Chapter 9. Reports
| Chapter 9. REPORTS | ||
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Table of Contents
You may not have realized it at the time, but, yes, you did and now it is our responsibility to monitor the progress of your project. A Progress Report covering six months of activities related to your LSTA grant is due on April 15. A Final Report is due on October 15. (Agreement: #17). The form to use is included in the back of this notebook. You may also download an electronic version of it from the "Manage Your Grant" section of our website (see below). You should make multiple copies of the form for use throughout the year. Always include the cover sheet and have it signed by the agency director with an original signature. (For schools, the agency director is the principal or superintendent.) Remember to circle the appropriate report number at the top of the cover sheet, fill in the months covered in the report, and also fill in the location and project number on each page used. The project number can be found on the report form enclosed.
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Some projects are for two-years and may have different reporting requirements. Specific deadlines for your project can be found in Agreement: #17. |
Check off only those pages which are included in the report being submitted. Please note that a Narrative Description must be included in each report. Financial Expenditure Statements are included only if money has been expended during the period covered by the report - please save trees by not sending in blank pages for categories where no money has been spent. Inventory Records are submitted only for items of furniture and equipment which cost more than $5,000. Disbursement Forms are included only when requesting funds and must be submitted in triplicate -- a Disbursement Form is the ONLY form that must be submitted in triplicate.
Since the advent of the IMLS online reporting system, we are also asking that you send us an electronic version of the narrative portion (only!) of your reports. You may do this as an email attachment, or in the body of an email message addressed to your consultant. Please put your library name and your project name in the subject line of the message and in the filename (i.e., AnytownPL CustomerService.). You will stilll send a paper copy of the entire report by "snail" mail.
Each Progress Report must be signed and dated by the agency director. ALWAYS KEEP A COPY FOR YOUR FILES. Reports sometimes do get lost in the mail.
We know it is bad form to start out negatively, but if you read nothing else in this chapter please note:
THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES SEEN IN PROGRESS REPORTS AND THOSE THAT GIVE YOUR PROJECT CONSULTANT GRAY HAIRS:
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Sending in a copy rather than an original signature (or no signature at all!!!). Keep the copy in this folder and send us the original.
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Sending in multiple copies of the entire report (PLEASE, PLEASE, ONLY ONE)
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Repeating the activities of a previous time period. If no activities took place during the time period of the report, say so. Likewise, don't tell us what you are going to do instead of reporting what you've done!
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Errors in math (USE A CALCULATOR NO MATTER HOW MANY A'S YOU GOT IN GRADE SCHOOL MATH.)
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Attaching vendor invoices. We do not need them, we have no room for them BUT you should retain them in this binder with the warrant or check number noted on them (Agreement: #11 ).
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Attaching a disbursement request when not asking for money or, worse, when all money has already been disbursed
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Leaving out the check/warrant number or including encumbrances instead of only actual expenditures
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Including blank Line Item expenditure pages when no expenditures have been made in that Line Item during that period - we do not need blank pages, we have plenty of them already!
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Expenditures in wrong categories (See more about this later).
AND THE ULTIMATE SIN OF ALL:
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REPORTING AN EXPENDITURE MORE THAN ONCE -NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!
Sorry to put this first but it just makes our work and yours so much harder, since your Project Consultant will have to return the report to you for correction. What is the right way to make out a report? It's actually quite simple. Read on!
The narrative section is required in every report. Every other part of the report is optional and only submitted if certain activities have taken place during the time period covered by the report as noted above. Describe what is going on with your project. This should present a clear picture to the Project Consultant of what has taken place so far. Discuss successes, failures or obstacles that you are experiencing. This is a good chance to talk about frustrations, or problems, and how your Project Consultant may assist you. This is also a good place to share any human interest stories about your project. Especially valuable to us and for our reporting to the federal government is the anecdotal information you can provide on how this project is meeting the target group's needs and on any outcomes - changes in your users' skills, knowledge, attitudes and behavior - that have resulted from the project.
Go back to the objectives in your original proposal or, for Mini-Grants, your original application or program description. Indicate to what extent your project has met the objectives by listing the activities that took place during that time period to fulfill each objective. If the activity is behind schedule, indicate the reason for the delay. Do this for each objective as appropriate. Give numbers and facts, e.g. how many programs were held, what the topics were, how many people attended, etc. For example, if purchasing 50 videocassettes was an activity completed in this time period, give some detail on those materials, whether or not you were able to obtain the titles you wanted, how they are being displayed and/or made available to the target population, how they responded, etc. It is never adequate to simply report "Purchased 50 videocassettes." Also, do not spend time telling what you are planning to do in the next time period. Report what you have done prior to the report.
If using a survey, tally the results and include them in the narrative or send in the results on a blank survey form. Don't wait until the end of the project to report any statistics; do it at the end of the period while it's still fresh in your mind.
Clip to your report two copies of all public relations materials, news articles, brochures, notices, flyers, etc. (Agreement: #16). In your Final Report, due October 15th, in addition to giving a summary of the activities of the final period, you should give a summary of statistics and an overview of the entire year, being very specific about how many programs, how many volumes, how much program attendance, approximate percent increase or decrease in some activity, etc. BE SPECIFIC. It is from your Final Report that we pass on information to IMLS. If, at the end of the project year, objectives were not met, give a straightforward account of the situation in this section. See SAMPLE 4 for suggestions on the content of the narrative description you should be submitting for the Final Report. Use additional pages, if necessary.
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| Chapter 8. DISBURSEMENT FORM | . |
Financial Reporting |