Newsletter – 6/14/2012
UMA Launches Member Portal
We now have a new web-based membership database that can do amazing things! You can view and update your personal profile, view information about your organization and the people associated with it, register for events, pay your organization’s membership dues, and pay your EAGLE fees. Watch future issues of Member News for more details about new features, but feel free to explore the site until then by clicking here.
PLEASE NOTE: You will be asked to log in by entering your email and a password. Your default password is Password1. Your password IS case sensitive. You will then be required to change your password. If you are unable to log in, either contact the UMA office at askUMA@umassociation.org, or by calling 662.269.2955. Otherwise, you can create a new profile by clicking the New Visitor Registration link.
You can edit your personal information by going to the menu on the left side of the screen and clicking the My Information tab. If you want to see information about other UMA members, select either the Organization Directory or the Individual Directory links.
Chicago Registration Now Open!
Registration is now open for three events at the amazing Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago on August 20-23. The room rate is only $139 per night and includes free in-room internet. Rates are good three days before and after our events, but if you want to take advantage of this special rate on the extended dates, you must call the UMA office at 662.269.2955.
Click here to make your hotel reservation, and click here to visit the new UMA Member Portal mentioned in the previous article and register for one or all three of the following events:
CYF Summer Workshop Join your colleagues in the Children, Youth and Family Section on Tuesday, August 21, from 8AM to 5PM and on Wednesday, August 22, from 8AM until Noon for our annual CYF Summer Workshop. Click here for more information about the event, here to register, and here to make your hotel reservation.
The EAGLE Accreditation Commission will meet on Monday before the CYF Summer Workshop. The Commission is the body that oversees the EAGLE program and is comprised of sixteen individuals representing a broad cross-section of UMA and other faith-based, accredited organizations. This group meets on Monday, August 20, from 8AM to 5PM. Click here to register for this meeting if you have been appointed to the Commission, and here for the hotel.
UMA’s Board of Directors will also meet in Chicago. This committed group of individuals represents every aspect of your Association and will meet from 1PM on Wednesday, August 22, until 4PM on Thursday. Board members, click here to register for the meeting, and here for the hotel.
Member Benefit Now Available
Think you know everything about new laws affecting your employees? Think again! Congress constantly revises regulations and guidelines, and you need to know about those changes quickly.
Thanks to our partnership with Gumtree Insurance, we now have an exciting new tool to help our members minimize risk. Jim Homan and Nick Myers of Gumtree have made FutureOffice available to UMA members who purchase any product, and it’s available FREE for the next thirty days to EVERY UMA MEMBER.
FutureOffice contains information about federal and state employment law, rules about employee benefits, human resource and compensation rules, free newsletter content you can use in your organization, countless templates and boilerplates, sample employee handbooks, forms and worksheets, sample letters, surveys, legal updates, webinars, and just about anything else you could ever ask for to stay in compliance with those mercurial laws.
Explore the site by clicking here. Log in with the username UMA, and the password of futureoffice. Want more information about FutureOffice or the full line of discounted insurance products available to UMA members? Give Jim a call at 662.678.8340, or Nick at 601.718.8233.
UMA Has a New Logo
Just about everything at UMA is new, so it seems appropriate that we should adopt a fresh, new graphic. But there’s really more to it than that. We recently realized that we are violating several rules for use of the United Methodist Cross and Flame logo which appears on our current brand. We are exploring more appropriate ways to indicate our relationship with the Church, so stay tuned for more information.
The new logo has many symbols in it. At the center is the Cross that shines with the light of Christ. That same light shines through our members to every person you serve. The image itself is a world of possibilities opening for every child, family and older adult you serve. It’s also indicative of a flower opening in full bloom revealing the beauty of a life with Christ at the center. Even the colors are symbolic. There’s green for the newness of life and as a symbol of growth, and there’s blue to remind us of the unlimited horizons that lie before us. There’s purple in remembrance of the suffering many of our residents and clients experience, but also as a reminder that there is forgiveness and redemption through Christ.
For a while, we’ll continue to use both logos, but keep watching Member News for more exciting news.
Members in the News
The Methodist Home, an EAGLE-accredited childcare agency in Macon, GA hosted the Harlem Globe Trotters at one of its campuses. Read more here.
Epworth Villa, an EAGLE-accredited older adult ministry in Oklahoma City, OK just began construction of a new campus in Stillwater and renovations to their main campus. You gotta read about it here andhere.
Bethany Village, an EAGLE-accredited older adult ministry in Mechanicsburg, PA, part of Asbury Communities, has received a great deal of media attention recently. Watch the video here.
Inverness Village in Tulsa, OK, also part of Asbury Communities, has also been in the news. Watch the video here.
Asbury Methodist Village, an EAGLE-accredited older adult ministry in Gaithersburg, MD has also been in the spotlight. Watch their video here.
Methodist Senior Services, an EAGLE-accredited older adult ministry in Tupelo, MS has also been in the news a lot during this year of their 50th birthday celebration. If you have not visited their FaceBook page, “like” them today. They do a great job of posting news and photos!
MSS recently completed three “Celebration of Age” conferences around the state that drew more than 1,400 participants. Special guests included comedian Jeanne Robertson, Christian recording artist Lance Moore, and national recording artist Guy Hovis.
Their Trinity campus, Columbus, MS was named once again in US News as one of America’s best nursing homes. Read about it here.
On of the Traceway (Tupelo, MS) campus volunteers, Janie Smith, was selected as a Jefferson Awards honoree in her hometown of Tupelo.
Traceway’s community-based Meals on Wheels program served almost 29,000 meals to low income elders and persons with disabilities last year.
Seashore Highlands is their new community under construction in Gulfport, MS. This new campus will replace a former facility damaged by Hurricane Katrina. To view news and photos of the project, visit here.
In addition to all these things, MSS is making office space available to UMA. THANKS SENIOR SERVICES!