+ Completing 2014 Annual Reports: What You Need to Know Tiffany Brown (Administrative Assistant & Annual Reports Wrangler) Alycia Crall (Statewide Program Coordinator) Michelle Prysby (Special Projects Coordinator)

+ Webinar Outline Why we do annual reports, how we use the information A tour of the annual report template Demo: How to get your data from the VMN-VMS Step by step: How to fill out the certification spreadsheet Questions?

+ Why we Need Your Annual Reports Annual reports are incredibly important for helping us to understand what’s happening locally! With them, we can… Tell the stories of the impacts of the program to all program stakeholders. Measure program recruitment and retention and work on strategies to improve both. Measure the types of volunteer hours that are being completed and with which agencies and partners. Combine our data with other MN programs to look at national impacts. Complete annual reports required by sponsoring agencies, including federal reports for VCE Use data and project descriptions in grant proposals that benefit all chapters Use hour reports for matching funds for grant proposals

+ Why annual reports are useful to you, too! Required in order to remain a chapter (see chartering guidelines) Help you track recruitment and retention in your chapter to see where improvements could be made. Share stories and impacts with your local partner organizations Assist with information transfer when boards transition Share stories and impacts with your chapter’s volunteers to celebrate their accomplishments

+ Getting Volunteer Data is the Key! To accomplish all these goals for the annual reports, we must have volunteers enter their hours regularly Documenting where and when volunteering happens is also required for risk management and liability insurance coverage

+ Why is the Deadline in January We have them due near the holidays because the federal reports are due in early January. We also have other reports to stakeholders due at other times of year, so it is most helpful if chapters update their records at least semi-annually We use numbers and examples from the reports all year long in presentations, for website and newsletter content, and when talking up our program to decision- makers, funders, potential partners, etc.

+ Tips for Annual Reporting It is important and helpful to start by having a Membership Chair or someone else “clean up” the system. Common errors include Continuing education hours entered as volunteer hours and vice versa Contacts not reported for education projects, or reported for continuing education and other situations in which they do not make sense Make it a collaborative process, not just one individual’s job If you run into difficulties with your data, please call us and we can assist We will hold a question-and-answer session via webinar in mid-December Do a practice run of getting the data you need in December so that you are ready when all the data are loaded by the end of the year