Message from the Director

It was energizing to spend time with you this year at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Thank you very much for your continued commitment to national service and to improving the ways we work together. I recognize that the big news from the AmeriCorps business meeting and the policy session on Wednesday was the WBRS transition. This issue of the Policy Update presents our plan and timeline, and a summary of answers to your questions from the conference sessions. We will continue to elicit your input and respond to your concerns as we strive to make this transition successfully.

Below you will find a timeline for the transition, and a list of conference calls we have planned to answer any additional questions, address your concerns, and share ideas about methods you may be using or planning for timekeeping and financial and progress reporting.

Timeline for WBRS Transition

We expect the transition from WBRS to new eGrants and My AmeriCorps portal functionalities to be complete in April of 2008. You may stop using WBRS to record member time and attendance at any point between now and then. See summary in Policy Briefs, and click here to read the policy.

Conference Call Schedule

Financial Reporting Q and A and Best Practices

• Call 1: Tuesday, September 11, 3:00 pm Passcode: Amy
• Call 2: Thursday, September 13, 3:00 pm Passcode: Borgstrom

Progress Reporting Q and A and Best Practices

• Call 1: National Grantees, Tuesday, September 18, 3:00 pm
  Passcode: National
• Call 2: State Grantees, Thursday, September 20, 3:00 pm
  Passcode: State

Member Management Q and A and Timekeeping Best Practices

• Call 1: Tuesday, September 25, 3:00 pm Passcode: Member
• Call 2: Thursday, September 27, 3:00 pm Passcode: Management

Number for all calls: 888-791-1856
Leader for all calls: Amy Borgstrom

Electronic Mailboxes for Comments and Best Practices

If you have an idea for a potential best practice, or a method you are already using that is working well for timekeeping or subgrantee financial or progress reporting, and are willing to share the information on one of these calls, please send an e-mail with a summary of your method to ReportingPractice@cns.gov. If you have questions or concerns that you want to raise prior to the call, or to put on the agenda for the call, please send an e-mail with your question or concern to ReportingQuestion@cns.gov.

Why Retire WBRS?

The Corporation is retiring WBRS for four main reasons. First, WBRS currently collects more information than is necessary for oversight purposes. Second, the system is outdated. Third, in the area of member management, it creates significant burden in the form of double entry of member hours for many programs. Fourth, it currently houses functionalities that can be more appropriately handled by other systems, i.e. the My AmeriCorps portal, and eGrants.

Member Management

All member management functions, including member information, enrollments, exits, transfer, change of term, suspend/reinstate, slot correction, and refills will be conducted using the My AmeriCorps portal.

However programs will no longer be required to enter weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly member time and attendance in any Corporation system. You will certify total hours served at exit in order to qualify the member for their education award. You will still be required to collect and maintain a record of member time and attendance.

Progress Reporting

Progress reports from State Commissions and National parent organizations will be submitted via eGrants in the aggregate. Grantees will collect and aggregate subgrantee reporting using your choice of alternative methods. We will discuss best practices in our September conference calls, including using simple word processing templates.

Financial Reporting

Financial reports from State Commissions and National parent organizations will continue to be submitted via eGrants. The Corporation will no longer require submission of financial reports from subgrantees. You will collect and aggregate this information using your choice of alternative methods. We will discuss best practices in our September conference calls, including using fillable standard forms.

Addressing Your Concerns

Will there be financial support for us to develop new methods for timekeeping and subgrantee financial and progress reporting?
No, there will not be a supplemental pool of funding to support this transition. Design and operation of your own methods to manage subgrantee progress and financial reporting is a reasonable cost to include in your 2008 budget.

We use WBRS forms to generate payment with our state. How do we work with our state to help them to accept a new format?
You will be able to continue to use Standard Federal Forms for financial reporting. Your Corporation program and grants officers can help you troubleshoot transition issues.

Who will have access to what functions in the portal? Grantee program officers need to be able to use the portal for monitoring purposes.
You will be able to determine who will have access to what functions in the portal and eGrants.

What will members see vs. grantee program officers vs. state commission/national parent organizations?
Well in advance of the transition you will receive guided tours of all screens and views in the system. You will maintain the same level of access currently available in WBRS.

What about programs with members who do not have access to computers?
All the functions in eGrants and in the My AmeriCorps portal will be available in hard copy as well as electronic format.

How will we request budget amendments?
You will request budget amendments in eGrants.

How will this affect slot refill?
Slot refill will be documented in the My AmeriCorps portal. Slots will be available for refill only if all other slots are filled and the member exits having completed 30% or less of his or her term of service, per our policy.

What about the members coming on board now? Should we enter them in WBRS and then transfer them to the My AmeriCorps portal?
You must continue to enroll and exit members in WBRS until the transition is complete. You may stop entering member time and attendance in WBRS at any time. You will have to enter zeroes in the monthly data fields for hours, and then enter total hours upon exit.

What is the timeline for the transition? Could you extend the subgrantee financial reporting functionality beyond the April date?
We are considering extending the deadline and will let you know as soon as a final date is established.

Who will be managing the My AmeriCorps portal?
Corporation IT staff will manage the My AmeriCorps portal.

Policy Briefs

Time and Attendance Reporting Requirements: As of July 23, 2007, the Corporation will no longer require AmeriCorps State and National grantees and subgrantees to enter weekly, bi-weekly or monthly member timesheets in WBRS. The My AmeriCorps portal, which will serve as the entry point for the new system of record, will require AmeriCorps State and National grantees and subgrantees to enter total hours served at exit for each member. You will continue to be responsible for keeping weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly time and attendance records in the paper-based or electronic format of your choice.

You may continue to use WBRS to record member hours until the point that WBRS is phased out and made available in read-only mode. You must continue to enroll and exit members in WBRS until those functionalities are operational in the My AmeriCorps portal. You will be notified well in advance of that occurrence.

• Click here to read the policy.

Time and Attendance Reporting for Professional Corps: A State or National Professional Corps operating site will not be required to maintain the member timesheets that are required of AmeriCorps grantees, if the Professional Corps legal applicant’s request and rationale for using an alternative professional timekeeping system is approved by the Corporation as consistent with the requirements under the applicable OMB cost principles.

A Professional Corps legal applicant will be given the option, after this policy is implemented and then at the start of each grant cycle, to request a special condition that will release the program from maintaining separate weekly timesheets for their Professional Corps AmeriCorps members.

In order to qualify, the legal applicant must demonstrate and document that its members will meet the minimum number of hours required to earn the appropriate education award by fulfilling the normal duties of the profession, or by a combination of normal duties and other professional opportunities sponsored by the program. The legal applicant must also describe how its service sites will certify total hours served at the completion of each member’s term.

• Click here to read the policy.

New and Improved Application Instructions: Look for new and improved 2008 application instructions when eGrants opens for the 2008 competitions early in August. We revised these to:

• include character limits
• include performance measure screens for state commissions that only run one competition, and
• provide guidance on new match reporting budget fields

Public Comment on Demographic Reporting Elements: We are accepting public comment on new demographic reporting elements. Please call or e-mail aborgstrom@cns.gov to receive a copy of these elements. The deadline for comment making is September 17, 2007.

New eGrants Password Rules

The Corporation for National and Community Service is always working to protect your information in eGrants.New federal government regulations require that user passwords adhere to specific rules.In order to implement this improved security, CNCS will begin requiring that all eGrants passwords meet these requirements on or about August 9, 2007 but you can update your password at any time.On or about August 9^th your password will be de-activated if it does not meet the requirements.This means thatthe next time you attempt to log into eGrants, you will be required to update your password to one that does meet the new requirements. You will not be able to log into eGrants until you update your password. If you have any questions about password requirements or how to update your password please call the eGrants Help Desk at 888-677-7849 or email them at eGrantshelp@cns.gov.

The password requirements are as follows:

• it must be at least 8 characters in length
• it must contain at least 1 number character
• the first character must be a letter
• it cannot be a word found in the dictionary
• it cannot contain your username

What Do You Think?

How can we make this periodic update more useful? What other policy tools would be helpful? Contact aborgstrom@cns.gov with your ideas.