Corporation for National and Community Service

Plain Writing Act Compliance Report

April 10, 2012

I. Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing:

a. Amy Borgstrom, Associate Director of Policy, is Senior Official for Plain 

Writing. aborgstrom@cns.gov, (202) 606-6930.

b. Aaron Olszewski, Office of General Counsel is the Agency Coordinator for 

Plain Writing. aolszewski@cns.gov. 

II. Explain what specific types of agency communications you have released by making 

them available in a format that is consistent with the Plain Writing guidelines.

The following documents were created and reviewed using plain writing best 

practices.

Type of communications of document or posting. List 

how this is made available to the public

Who is the intended user and approximate 

number of potential users

AmeriCorps State and National Notice of Federal 

Funding Opportunity 

Available on public website

AmeriCorps State and National applicants, 600-

1000 users.

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Criminal Background 

Checks

Available on public website and regulations.gov

General public, 600-1000 users

Policy on Transparency in the Grant Application Review 

Process

Available on public website

General public, 600-1000 users

Senior Corps RSVP Grants Competition Notice of 

Federal Funding Opportunity

Available on public website

Senior Corps RSVP applicants, 600-1000 users

Social Innovation Fund FY 2012 Competition for New 

Grantees Notice of Federal Funding Opportunity

Available on public website

Social Innovation Fund applicants, 600-1000 users

September 11th National Day of Service and 

Remembrance Grants FY 2012 Notice of Federal 

September 11th National Day of Service and 
Funding Opportunity 

Available on public website

Remembrance Applicants, 600-1000 users

Report on Engaging Veterans with Disabilities

Available on public website

General public, 600-1000 users

Serving Communities: Case Studies

Available on public website

General public, 600-1000 users

AmeriCorps Annual Progress Report

Available via eGrants

AmeriCorps grantees, 154 users

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Grant 

Application Instructions

Available on public website

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service applicants, 

80 users

National Service Trust Forms

Available via the My AmeriCorps portal

AmeriCorps members, 15,000 users

Current Population Survey for Volunteering in America 

Report

Published for public comment in the Federal Register and 

regulations.gov

General public, 54,000 users (part of general 

census)

CNCS Universal Application

Published for public comment in the Federal Register and 

regulations.gov

Grant applicants, 2,200 users

Day of Service Registration and Reporting form

Published for public comment in the Federal Register and 

regulations.gov

General public, 16,000 users

Disaster Response Cooperative Agreements

Published for public comment in the Federal Register and 

regulations.gov

General public, 200 users

Nonprofit Capacity Building Progress Report

Published for public comment in the Federal Register and 

regulations.gov

General public, 10 users
III.Inform agency staff of Plain Writing Act’s requirements:

a. Posted information on the Act on the agency Intranet.

b. Sent an article on the Act and its requirements to all staff.

c. Notified all staff of the Plain Language page on the CNCS external website.

IV.Training

a. Agency provided the following trainings:

Type of Training Number of employees trained Date

In house (agency Staff or 

contractor) – live 

38 9/29/2011

PLAIN provided 

training – live

40 1/17/2012

V. Ongoing compliance/sustaining change

a. Name of agency contact for compliance issues: Amy Borgstrom, Associate 

Director of Policy, aborgstrom@cns.gov (202) 606-6930.

b. Documenting and reporting use of plain writing in agency communications: The 

Senior Official for Plain Writing and the Plain Writing Coordinator will engage 

agency leadership in building a culture of Plain Writing. Incentives and training 

opportunities will be developed. Staff involved in writing covered documents 

will be convened twice each year to review compliance and collect examples of 

success and best practice.

c. Clearance process: The Senior Official for Plain Writing reviews all agency 

policy documents for Plain Writing. The Senior Official for Plain Writing will 

also be consulted in the development of web content and publications.

VI. Agency’s plain writing website

a. Website address: 

http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/open//plainwriting/index.asp

b. Contact us page: plain@cns.gov

c. Implementation of the Act 
i. Documents covered by the Act: policies, procedures, Notices of Federal 

Funding, publications, web content.

ii. Timeline: 

1. September 29, 2011: Agency-wide training.

2. November 1, 2011: Compliance report completed. Website live on 

external and internal websites.

3. January 17, 2012: Training by PLAIN.

4. April 30, 2012: Agency writers working group convened. Second 

compliance report published.

5. June 1, 2012: Incentives feasibility report. 

d. Links to Compliance reports: 

http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/open/index.asp#data

e. Links to OMB and PLAIN: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/plLaw/law/index.cfm

VII. Customer Satisfaction Evaluation after Experiencing Plain Writing 

Communications

Customer satisfaction is evaluated by tracking comments provided via telephone, email, the agency Intranet, and the Plain Language page on the CNCS website. No 

comments have been received since the initial draft compliance report was published.