How to Use Candidacy Tracking Log View

Our United Methodist Church conference customers asked us to beef up the existing candidacy tracking functions in People records. The new Candidacy Tracking Log section includes more fields for greater detail, allows users to upload related files, and is general enough to be used by both district committees on ministry and conference boards of ordained ministry.

Conferences use this tool to note interviews and actions related to the candidacy process. This section includes key information, namely certification and renewal dates, that are reported in the Business of Annual Conference (BAC) annually by conferences. Using these views centralizes the data allows for easier and more accurate reporting.

This view is intended to be used in place of Certified Candidate Histories. We do not recommend using both.

Where to Find It

The primary access point for the Candidacy Tracking Log is under the Contacts menu and the People option.

The Candidacy Tracking Log view relates to People. Its base view is under the UMC menu and the Candidacy Tracking Log option. Within the Candidacy Tracking Log view, there are further related views that power the drop-down menu choices - Candidacy Tracking Tracks and Candidacy Tracking Actions, both under the UMC menu. Additionally, the District drop-down in the Candidacy Tracking Log is powered by the active districts listed under the Contacts menu and the Districts option.

Candidacy Tracking Log View Functions

Tracking For: This drop-down lists the track options. If you’re using this for dCOM tracking, you might include things like Certified Lay Minister, Licensed Local Pastor, Provisional Elder, etc. This list is powered by the Candidacy Tracking Tracks view.

District: Choose the district the interviewee interviewed in or the district that relates to this step. For someone transferring into your Conference, you might choose the district they will relate to once their transfer is complete or the district requesting the person’s transfer. This list is powered by the Districts view under the Contacts menu.

Action: This drop-down list includes the possible results of this step. You may choose to make it simple with a few core options. You could also choose to make it very specific and list every possible action for each track option. No matter how you decide to do it, you’ll add your options under the Candidacy Tracking Actions view.

Renew By: Specifically for dCOMs, this option indicates when the candidate should be interviewed again. This makes it super easy to pull a report from the People view with all those that need interviews every spring or fall.

Notes: Some conferences choose to lift specific pieces out of the written reports and include them here for easy viewing.

Action Report or Other Documentation: This section is linked to your organization’s Important Files section, located under the Org menu and the Important Files option. Connecting this field to Important Files allows the files to live both in a Candidacy Tracking Log record and a central file repository.

If you plan to utilize this feature, you’ll want to add the appropriate Important File Types. Admins can do this by visiting the Categories section under Settings, by selecting Categories, and searching for Important File Types. We highly recommend adopting a naming convention for Important Files, otherwise the archive can get messy quickly.

Setting Up Your Options

United Methodist conferences notoriously do the same processes in slightly different ways. We didn’t centralize the tracks or actions, so each UMC conference can customize the base product to fit their needs.

Setting Up Tracks

Navigate to the UMC menu and the Candidacy Tracking Tracks option.
Select the green New button to add an option for the drop-down list that displays in the Candidacy Tracking Log screen (pictured in the Candidacy Tracking Log View Functions section above).
After giving it a name, select what committee handles this step in the process - district committee on ministry (dCOM) or the conference board of ordained ministry (BOM). Note that here you’re just setting the level, not the specific dCOM. You relate the specific district in the Candidacy Tracking Log view.
Under Maps to Denominational Track, you can either choose a track or leave it blank. This field would prove useful if you ever wanted to do big-picture reports that include multiple tracks. It may also be useful for mapping steps to GCFA’s database.
Note for Techy Admins: The list of options for the Maps to Denominational Track drop-down is a Category. Do not add options to this category.

Setting Up Actions

Navigate to the UMC menu and the Candidacy Tracking Actions option.
Select the green New button to add an option for the drop-down list that displays in the Candidacy Tracking Log screen (pictured in the Candidacy Tracking Log View Functions section above).
Under Maps to Core Action, you can either choose an item or leave it blank. This field would prove useful if you ever wanted to do big-picture reports that include multiple tracks. It may also be useful for mapping steps to GCFA’s database.
Note for Techy Admins: The list of options for the Maps to Core Action drop-down is a Category. Do not add options to this category.