April 27, 2018
April 27, 2018
Report submitted by: Laurel Bernier, Grants Officer
Major projects completed:
- Completed review of Quarterly Grantee Progress Reports (GPRs) that were due on April 20, and began Mid-Year Progress Report to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).
- Updated member records and fiscal monitoring tools, to use at monitoring visits in May. Revisions include the addition of a cover sheet (detailing program information and a list of documents to collect for desk review), updated citations to CNCS regulations, and spreadsheet formatting. So far, monitoring visits have been discussed with all grantees, and scheduled at two for the beginning of May.
- Approved a slot conversion for Eastern Maine Development Corps (EMDC), and provided technical assistance on reporting and entering performance measures into OnCorps.
- Participated in National Service Recognition Day at the State House, Maine Commission for Community Service (MCCS) Visioning Conference, Adult Volunteer Roll of Honor celebration at a Portland Sea Dogs game, and the Governor’s Service Awards ceremony in the Hall of Flags. Also led the Grant Selection and Performance Task Force meeting, and attended the MCCS business meeting on 4/20, themed around recognizing national service program staff.
Issues to be aware of:
- Enrollment is still low for some programs, despite their plans for members to start working earlier. Three programs have completed, or are planning to complete, slot conversion requests in the past week, since it is too late for 900-hour members to start service and complete their hours by the end of the grant year.
Major focus of effort for the next month:
- Completing monitoring site visits to review member records for all programs except Conservation Corps and EMDC (which started later than others). Fiscal monitoring will be completed for new programs (Maine Campus Compact and United Way of Tri Valley Area) alongside Maryalice, since I have not shadowed her on that before.
- Preparing & submitting mid-year GPR to CNCS, due 4/30.
- Working with programs on enrollment, including discussion of right-sizing at the next Task Force meeting.