I hope that all is well with you, your staff and your programs.  This memo includes updates, as well as notes from the March 12 conference call.  If you have questions about this memo, or other issues, please don’t hesitate to contact me or your program officer.  My contact information is at the end of this email.

Staffing

After five years with AmeriCorps, Program Officer Shannon Rolf Guzman has moved on, although she will continue to work with the Corporation.  Shannon’s last day with State and National was Friday, March 16; she will shortly begin work as a state program specialist in the CNCS Wisconsin state office.  We already miss her in DC, but wish her all the best.  Shannon’s portfolio has been reassigned to other program officers and her former grantees have been informed.

There is a job announcement on our website, closing Friday, March 30, for program officer positions in State and National to be based here in Washington, DC.

In another, albeit belated, staffing update, I am pleased to welcome aboard Rob Glazier as a new program officer.  Rob began working with us in January and brings to the position years of relevant experience.  He has been an AmeriCorps member, as well as the program director of a Michigan statewide AmeriCorps program.  You will enjoy working with and getting to know Rob.

Current and Upcoming Events

Grant Application Review Process (GARP)

The ‘07 grant review, fondly known as GARP, is underway.  The peer review has concluded and the staff review portion has begun.  Your program officers are busy reading proposals to ensure that we meet the applicant notification target of mid-May.  While they intend to continue providing strong customer service for you, please understand if there is an occasional delayed response.  If you have concerns during this time, please let me know.

We expect to announce the continuation decisions within the next couple of weeks.

Disaster Services Workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the roles that state commissions and parent organizations can play in their states’ disaster services.  If your organization wants to be engaged in your state’s national service preparedness for, and response to, disasters, please plan on attending this event May 1-3 in Dallas, TX.

http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/calendar/index.php?action=detailed&event_id=3072

The First Annual National AmeriCorps Week

Hopefully you are as excited as we are about the possibilities for AmeriCorps Week.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and publicize the power of national service.  Please keep us informed of the events that you are planning; we are maintaining a calendar here in State and National.  A series of technical assistance conference calls on various topics is currently taking place to assist you with planning.

http://www.americorps.gov/about/americorpsweek/index.asp

Best Practices Conference

Planning is underway for the bi-annual Best Practices Conference in Jacksonville, FL May 9-11 (pre-conference peer exchanges are May 8-9).  

We received a great variety of proposals in response to the RFP.  The planning committee, comprised of your fellow program directors, assisted in reviewing the proposals.  We are very excited about how the content of the conference is shaping up.  I look forward to seeing you in Jacksonville.  Please take a few minutes to register: http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=124571

Notes from March 12 Conference Call

Below are notes from the recent conference call with Kristin McSwain.  We appreciate the participation of those that were able to join us but know that due to scheduling conflicts, everyone was not able to participate.  If you have input to provide, particularly in response to the questions that were posed, we would appreciate hearing from you.

’08 Grant Timeline

The deadline for state and national applications will be January 8, 2008, not November 2007 as proposed in the draft application instructions.

We hope to have the ’08 application instructions distributed April 1, 2007 or soon thereafter.

Grant negotiations will occur prior to notifications, rather than after as in previous years.  This will mean that grants can be awarded shortly after the notification occurs.

The two-part process proposed in the draft application instructions will not be implemented

One-Year Funding

CNCS is proposing in the ’08 Congressional Budget Justification that we move to one-year funding.   If this proposal is accepted, we will no longer have two years to obligate (award to grantees) funds that we receive in our budget from Congress.  Instead, AmeriCorps funding will have to be obligated (awarded) by CNCS within the year it is appropriated to us.  This means that the Corporation will no longer be able to ‘carryover’ funds into the next year that the agency has not obligated, or use those funds that the agency has de-obligated from grantees that have not spent them.

Requests for Input Regarding Burden Reduction

Progress Reporting

We are working on revising what we require grantees to report to us.  For instance, this might include only requiring reporting on specified outputs related to the strategic initiatives.

Question: Would it pose a problem for programs to no longer have the option for sub-grantees/operating sites to report progress via WBRS?

Response: This would pose a challenge for the programs that rely on WBRS to gather data from their sites.  Not all programs use WBRS for this purpose.

Timekeeping via WBRS

We are reviewing the different functionalities currently housed in WBRS and the information we request from grantees to determine what is necessary.

Question: What if you were no longer required to submit timesheets via WBRS?

Question: What if you no longer had the option of using WBRS for tracking members’ time?

Responses:   

• It would be a significant administrative burden reduction to not have to submit timesheets.
• The function of using WBRS to track members’ progress toward completing hours and to monitor sites is valuable.
• Some programs rely on WBRS as their electronic system of record and don’t have the means to develop an alternative system.
• If it was no longer a requirement but still available to be used, programs with various state commission grants may find themselves having to adhere to varying requirements.

We will keep you informed of the progress of these initiatives as they evolve.  Please let your program officer know of any input you would like to provide on these topics.