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Fwd: Incremental Workload Accretion Hahn, Janet M 17 Apr 2003 15:14 EST

Joni,
What consultant did you use for what?

Chuck,
Great question!  I didn't respond at first because of all the extra work
we've been doing.  With your second request, I too, see the value of
people adding to the list and then using the end results with additional
ammo for my personnel requests.  So I also want to see the results,
however soft.

Some of these issues will not be applicable to most, but here
goes...Items involving extra time for us include (not in order of time
consumption):

All electronic submissions: Training our staff as each agency is
different.  Also, we convert most of the documents into e-format.  Time
needed to convinve our faculty to allow us to be the submitting entity
(where first one in get's to be the button-pusher).  When that doesn't
occur, we sometimes hear about a proposal at the point an agency has a
budget question prior to making an award.

Completing a "blue sheet" for the president.  This is to secure
permission to submit each proposal over $10,000.

Additional information required for our "pink sheet" (internal sign-off
sheet).  We keep adding requirements, such as coding by project type
(instructional, research, service), securing approvals from anyone
involved in any kind of cost-sharing.

Newly required:  Pre-proposal sign-ons: this is generally on-line so not
a "yellow (or similar)sheet." This was added this year by the deans so
they weren't faced with having to turn down faculty members who hadn't
bothered to make sure their project made sense to anyone else.  It is to
have been done by the PI before securing our help.  In actuality faculty
members balk at "one more piece of beaurocracy" so this we end up
pulling together as soon as we can.  This includes a synopsis of the
project, rough budget, info on cost-sharing suggested or required, and
any sustainability requirements.

Contracting:  We have few, and so each takes hours and hours.  We
continue to diversify the number, size, and complexity of our contracts.
For an institution with little contracting and without a resident
attorney (we use the state Attorney General's office), this can get
especially interesting.  I am especially loving the defense dept/private
industry combination.

Subgrants:  More proposals with subgrants with required cost-sharing.
This means explaining the need for documentation, reviewing
documentation, and requesting more information than just, "various
personnel totalling $x,000."  Also increased, audit documentation

Just In Time procedures add to the time involved and the need for a more
detailed tickler system

Conflict of interest reporting.

Human subjects:  training; documentation of training for key personnel
and IRB, revision of manuals; documentation of assurance for
subcontractors

Animals:  training; documentation of training for key personnel and
IACUC, revisions of manuals; documentation of assurance for
subcontractors

HIPAA:  Yet to know exactly what that will entail (time-wise), but being
a grantee, a sub-grantee, and a sub-grantor each add to the mix.  It
already means learning, coordinating, and training.

Credit card issues.  Pre-encumbrance monitoring at its trickiest.

PI meetings:  As our PI's are involved in larger and more complicated
projects, we receive more requests for frequent (sometimes monthly)
analyses on what the university budget (IFAS) means as far as they are
concerned.

Invoicing:  There is a trend at the state level to require monthly,
rather than quarterly invoicing.  There is another trend to require
documentation.  This increases work substantially, since it has moved
the invoicing from Financial Reporting to our office, as well as
requires us to copy/print/mail documentation.

Additional awards with yearly auditors popping in.

Foundation relations:

State awards:  More often, the state is giving us an award, but requires
us to track the federal and state portions separately.  This is the
equivalent of having two awards totaling the same as one would have
been.

Program income:  more and more grants, requiring program income
accounts, thereby doubling the amount of set-ups, tracking, and
reporting.

NSF and State both have us doing annual reports on similar, but
different information.

Budget squeezes at the university have resulted in many more meetings,
reports, discussions, and decisions on everything from incentives to
university structure.

Like Joni, we lack a formal compliance office in our university and
thus, Sponsored Programs & Grants Management spends more and more time
on this.

Janet

********
Janet M. Hahn, C.R.A.
Executive Director
Office of Sponsored Programs & Grants Management
Radford University
Radford, VA  24142-6926

tel:  540-831-5479
fax:  540-831-6636
xxxxxx@radford.edu                             www.radford.edu

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