Message from the Director

Many thanks to all who participated in the WBRS transition conference calls. Your thoughtful questions and willingness to engage on this topic have helped us to tease out the myriad and complicated issues involved. Now that this first set of conversations have ended, I look forward to continuing to focus in on the most challenging aspects of the transition.

To emphasize some key points, I’ve listed “Top Five Things to Know and Tell about the WBRS Transition,” below.

1. All member management functions except timesheets will be in the My AmeriCorps portal.
       
2. Commissions and National partners will be submitting all 3 sections of the annual grantee progress report—the new demographic reporting elements, performance measures, and narratives—in eGrants by Dec 3 unless there are technology or OMB delays.
       
3. We’ll allow 30 days minimum to complete the annual grantee progress reports even if we have to move the deadline back.
       
4. We are producing examples of the kinds of estimates that may be useful for the demographic reporting.
       
5. We are producing examples of ways to document compliance with the 80/20 rule besides using individual timesheets, i.e. annual training calendar, sign-in sheets.

WBRS Transition Resources

We have created an online space for resources related to the WBRS transition here: www.nationalserviceresources.org/wbrs-transition. This resource page includes links to templates and tools that your colleagues have shared, as well as FAQs developed on the basis of questions asked during our conference calls. Please feel free to contribute additional resources to this page. The electronic mailboxes for comments and best practices are still open for business. 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, please send an e-mail with a summary of the method to ReportingPractice@cns.gov. If you have questions or concerns that you want to raise please send an e-mail with your question or concern to ReportingQuestion@cns.gov.

• Click here to read WBRS Retirement Frequently Asked Questions (PDF).

Dates to Remember

November 1: Admin/PDAT/Disability applications due

December 3: GPRs due in eGrants

December 5-7: State Commission ED Meeting in Washington DC

Entering Performance Measures in eGrants for 2008 Competition

Please note that State Competitive, State EAP, State Formula, States without Commissions, National Direct, National EAP, Indian Tribes, and National Professional Corps applicants are not required to enter performance measures in the performance measure screens in eGrants this year as part of the application. Applicants are required to enter performance measure information in the Member Outputs and Outcomes and Community Outputs and Outcomes sections of the application narrative. Successful applicants will enter performance measures in the eGrants screens during the post review period.

Some state commissions are requiring their applicants to enter performance measures, and these applicants will use the performance measures screens as in years past. All other applicants who have been directed to wait to fill in the performance measure screens will still have to enter N/A in each narrative field, 0 in each number field, and select a value in each pull down menu in order to submit their application. These values will not be reviewed, and will be revised when the performance measurements are finalized in the post review period.

Policy Briefs

Forty-five Day Holds for Late Reports

The Corporation has a new policy on significantly late progress reports in order to align our practice when reports are late for progress reports and financial reports. We currently will restrict access to funds if a financial status report is not submitted within 45 calendar days after the established due date. As of September 26, 2007, we will also restrict access to funds if a progress report is not submitted within 45 calendar days after the established due date. The majority of these reports are submitted on time and this policy will impact only a small number of grants over time.

Time and Attendance Reporting for Professional Corps

Now that we have processed some requests for the special condition on time and attendance reporting for professional corps, we have added some language to the policy to clarify the information required in a request, in bold below.

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. This does not release them from accounting for time and attendance through the normal process in place at the service site for other professionals.

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 account for time and attendance, and how they will certify total hours served at the completion of each member’s term. The procedures must include certification by both the member and the member’s supervisor.

Clarification on Concurrent and Consecutive Terms

We have refined this policy to distinguish same/different program requirements for concurrent and consecutive terms:

You may allow a less-than-full-time member to serve a concurrent term in a different program during the same program year. A less-than-full-time member may serve a consecutive term in the same or a different program during the same program year. If you are considering allowing this, please contact your Program Officer in order to ensure a smooth transition in WBRS.

Criminal Background Checks

Remember that the Corporation’s new regulations on Criminal Background Checks goes into effect on November 23. If programs have not screened staff and members that work with vulnerable populations as described in the regulation by that date, they will be required to at that time. The regulations, FAQs, and other resources can be found here: www.nationalserviceresources.org/criminal-history.

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.