Setting up for Success:

Grant Manager as Communicator

Project to Funder: Required communication:

Requests for change Performance Reports Draw-Downs

‘Make nice’ communications.

Project to Itself Time and Effort Reporting forms Monthly Progress Report --Outlook is your friend

 

Project to the College Community and the World at Large Grant/Project Website or Portal Newsletter in hard copy and electronic

versions. Present to Campus groups—the

Senate, Classified Staff, Exempt Admin, Students.

Externally: Present to civic groups, other colleges, professional groups.

Grant Manager as Plumber

First Steps:

1. Take a couple of long, slow, deep breaths.

2. Re-read your approved proposal. Twice.

Proposal becomes a contract once it’s signed.

Need changes? Staffing? Strategic directions?

Do it NOW.

3. Make a copy of your budget and

NUMBER THE LINES. • lets you flip right back to your

approved budget to prove you had permission to make that expenditure

helps keep straight where the purchases go when you’re trying to double-think between federal and state or institutional budget

4. Make a list of Allowable and Unallowable Activities specific to your funding source.

Keep it handy for the requests that come in over your desk or through email

Do you need to set up an Internal Review Board?

Who oversees that?

5. Institutional Review Board

An institutional review board/ independent ethics committee (IRB/IEC) (also known as ethical review board) is a group that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans with the alleged aim to protect the rights and welfare of the subjects.

In the United States, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and HHS regulations have empowered IRBs to approve, require modifications in (to secure approval), or disapprove research. An IRB performs critical oversight functions for research conducted on human subjects that are scientific, ethical, and regulatory.

Wikipedia

CFR 46.101 (b)

b) Unless otherwise required by department or agency heads, research activities in which the only involvement of human subjects will be in one or more of the following categories are exempt from this policy:

(1) Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings, involving normal educational practices, such as (i) research on regular and special education instructional strategies, or (ii) research on the effectiveness of or the comparison among instructional techniques, curricula, or classroom management methods.

(2) Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude, achievement), survey procedures, interview procedures or observation of public behavior, unless:(i) information obtained is recorded in such a manner that human subjects can be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects; and (ii) any disclosure of the human subjects' responses outside the research could reasonably place the subjects at risk of criminal or civil liability or be damaging to the subjects' financial standing, employability, or reputation.

CFR 46.101 (b)

b) Unless otherwise required by department or agency heads, research activities in which the only involvement of human subjects will be in one or more of the following categories are exempt from this policy:

1) Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings, involving normal educational practices, such as

(i) research on regular and special education instructional strategies, or

(ii) research on the effectiveness of or the comparison among instructional techniques, curricula, or classroom management methods.

(2) Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude, achievement), survey procedures, interview procedures or observation of public behavior, unless

(i) information obtained is recorded in such a manner that human subjects can be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects; and

(ii) any disclosure of the human subjects' responses outside the research could reasonably place the subjects at risk of criminal or civil liability or be damaging to the subjects' financial standing, employability, or reputation.

6. IRBs, Advisory and Other Boards

Don’t wait! Get them on board as fast as you can after receiving the award letter.

Have a meeting or two to let them settle in and get used to each other before they have to get to the actual business of review and oversight.

Set up your meeting schedules

7. Make Friends with your Business Office

Set up your account(s). Is there a way to have the

account numbers indicate the grant year? Activity?

Learn their procedures for invoicing, personal services contracts, purchasing. How often do they draw down funds

through the GAPS system? How about reimbursements through

the state system for state grants? Invoice private funders for

reimbursement of expenses?

Does your funding source allow money to be invested?

What are the limitations?

The Project Management Office

All Required Data is at Hand or Readily

Accessible.

Have accessible (preferably) in a single place:

Most current shadow budget

Latest budget report

Most current inventory

Most current status of

progress toward objectives

Files/data to have instantly at hand/mouse

1. Basic Grant Information

Award letter Proposal Initial Budget Negotiations Correspondence with funders Evaluation reports Audit reports

2. Personnel Information

For every person paid from grant funds

Authorization to Hire. (Budget line)

Job Description – copied directly

from the approved proposal.

Resume or other verification that the

employee does meet the minimum

qualifications for the position.

Hiring/reassignment document that

states clearly the percentage of

time and budget number.

Time and Effort Reports with

appropriate dates and signatures.

.

3. Travel

For each trip paid for by grant funds:

Authorization (budget line, again) Travel documentation (permission

to travel, receipts, request for advance/reimbursement…)

Travel report, handouts from conference

4. Purchasing

For every purchase made from grant funds:

Authorization (budget line number)

Purchase request with backup and signatures

Invoice with final amount that was charged to the grant

Notes.

5. Contractual/Consulting

Remember in Federal budgets, as a rule:

Firm = “Contractual”

Individual = “Other”

In either case, you will need to document:

Authorization to hireSuitability of candidate

MOU/contractDeliverable(s)

6. Construction

See above.

7. Other…..

Presentations, classes trainers – outlines, handouts, fliers, sign-in sheets

Local mileage – odometer readings, destinations, what happened there.

Not about the budget -- necessarily

Meetings: Agendas Minutes Sign-in sheets Hand-outs

Communication:

Informational brochures Newsletters, Publicity.

Project Manager as Referee

The Big Uglies

1. The “700% Faculty Member!” or, “Meet my friend, Excel.”

2. Sauce for the geese…

3. SUPPLANTING !

One bulletproof way to avoid even the appearance of supplanting is to be double sure no grant money is used for operational—i.e., on-going—processes, those already paid for through the General Budget.

An equally safe harbor for “released” salary money is to deposit it into a separate account. This is a non-sponsored (General Fund) account with a number related to the grant, e.g.,

12-7022-xxxx-xxxx 10-7022-xxxx-xxxx

The trail of expenditures from this account will leave no question that the money is being used to further grant objectives.

Resources and References

http://www.ncura.edu/content/   http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/

pappguide/nsf08_1/aag081print.pdf   http://www.mwcc.mass.edu/offices/

InstAdv/documents/GrMgmtManual-lastDIACopy2005_000.pdf

  http://www.ed.gov/policy/fund/reg/

edgarReg/edgar.html

Managing Externally Funded Programs at Colleges and Universities, published by the Council on Government Relations.

http://www.tgci.com/ OMB Circulars

http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/circulars/a021/a021.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/circulars/a087/a087-all.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/circulars/a110/a110.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/circulars/a133_compliance/03/03toc.html

Caitlin DonnellyTitle III Activity DirectorPeninsula CollegePort Angeles, Washington

caitlind@pcadmin.ctc.edu