As of Dec. 12, 2018 the statistical database EZRA is not ready for use.
The General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) is working on an update to ready the Mountain Sky Conference database, which they anticipate will be accomplished in the coming weeks. When GCFA tells us that EZRA is ready for access, we will send an email to the conference with more information.
A blank form for possible use is available here.
Every Mountain Sky Conference (MSC) Church must recreate your log-in, even if you used EZRA last year. All log-ins have been reset to accommodate changes in appointments as well as church staff changes and I would appreciate it if you get this done by Dec. 31 (but earlier is better, it tells us you are there and reading the mail). There are communication reasons for this in that it allows us to send registered users notes on statistics, and not have to hope we can reach people through blast messages.
How to Get Started
The General Council of Finance and Administration Data Base is ready to be accessed: EZRA
Your log-in USER ID is your GCFA Number. A PDF in alpha order by District of your GCFA number can be viewed by clicking here.
Your initial password is MSCmsc2018. This is also the password you will need to use when you reset your password as it is your current password.
Once you log-in the first time, you will be taken to a screen that allows you to set a new password. PLEASE DO TYPE IN AN EMAIL ADDRESS. That will be helpful to you should you forget your password. The “Forgot Password” option will work if you will place your email address in the appropriate location during initial login.
You are now registered with my thanks.
As a practical matter, our Journal information on appointments is not generated from this database, so errors here do not percolate over into other MSC databases.
Requested time tables:
Please plan to be finished with your statistics by Feb. 15, 2019, if at all possible. Will I grant grace for an emergency? Of course, but timely registration in the system helps get a dialogue going so that I know what is happening with you.
Quick Additional Thoughts:
Responsibility: Please Note: Senior Pastors may delegate the authority to complete the stats to another person, but they are responsible for data accuracy and mission accomplishment.
Manual Input: Manual input must be approved by your District Superintendent and their Admin Assistant must put the data into EZRA. Forgive me.
Notify the responsible agent: If you are reading the MSC News and are not the person responsible for statistics at your local church if you would be so kind so to call this news item to the attention of the responsible person at that local church, I would be most appreciative. Thank you.
Please, all money is whole dollars: Ezra is only looking for money accuracy to the dollar. You do not need to put in numbers to the right of the decimal.
I am having trouble getting all three tables completed at one sitting, what do I do? Remember, clicking on the Save button on each table does not submit the data. Save as you go. You can change entries up to the time you submit the completed tables using the Submit Stats Process option.
What’s wrong with my addition? Ezra has, in my opinion, been improved to show some of the running totals for you. It used to just say your number was wrong, figure it out. That said, it will not proceed if your numbers don’t cross check. It will tell you where the error is. e.g. Number of males and females must equal the total membership. Number by ethnicity and race must also equal total membership.
I am trying to log on and the screen comes back blank. What is happening? Ezra must "drop a cookie" on your computer. If your security/privacy mode is set to reject all cookies, you won't be able to use Ezra. You have two choices: You may change settings to accept all cookies, or you can allow only Ezra to place its cookie. While you are at it, disable the pop-up blocker; otherwise, you may have trouble printing reports.
May we have a second user and password at our church? Yes. Look under ACCOUNT there is an option called CREATE ACCOUNT. You can do it there.
Can I have a different user name than the GCFA number? Yes. Any name not claimed by someone else is potentially yours.
What happens if we are not done by Feb. 15? Send me a note and I will allow you some extra time. We do want to get this done as soon as practicable.
A LOT of Table II data will be done by the conference treasurer's office. Fill in what is there, and know that the treasurer’s office will do the rest based on treasurer’s office data. There is an option that allows me to turn on (for all) what is filled in at the conference so you can see the cell but can’t update it. My experience is that option is too confusing, so I didn’t turn it on.
Grace and Peace,
Dennis Shaw
Email me
Statistician
Mountain Sky Annual Conference