. The reaction and response of these fine leaders seared itself deep into my brain. For you see, I made a huge mistake that day right at the outset of my presentation, and I could not recover from it. Here's what happened. I opened my presentation by telling them all that they "weren't thinking big enough." Well, you might imagine what they did upon hearing those words. I may as well have spent the next ten minutes reciting nursery rhymes to them, because I don't think they heard another word I said. I had just told the leaders of our church that they weren't "big thinker," or at least that is what they heard. The damage was done, and so my proposal crashed and burned. The problem is, to this day I think that I was right. It wasn't that they couldn't think big, but that they were so focused in solving the problems of the current day that they were unable or unwilling to focus on the possibilities for the future; at least regarding computer technology. It's confession time now. Being the middle aged man that I now am, I have often found	myself in that same position. I work hard to keep our small company going, resolving software problems, meeting specific requests, making payroll, and all the rest. So hard, in fact, that I rarely take the time to consider what sorts of things computer technology might do to really enhance and support the mission of the church. Our own software products are pretty good at facilitating the "business of the church," though they could be better. But what about the mission of the church? What about making disciples? I'm afraid we're pretty far removed from that most of the time. So what are the real possibilities for computers in mission and ministry? Does social networking have possibilities? Resource mining? The simple ability to keep in touch with other people in ways never before possible? What are your "bigger thoughts"? I invite you to help me "think bigger" about computers, software, and the church. What possibilities are out there? Let me know of your ideas, and I'll try to share them here in this newsletter. Perhaps we'll discover a great big thought together. Shutting down for now... to go somewhere and think. Al Fifhause
Thinking Bigger
A long time ago, back in the dark ages before PCs were common business tools on everyone's desk, when I was yet a young man and while I was working for one of the general agencies of the United Methodist Church, I presented a technology proposal to the general secretaries of the thirteen general agencies of the church. An audience with this group of UMC leaders didn't come easily, and so I was excited to be able to present my idea to these top leaders of our church. In fact, this was my "second shot," as they had previously turned down a similar proposal that had gone to them in writing. I had refined my proposal, and I had requested an audience for the opportunity to present my case to them personally. I was certain that once they understood my idea, they would become as excited as I was about it. I no longer remember what my proposal was about. It may have been related to what

*Module of the Month:* Is your appointive cabinet struggling to gather and organize the vast amount of information that goes into the annual process of making clergy appointments? If so, make plans now to investigate our *Cabinet Decision Support* Module this spring or summer. That will allow plenty of time to get it into place before next year's appointment making season rolls around!	GoToMeeting Session Cost: $20 payable to GSS	Training Opportunities:
	GoToMeeting Session Cost: $20 payable to GSS	Tues.,January 16, 2:00 PM CST - Labels & Lists function. Learn how to:
	Keep in mind that GoToMeeting limits attendees to 10, so participation will be on a first come, first serve basis. Reserve your place by emailing lori@greatspirit.com	optimize your label set-ups identify address defaults using exports to Access & .csv exporting Emails to Outlook
	A free GoToMeeting Demonstration of Cabinet Decision Support will be offered for those interested in checking into this module further. Please contact Al Fifhause to schedule.

	with one amount being billed to the conference as whole. Thus, the comparison with of GBOPHB's DB amount is impossible because each conference is collecting the DB amount using different formulas. All other parts of exceptions report remain viable so you can still compare compensation, CPP, appointments, etc. with the report. PAL: For those who use the Property and Liability Insurance (PAL) billing module, remember that when posting payments for any 2006 balance forward amount, be sure to check the “Bal Fwd” box in the payments grid row. If this is not done, they the payment will be credited to the 2007 PAL invoice rather than the 2006 balance forward. Benefits and PAL: When entering 2006 payments or adjustments, be sure to use a 2006 date. The system will default to the current date, so you will need to change the transaction date at the top of form to a 2006 date. Also, 2006 payments or adjustments need to be completed before running the balance forwards. If the balance forwards are done and you need to enter another 2006 item , then you will need to post the 2006 item with a 2007 date and enter as an adjustment.	Tech Talk... If you use Trend Micro's PC-cillin Anti-virus and Internet Security product, sometimes it will block the synchronization and/or automatic updating program. If you need assistance to set PC-cillin and allow these important MissionBase functions to work, please contact Lori. Related to Trend Micro's PC-cillin program, the newer versions have a very nice anti-spam toolbar that will work with either Outlook or Outlook Express email programs. It is free and available from the Trend Micro website. However, please note that the Trend Micro™ Anti-Spam, version 3.51 does seem to cause problems for MissionBase and other programs written in the Visual Basic programming language. So if you install this toolbar, and MissionBase unexpectedly just quits and disappears from the screen, try uninstalling the toolbar and then MissionBase should work fine. Note that this problem seems to only exist in version 3.51 to my knowledge. ~ Bill
Happy New Year! May your CRSP billings be fun, or at least relatively painless! Those of you who use the MissionBase pension billing module have started and maybe completed by press time your first CRSP billing. This is a massive change to the clergy pension plan, which affects not only MissionBase, but so much of what benefits offices do. Hopefully our small part in your very important ministry of benefits will ease the transition. Of course, if you see any problems with the CRSP billing please let us know. CRSP Reminder: If you use the preliminary contributions exceptions report, remember that direct comparison with what GBOPHB has for your CRSP amounts are not possible. This is due to the Defined Benefit portion of CRSP, which has been explained to us a being calculated at the conference level

Our current Add-on modules: Benefits (Pension & Medical, Flex, & Life Insurance billing) Property & Liability Insurance billing Event Registration Cabinet Decision Support Certified Leadership (Safe Sanctuary) Candidacy Process tracking Year-End Statistics (Tables 1,2,3) Church Remittance Online Local Church Leadership Online Statistics entry Online Event Registration Onsite & web-based training For more information on any of these modules, contact lori@greatspirit.com		The full time/part time status for "pastor's name" does not appear to be set. Pension billing not possible for this person.

		this pastor. So if the pastor is not serving at the charge listed, then he/she also does not have a Full time/Part time status set for that compensation (under the wrong charge).
	Since the middle of December, I've received a number of support calls related to a warning message that occurs on the compensation form. This message started occurring due to changes necessary for the new CRSP calculations. What confusing most users, though, is that the Full time/Part time status for the pastor usually IS set.

		The FIX:
		Continue clearing the warning message until you can open the child grid (yellow grid). Click on the "Charge" drop-list, and select the TOP Charge in the list (which should be the current charge unless the pastor is serving 2 or more charges.) Reset the "Paid by" to the correct church, and click SAVE!
	The Problem:
	The issue is really that the "Charge" is not correctly set on the compensation record for