Introduction to Successful Quarterly Reporting Emily Luscombe Environmental Director, Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians epddir@coyotevalley-nsn.gov

Reporting Basics Include all activities under each component. Even if you have done an activity in the previous quarter and it is completed just put “… was completed in Quarter…” This will make it much easier for your project officers to track the grant and will mean that you don’t get to the end and have any miscommunications Make sure that you back up your information with deliverables Give enough information in the reporting that it can be applied to the work plan and the capacity indicators

Deliverable Cover Sheet Creating a cover sheet for deliverable is helpful for you and your project officer It will help your project officer find your deliverables because it will order them by date and provide them a title, much like a table of contents It will help you to write your report by giving you a checklist of meetings and trainings that you want to address in the report You will also have a checklist to make sure that you have included deliverables and an order to put them in

Sample Deliverable Organization Training/Meetings/Events/Workdays/ Seminars for the PPG Quarter - Fiscal Year: Date: Event: Location: Who Attended:  

Deliverables Project officers look for the deliverables that are stated in the work plan when you get to a quarterly report. If you get extra deliverables that is fine to include, but make sure that the deliverables from the work plan are there. Before conducting an activity look over your work plan and make sure those are deliverables you will be able to obtain from the activity/ make plans to ensure you have those deliverables. If you cannot use the originally stated deliverables talk to your project officer in advance about changing the work plan and deliverables needed to avoid issues at the end of the grant.

Remember the purpose of GAP GAP can seem very limiting because it is capacity building, but there is more flexibility than you may think Many of the tasks that you do are allowable, but it may be the way you are explaining them that makes them unallowable under GAP (see next slide for examples) You may not be able to “repeat” an activity, but you can evaluate it and refine it under capacity building, but you need to make sure that you address this aspect in your work plan and your reporting Refer to GAP guidance if you need assistance with wording Your project officer is there to help you navigate this process, reach out to them for help if you are struggling with knowing something is allowable, but you are not sure how it fits in

Examples of how to phrase things for your work plan and reports How not to write your components: 3.1: Attend meetings Report 3.1 Attended meetings, agenda attached A way to fix this: Remember the capacity building aspect and the need for EPA to have metrics that can be measured for the indicators. 3.1: Attend at least two RTOC meetings to gain a greater understanding of national and regional issues and increase tribal capacity. Report 3.1: Attended RTOC last quarter and this quarter. We learned that there will be many comment periods coming up and we will need to write letters in order for the Tribe to gain capacity to participate in consultation. These letters will be included in our work plan updates. We also gained insight in to building of air and water programs that increase our capacity towards our ETEP goals.

Continued… 3.2: Attend at least five meetings with local tribes or local groups such as IRWMP and consortium meetings to increase capacity and knowledge on local issues and the Tribe’s ability to participate in a meaningful way. Report 3.2: Attended two meetings this quarter. The first meeting was an IRWMP meeting where we learned about several grant programs that could build the Tribal capacity in our area. The Sovereignty waivers may prove to be an issue so we will be continuing to follow this issue and assist the council in consultation to build the capacity for Tribes to participate. We attended a local Tribal consortium meeting of ___ consortium where we learned about microclimate research that may assist our goals in climate change planning and has increased our options and capacity in updating our plan.

Continued… 3.3: Attend at least quarterly meetings with other Tribal Departments to provide guidance on environmental issues and increase the Tribe’s overall capacity to be more environmentally sustainable. Report 3.3: Met with the Education Department on recycling outreach and potential new ways to label recycling bins to help educate the students and increase recycling capacity. Met with the Health Department to look at some potential indoor air filters they are evaluating for elder homes to determine if they will filter the most likely pollutants. This will help build our capacity for environmental health.

Remember the purpose of the report The reports are to show your progress on a particular grant You may have more than one purpose in attending a meeting. The most important reason may be because a Tribal Council member cannot attend, but is interested in following an issue. That is valid, but the reason that it’s important in your reporting is your component that it relates to and how that will build your capacity and reach your goals. What you need to remember when you write your report is that this will build Tribal knowledge and capacity to effectively engage in local climate change planning efforts.

Be Creative You have a task that you know is important for outreach, but you can’t “repeat” it, how do you reach out to people and be able to present this important material again with GAP. Example: You have made a game about recycling. You want to keep using this as people seem to learn more each time it is played and we all know that people don’t commit things to habit changing memory without repetition. How do you address this problem? Throw some ideas out for ways that you could write this in to your work plan and your reports…

A Few Ways to Address It… 1. Write it as you will create and use the game at five different events and evaluate the performance of the game at each of these events. Necessary alterations will be made in order to improve the performance of the game and these will be evaluated at a later date. When you report on this you will note the ideas for improvement you have seen such as… Use bigger font, have more options, improve the visual appeal of the game board… 2. Write it as trialing different age groups. The game will be created and used at events targeting children up to 7 years of age, 7-12, 13-18, and adults. Evaluate which aspects of the game engage each age group at different events. Alter the game in response and explore the possibility of doing different versions for different age groups or potential ways to have them play together. When you prepare your report it will be similar to number one in that you will write how each group responded and ideas for improvement.

Question? What ideas do you want to explore in your work plan that we can work out together here?