May 12, 2017
Administrative Staff Reports
May 12, 2017
Administrative Staff Reports
May 12, 2017
Grants Officer
Major projects completed –
Formula Continuation Grant Applications – Two AmeriCorps State Formula programs, Goodwill Multilingual Leadership Corps and RSU 14- SySTEM REAL are eligible for year three funding and position allocations. The Grants Officer worked with the programs on their continuation applications, prepared performance assessments for task force review and responded to the task force questions.
- RSU 14- SySTEM REAL : Grants Officer worked with RSU 14 on the recommended changes by MCCS staff and task force. The Program Director revised the application narrative based on staff and task force feedback. The final recommendation from the task force is to fund SySTEM REAL for year three at $208,825 and 35 AmeriCorps positions totaling 15.35 Member Service Years.
- GOODWILL Multilingual Leadership Corps: The Grants Task Force agreed the program continuation request should be authorized with the number of positions and funding requested: The Multilingual Leadership Corps will be funded for year three at $265,187 and 44 AmeriCorps positions totaling 21.19 Member Service Years.
- Unspent funds summary for the Formula Programs has been prepared and submitted to CNCS. The Grants Officer also responded to further clarification requests.
OnGoing Projects -
Competitive Grant Applications: Competitive Grant application decisions were announced by CNCS last Friday. LearningWorks and Maine Conservation Crops continuations were approved for the number of positions and dollars requested. Of the two new proposals entered into the national competition, USM Maine Campus Compact was the one selected for funding. Grants Officer is working with the successful applicants on the budget and narrative clarification requests submitted by CNCS for all three programs.
The Grants Officer has been working on a possible 7 month no-cost extension for Goodwill Take2 to improve recruitment rates.. There were a lot of questions on how this can be done with the existing funds. CNCS will decide on whether or not 7 month extension with the proposed design is acceptable.
LearningWorks on-site audit that has been ongoing since February is expected to come to an end next week and the Grants Officer will complete writing her draft audit report. The Grants officer has been visiting LearningWorks in Portland on Wednesdays only (limited to those that worked for both parties) as LW's policies prohibit the removal of member and client hard files from the premises.. She has checked more than 100+ member records from the closed grant year and current grant year for compliance.. Checking member files is a laborious and time-demanding process as each and every one of the more than a hundred member files for the grant years 2015-16 and 2016-17 needs to be checked in a very careful manner. All members are serving vulnerable populations which add another level of complexity to the audit process
The Grants officer has also been having meetings with LearningWorks staff on ongoing recruiting issues as well as other program concerns. She recommended the program to extend recruiting efforts to the Massachusetts area for enrollment in the summer program.
The Grants Officer continues to process all financial and accounting reports, program reimbursements, grant contracts, budget modifications, slot changes, supplemental grant award amendments, etc.. in Advantage, PurchasingMaine, OnCorps and eGrants (State and Federal Accounting and Grant Management Online Systems). She also helps the programs with various questions on AmeriCorps procedures and regulations.
The Grants Officer also organizes the Monthly Grants Task Force Meetings.
Major focus of effort in the new month –
The Formula Applications (both budget and narrative) will be approved and submitted in eGrants.
Following Executive Committee approval, the Continuation applications will be finalized.
AC Rural Competition will keep the Grants Officer very busy as 4-5 NEW applications are expected. NEW applications present a high level of complexity due to the additional scoring system, consensus meetings by both peer reviewers and Grants Task Force and other additional evaluation requirements.
Submission deadline May 16th and proposals go to Peer Reviewers May 18th.
- The Peer Reviewer consensus scoring call will be either May 25th or 26th.
- The staff analysis will be due to GTF by May 26th, everything else will be posted as early as May 18th to give GTF more time to read the submitted applications.
- The GTF Consensus Meeting will be scheduled for June 1st or 2nd and the GTF regular monthly meeting is on the 9th.
The Grants Officer is planning a Grant Assessment training for the new Grants Task Force members.
The LearningWorks Compliance Draft Report will be completed and shared with the program.
Take 2 Audit will be scheduled for the week of May 22nd. TAKE 2 Audit is not expected to be as time-demanding as there are not as many member files to review.
The Grants Officer will also work with MCD to prepare the program for closing.