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Grants Management User Group Meeting Minutes June 13, 2001 |
IMPAC II GM Lead User’s Group
Minutes from June 13, 2001 Meeting
Marcia Hahn thanked Usha Ganti for serving as co-chair. Dave Chicchirichi will assume the role of co-chair for the next six months; at the end of the calendar year, he will replace Marcia as the chair. As eRA Advocate for GM, Marcia will continue to serve as liaison to the group.
Beginning in CY 2002, following guidance from the Vision Steering Committee, each co-chair will hold office for one year and then step up to the chairperson position for an additional year. This rotation will minimize burnout, provide leadership opportunities and ensure the flow of new ideas. Lead Users were asked to think about serving as leaders of the group. A new co-chair will need to be selected in the Fall.
Marcia sent out a draft document two weeks ago. The document consolidates in one place the Lead Users Group mission statement and describes the rotating leadership concept, roles and responsibilities, the attendance policy and other items. Please send comments to Marcia by June 15. The finalized document will be posted on the GM Infonet.
GMAC Policy and Procedure Announcement 1999-01 suggested that ICs adopt standardized language for a number of IC-specific Terms of Award. As part of the announcement, it was suggested that IMPAC II be modified to automatically generate 6 of the 11 categories of terms. At the meeting of April 11, Debbie Hendry volunteered to conduct an email survey to determine which, if any, of the suggested terms had been adopted by the ICs.
Debbie reported that 16 of the 22 polled ICs have responded. There was no term that all were willing to adopt without modification. IC objections, however, were often unclear. Given the need for clarification and the fact that 6 ICs have not responded, the group decided to revisit the issue at the next meeting. Debbie will contact the Lead Users of the non-responsive ICs and also get clarification where needed.
Tim Twomey suggested including a link to terms and forms on the web. The latter would eliminate the need to mail out the forms. Marcia commented that some of the terms contain outdated policy and need to be revised. The issue should be addressed by the Business Practices Group.
Even if ICs agree to several standard terms, there will still be a large number of agency-specific terms. In this context, would a few automated standard terms save time and add value?
Cathy Walker reported on a meeting with a few GM Lead Users and Sherry Zucker to discuss customizable checklists for ICO & GM. Donna Frahm will be the chief Analyst for programming checklists for ICO, GM and REV. Although no implementation timeline has been established, this requirement has been elevated on the priority list. The larger issues of workflow and notifications still need to be addressed.
Mike Loewe will lead a Working Group to study the feasibility of incorporating an IC close-out extension system into IMPAC II. More representatives from mid-sized ICs are needed for his group.
As a first step, several members of the group met with Carol Tippery to discuss policy issues relating to mandatory use, integration with the Commons and minimal data requirements. Implementing a grants close-out system ranks twelfth on the overall list of this year's eRA priorities. Unused FY 2001 dollars will be available to continue this effort in FY 2002
The NIMH Grant Close-out System (GCS) presentation was very favorably received at the recent NIH Enterprise and Extension Systems Workshop on May 10. Unlike GM and other IMPAC II modules, GCS was developed in Cold Fusion. The Working Group will consider this technical issue among several criteria in their evaluation of GCS and other IC-developed close-out extension systems as they begin the requirements analysis phase of the project.
Contact Mike Loewe if you would like your IC's close-out system be evaluated by the Working Group for possible integration into IMPAC II. One interim solution may be to add a close-out report to the "Tools" page so that ICs that have no system could at least benefit from the report until the enterprise system is developed.
Grant Folder
Positive - Access faster than via QuickView.
Negative
The group then discussed additional documents for inclusion in the GM Grant Folder. Tim suggested "Just in Time" letters that will soon be IMPAC II generated, R15 annual progress report letters, and FSRs. Marcia suggested SNAP-out mailers and GM worksheets. Essentially any document that is system-generated can be stored. Marcia asked if it would be possible to store multiple versions of the same document. Perhaps when users print, they can also indicate "store". How would it be possible to make corrections?
The group was asked to send additional suggestions to Dave for discussion at the next meeting. Tim will bring the FSR requirement to Jim Cain's attention.
Early Termination Flag
There were many questions about this new feature. Lead Users were reminded that this should only be used when you are effecting a terminal action such as an early termination or a termination for cause. Do not use it for Type 7s. Do not use it if you are just early terming a supplement (T-3). It would be appropriate to use the flag when you are revising a fellowship award to cancel it when never activated. When using this system flag, it is no longer necessary to notify Janice Wright in OER. Use of the system flag will automatically invoke all other system actions that used to be handled manually. Lead users were asked to pass on these instructions to their colleagues.
Fellowship Fix
No comments
Lead users will be posted on upcoming GM changes and updates to common modules. Dave stated that the last GM release for this fiscal year is scheduled for July. Two high priority items will be addressed: removal of temporary assignments from workload and hitlists; and changes to End-of-Fiscal Year business rules.
Tim said that there are plans for automatic generation of a Type 5 shell upon grant award. This should help ICs determine future commitments. Tim inquired if the shells should be generated for fellowship grants which may have a delay in activation. He will check with the Budget community on this matter.
Future Enhancements
Modifying GM Comments: Currently the GM Comments field copies comments from the previous year worksheet when the WIP is created. In many cases, these comments no longer apply to the new T-5 record. Tim proposed that GM adopt ICO's way of storing comments. ICO users can view historical notes and then add comments in a blank area. Notes can be copied and pasted. The group liked this feature; Marcia added that it would also add consistency across modules. This enhancement was given a high priority by the Lead Users.
Adding "Prefix" to Contact Information: A lead user suggested that the degree print on the Notice of Grant Award (NGA) in the contact information section. Tim thought that it would be easier to use the prefix field instead of the degree field since there may be multiple degrees. The group gave this request low priority. Tim will verify that the prefix field can be used. Also, since the fax number is slated to be added, it makes sense to add the prefix at the same time. 7/6/01 Update: The Prefix field is on the main Person Profile screen. Once this enhancement to the NGA report has been programmed, lead users will be notified so that those ICs that desire to use this feature can then populate the Prefix field for their staff.
Both of these suggestions will be forwarded to Logicon/ROW.
Lead Users were reminded that whenever a user reports a bug to the Help Desk, the problem goes on a list for Logicon/ ROW analysis.
Marcia reported on the progress of the Commons Working Group (CWG) proposals for streamlining the SNAP process. She invited Lead Users to attend next week's GMAC meeting on June 20th at 2:30, Rock II, 9th floor where this issue will be discussed. The proposals have already been presented at POPOF and ePUG and will be taken to EPMC in July. Marcia remarked that Program is actively engaged in changing the business process. e-SNAP (first pilot halted in March) will serve as a test pilot for all electronic applications.
There was a question about why funding years have to be deleted from the bottom up. Tim explained that this is a safety mechanism to prevent the deletion of middle years.
It would be useful to have edit checks to reconcile the number of years with project end date.
Users complained about loss of input in the comments section of the ADMIN screen. Sounds like a bug. Tim will investigate. The solution may be an autosave on close.
Action Items
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, July 11, 9:00-11:30 am in NIMH Conference Room 8120. NIMH will be our parking sticker host. Unless critical agenda items surface, no meeting will be held in August or September.