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Learning Systems International

ASN Budget Development Q&A

Thursday, December 9, 2021

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14:23:17 [Music]

14:32:29 >> Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the to today's webinar.

14:32:29 On behalf of your AmeriCorps presentation team, I thank you for joining 

us.

14:32:30 Before starting, let's review the technology so you can get the most out 

of the session.

14:32:47 The audio for this event is broadcast both by phone and online.

14:32:47 The event is lecture only, so microphones are muted to reduce 

background noise.
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14:32:47 To adjust the audio through your computer, go to the bottom left of your 

screen, click the small arrow next to audio settings and select a speaker.

14:33:13 Some viewers get better audio when streaming, while others get better 

quality by phone, so if you have any difficulties you may want to try a different 

connection method.

14:33:13 There are several Zoom features we will use.

14:33:13 At the top of the screen click the View Options button and select Exit 

Full Screen to display the Chat panel on the right side of the slides.

14:33:22 You can use the Raise Hand feature if you would like to ask a verbal 

question during this Q&A session.

14:33:22 Our team will use the Chat panel to provide links and resources.

14:33:27 The Chat panel is disabled for today, so if you have any questions 

please use the Q&A panel.

14:33:54 You can select the closed caption icon for live captioning in English or if 

you wish to view it in Spanish, you can select the Streamtext link posted in the 

Chat to view them in your browser.

14:33:55 We will be recording this event so I will start the recording and turn it 

over to your host, Senior Grants Management Specialist in AmeriCorps Office of 

Grant Administration, Tracey Seabolt.

14:33:59 >> Recording in progress.

14:34:20 >> Thank you, Mike. And thank you for joining us today. As Mike said, 

my name is Tracey Seabolt.

14:34:20 I am the Senior Grants Management Specialist in AmeriCorps Office of 

Grant Administration.

14:34:21 I am joined today by OGA's director, Lisa Bishop.

14:34:39 We are here today to answer your questions. I am hopeful that before 

you joined the session you had a chance to review the budget instructions 

section in the application instructions and you viewed the best practices 

development recording.
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14:34:49 Most of our AmeriCorps State and National applicants are able to find 

the answers to their budget development questions using those resources.

14:34:59 You will see the instructions and recording, the links are being added to 

the Chat now.

14:35:20 We are feeling certain that a lot of people, after they review these 

materials, have additional questions about their budget related details, whether 

it's something in the NOFO.

14:35:20 Or the application instructions that are on that recording. That is why we 

scheduled this call, to ask more questions.

14:35:40 This is your chance to ask whatever questions you have about the 

State and National budget development process.

14:35:40 We will not respond to your questions about specific content of your 

proposed budget, but what we can do is provide clarification to help you submit a 

compliant and competitive budget.

14:35:53 This is your chance, whatever questions you have, this is your

opportunity to put them in the Q&A panel and we will do our best to address 

them.

14:36:04 I'm going to pause for a few moments and give you a chance to enter 

your content in the Q&A.

14:36:26 While I am giving you time to enter your questions, I am just curious, of 

those of you that are on this call, have you had a chance to review the recording?

14:36:34 Could you push the Raise Hand feature, just to let us know whether you 

have seen the recording or not.

14:36:51 It is probably helpful for us to have that context, to know if your 

questions are related to the content in there, or if you just have questions 

because you have not had the opportunity yet to review that information.

14:37:01 I am not seeing any raised hands yet. We have one, anyone else have 

a chance to view the recording yet?
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14:37:31 Okay. We have a couple people that have seen the recording and I 

guess have some questions based on content that was not necessarily covered 

in that, we will definitely address those.

14:37:38 For those that have not had an opportunity to review the recording, if 

you have additional questions, feel free to ask them and even if it is in the 

recording, we will make sure to try to get to your questions.

14:37:53 The first question that we have is, when you have trainers doing a 

training for you, where do their travel costs belong, under the member training 

piece?

14:38:08 That is a great question, Ashley. The short answer is, it sounds like, you 

are looking - these are consultants you are bringing in for member training.

14:38:22 You want to know how to budget their costs. Mike, I am going to try to 

share my sample budget so we have a little bit of context to look at.

14:38:44 Give me a second. Here we are in the section of the budget that has 

our training costs, staff training, member training, evaluation.

14:39:11 We also have our contractual and consultant services. If you recall from 

the application instructions, it says this is for all of your consultant and 

contractual, except for those related to training and evaluation.

14:39:11 Then you will come down here to the training section and figure out if it 

is staff or member training.

14:39:11 It sounds like the question is specific to member training.

14:39:33 If you have a contract with that consultant, as in this example, and you 

are providing -- you are also paying for their travel, you would just add another 

line to your budget.

14:39:34 This would be your travel cost.

14:39:48 You would give the calculation, whether it is airfare, mileage, what have 

you. And then the amounts you would put in there, as well.

14:40:04 Does that answer the question for you Ashley? I hope so.

14:40:17 Let's go to the next question. Does the stipend of $21,600 go directly 

from AmeriCorps to the volunteer, or doesn't go through our payroll system?
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14:40:26 The living allowance, medical benefits and payroll taxes related to the --

14:40:40 The stipend that you are speaking of in your question is, that living 

allowance, I believe. I don't think there is any other stipend you are giving to your 

members.

14:41:10 Those grants funds that you are receiving from AmeriCorps will come to 

you and whether it is for the member living allowance or if it's for their FICA, their 

healthcare, their Workers Compensation, whatever it is they think you need to 

cover for them, those funds will come directly to you as the grantee.

14:41:10 And then you will use your systems to pay for the member support 

costs and for the living allowance.

14:41:18 If there is another stipend that was referenced somewhere else, please 

let us know where it is and we will try to get to that.

14:41:29 Ashley, I see your hand is up. Mike, can you unmute Ashley?

14:41:36 >> It looks like she just lowered her hand.

14:41:51 >> Okay. She put it in the Q&A. Are there maximums for travel costs, 

airfare, ground fair, if yes, where do I find this information?

14:41:56 I had been using federal, but they are not enough.

14:42:06 Do we still provide per diem rate calculating meals?

14:42:22 You may recall one of the conditions of your budget is of those costs 

need to be reasonable and necessary.

14:42:29 We don't give you maximum amounts except for in rare situations, like 

we say the minimum, maximum living allowances in your maximum cost for MSY.

14:42:45 The condition around mileage where we say, if you have a rate that is 

higher than the federal rate, that's fine, as long as it follows your organization's 

policies and procedures.

14:42:56 That's the bottom line for all of what you included in there. You want to 

make sure those costs are reasonable and necessary and you are following your 

organization's policies and procedures.
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14:43:13 You are outlining and hear what you require and if you are following 

those policies and procedures, that is what you need to tell us in your Budget 

Narratives.

14:43:13 I often recommend that people provide as much information as they 

can.

14:43:31 We know eGrants has character limits, so whatever additional 

information you are able to give as to how you are calculating this, if your 

mileage is calculated at $0.60 a mile, then tell us per organization policy.

14:43:42 Or something to that effect. Just give us that extra information. That will 

help to eliminate some of the follow-up clarification that is required.

14:44:12 Great question, thank you. Other questions that you all have? I'm going 

to go back to the sample budget and just show you-I don't know if you pulled up 

the sample that was online or not.

14:44:23 You can see, here is an example of a $0.60 a mile mileage rate and it 

says the rate is determined by the organizational policy.

14:44:32 That is the extra information you can give in your budget that can help 

us understand how you came up with your calculation.

14:45:05 Ashley has another question. Can you give examples of how you would 

define if match is secured versus unsecured when the funds are general 

organization funds raised by fundraising?

14:45:14 All we are asking you to do is determine if it is secured or unsecured.

14:45:36 If you know your organization has committed to giving you $20,000, that 

is a commitment you have that is secured.

14:45:40 If you know you have another $10,000 that your organization is trying to 

secure for fundraising, whether it's individual, donations, or you are applying for 

grants or what have you, and that is match that you would put in there as 

proposed.

14:45:57 Or unsecured. And you would just let us know whether it is-you applied 

for grants and these are state grants or private grants.
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14:46:05 You would still need to give us that information that this is federal or 

state, local or private and whether it is in-kind.

14:46:19 You don't need to give us the specific details. Just literally a 

confirmation of you know you absolutely have those resources in hand at your 

disposal to support the program, or you are still working to secure them.

14:46:28 Do remember, we are telling you, and I'm just going to use the first year 

because it's the easiest way to talk through it.

14:46:41 You have a 24% match the first year. That first year we need you to put 

the 24% in your budget, but you have the full three-year grant life to secure those 

resources.

14:47:06 It's only at the end of the three years, we are going to monitor that over 

the course of three years and each year look at how close you are to meeting our 

match, you don't need to secure all of your match until it's time for closeout.

14:47:14 Maybe you only secured 20% in that first year, but in the second year 

you have 30% of your match. It is going to even out and by the third year, 

perhaps you are even over budgeting for your match at that point or over 

securing your match at that point.

14:47:34 Another great question in here, asking if state commission subgrantees 

have to travel to CNCS meetings, is it in their budget?

14:47:47 If you look at the Guidance, it actually says CNCS sponsored, I think it 

says AmeriCorps sponsored, that does not necessarily mean convenings that 

we, as an agency, are hosting.

14:48:03 It could be convenings that we are covering the cost of because the 

state commission is hosting a gathering using their AmeriCorps funds and they 

are requiring all of the subgrantees to attend that training.

14:48:16 It's really up to the commission as to whether or not they require that of 

their subgrantees. But, if they do, then that would be part of that AmeriCorps 

sponsored training.
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14:48:38 I see the comment in here about sometimes commissions require folks 

to meet the match annually, and that is true and also something that we often tell 

you.

14:48:51 Your organization might have additional requirements if you are a 

subgrantee, the state commission may have additional requirements.

14:48:54 The guidance we are providing here is speaking of what AmeriCorps 

requires of applicants.

14:49:08 If there is someone else you answer to, whether it's a commission or a 

parent organization of your agency or whoever it happens to be, you will need to 

follow the guidance from them.

14:49:24 I'm going to pause for a moment and make sure Lisa, make sure you 

don't have anything to add to what I said so far.

14:49:41 >> No, I think you're doing a great job so far. For everyone's benefit I 

would just say this is a great time and if you have a question, someone else may 

as well, so don't be shy.

14:49:42 >> I agree 100%. I appreciate you asking the questions, Ashley.

14:49:59 So that 24% isn't necessarily an average just to clarify, but at the end of 

the grant, that you are meeting the match for the requirement for each year.

14:50:19 Maybe it's 24 this year, 24 next year, because that is requirement for 

three years. As you move into your fourth or five and beyond, you will not 

necessarily be averaging, but you will need to make sure you are meeting the 

requirement and that total, cumulative total rather than the average at the time of 

closeout.

14:50:38 I see there is a couple questions, so I will dig here a second. Is there a 

recommended headcount for staff time percentage for AmeriCorps programs in 

respect to the number of MSY's?

14:51:02 That is a program design decision, it is up to you to determine what is 

the staff that you need in order to run the program that you are proposing in your 

application.
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14:51:03 We don't know those answers. We are looking for is to see if it is 

reasonable, necessary, and aligned to what you propose in the program 

narrative.

14:51:19 Why does the percentage appeared 0 budget when you input into the 

calculation field in eGrants percentage and populates an amount and then does 

not appear on the narrative?

14:51:44 I am not sure what that means, Ashley. I don't know what example you 

are referencing. I don't know if you want to come off mute, you can clarify by 

voice, it might be easier. I will pause on that one for the time being.

14:52:04 >> I had a screenshot, but I don't think it's allowing me to put it in the 

Chat. It may be a technical question.

14:52:29 Maybe it's something I am missing. If you go into the calculation under 

personal expenses on the budget. You put your position in and say quantity of 

one and put your annual salary. I say 15% of the time under the time percentage.

14:52:36 Under the amount it auto calculates the amount, eGrants does that 

math for you. And then you close the calculation to go back into the main screen.

14:52:44 Now I can see my position title in the columns, there is a quantity and

annual salary.

14:52:55 It is populating the correct number under total amount, but the 

percentage of time is appearing as zero.

14:53:23 It seems like it is an issue, I tried deleting the line and creating another 

field. I'm just wondering if it's sufficient to have in the description and that the 

calculation can be seen.

14:53:23 Or if that percent of time that populates in the budget, the narrative 

version of the budget, if that needs to reflect that 15% instead of zero.

14:53:34 >> It looks like Lisa has the same puzzled look on her face as I have 

on mine. I don't think either of us has ever encountered this challenge before.

14:54:10 I do have a question for you before I give you what I think is probably 

the answer and that is, are you adjusting this on the eGrants screen or when you 

generate a PDF of your budget narrative, does that also appear as 0% there?
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14:54:10 >> That's a good question. I did not try to generate a PDF. I don't know 

if that would fix it.

14:54:10 >> I don't know if it would or not, but I am thinking if I was looking at 

your budget, that's what I would look at.

14:54:29 Just the whole version rather than the online. If it was there, then I 

would not even know that it was wrong on your end. Part of me feels like if it is 

populating there, then you might be okay.

14:54:43 I would still recommend putting the 15% in the calculation description, 

and I would also recommend checking in with the hotline and reporting it to them.

14:54:53 It could be an issue that we are just not aware of yet. The sooner we

find out about it, the sooner we can fix it.

14:54:53 Lisa, do you have anything to add?

14:55:03 >> No, I have never encountered that either. I am not sure. Sometimes 

these are unique issues. We always encourage people to reach out to the 

hotline.

14:55:19 >> It looks like, I will take your advice, some of the line items when we 

put percentages in at different rates, for example one person was 20%, one 

person was 80%.

14:55:30 Again, the math was correct, but the percentage that was showing up 

was either 100 or zero. But the math was correct.

14:55:36 >> That is.

14:55:45 >> We will look into that. Thank you for that.

14:55:54 >> I am not aware that anyone else is encountered that issue. I am not 

seeing that folks are saying yes, I have that same problem.

14:56:05 It may be that it was a unique situation. I think we got everything that 

was in that question.

14:56:20 Kayla is saying, where can we find additional information on how to 

request a waiver on the matching requirement?

>> I believe that is in the NOFO.

14:56:28 >> I just put the link in the Chat, Tracey.
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14:56:41 >> Thank you, I appreciate that. Ashley is asking if we know where the 

state national convening will be for 22-23 planning purposes.

14:56:56 I have not heard anything official. But I think it is probably safe to 

assume that if there is a live convening, it will be in the DC, Metro area.

14:57:06 Lisa, I don't know if you have heard anything specific about what is 

happening with convening for this year?

14:57:12 >> I haven't. I think that's a safe assumption, based on prior years.

14:57:22 >> Let's move on to the next question. Is 2% of living allowance a

standard Workers Compensation estimate?

14:57:39 >> I think that number probably came out of the sample budget that 

was on the funding page and that is a standard Worker's Compensation estimate 

that came out of my head, as I was making up the sample budget.

14:57:51 You need to check with your state to find out if Workers Compensation 

is required, and what the rate is. That is up to the individual applicant to get that 

information.

14:58:11 Lindsay is asking, are we required to select an indirect cost rate? You 

are never required to -- you are allowed to budget indirect cost based on the 

parameters in the Notice.

14:58:28 If you choose to budget those costs directly or to cover the costs that 

would normally be an indirect cost rate, to cover those off of your budget, you are 

welcome to do that, as well.

14:58:44 You are also allowed to budget a portion of your budget costs into the 

indirect cost category. The Guidance and this is one thing I will strongly 

encourages that you please follow that Guidance directly, as it is written.

14:58:56 Probably a majority of our clarification items come from people looking 

at that Guidance, but not necessarily following it to the letter and/or the number.

14:59:07 By that I mean there are specific rates for calculating the AmeriCorps 

share of Indirect Costs is always going to be limited to 5%.

14:59:19 Of the AmeriCorps share of the budget. And the process for calculating, 

that is very specific. Please do follow those calculations.
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14:59:37 Let's move on to the next one. A lot of our subgrantees are having --

they cannot use the pulldown menus. Is there a solution?

14:59:49 Is there an email address that is associated with the OFMS, Lisa?

14:59:58 >> I was just trying to check on that. I have not heard of this issue, but 

it may have not have gotten to us.

15:00:23 I would say that you contact them at the address where you would 

submit your survey and explain the challenge and see if they have a workaround.

15:00:26 >> I know that's not a great answer, but unfortunately that's not 

something we can control at the Office of Grant Administration.

15:00:42 >> We can share it with our colleagues who are responsible for that,

just in case they may not be aware. We will give them a heads up that some folks 

are having an issue with that.

15:01:10 >> Thank you. These are great questions. Thank you so much. So next 

question, Ashley is asking if we contract with training providers, do they need to 

be subject to the National Service Criminal History Checks process?

15:01:27 The guidance around criminal history checks is that it is for all members 

or employees or other individuals who receive a salary, living allowance, stipend, 

or similar payment.

15:01:41 I don't think, unless they are in a covered position, which I can imagine 

your training providers are, I don't think that they would necessarily fit the criteria 

for a criminal history.

15:01:54 I don't think we have ever said anything definitive that contractors have 

to have one. Lisa, are you aware of any situations where we have said 

something to that effect?

15:01:59 >> Not offhand, Tracey.

15:02:17 >> Yeah. I would just say, look at the conditions for requiring a Criminal 

History Check costs, and if your training providers do not meet those conditions 

that you will not need to provide that.
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15:02:32 Astley is asking back to Indirect Costs, you select the indirect cost rate 

of 5% or 10% of this federal grant, does it obligate us to assume the same rate 

for other grants that we received?

15:02:44 Great question. If you have a federally - federal cost rate, that is the 

rate that you would use for all of your federal grants.

15:02:58 If you don't have one and you choose to budget for Indirect Costs, you 

can use that di Minimis rate and if you use that, you are required to use that for 

all federal grants across the government.

15:03:12 We also had AmeriCorps offer you that opportunity to use that 5/10% 

fixed percentage option. I know we reference that in a couple of different ways.

15:03:32 Using the 5% of the AmeriCorps share and then 10% of your total 

budget as your Grantee Share. That is unique to AmeriCorps. If you use that, 

that is the only place you will be able to use that option.

15:03:33 Otherwise, you would have to follow the negotiated rate if you have 

one, or the di Minimis rate.

15:03:58 Circling back to you Ashley, trainers receiving payment as a consultant, 

they probably are not going to be in a covered position, and therefore, would not 

be subject to a Criminal History Check costs.

15:04:14 Lisa just put the AmeriCorps grants at @cns.gov address in the chat 

and that is where you can send any general questions.

15:04:20 I would suggest directing your OFMS question there as well, and we 

can also follow-up.

15:04:46 Thank you. She also put the eGrants contact info. Terrific. Ashley, how 

long does it typically take to get a response to the hotline to the AmeriCorps 

grants email or somewhere else?

15:05:04 Thank you. AmeriCorps grants email, I think generally speaking, they 

tend to turn those around rather quickly. I would say give them probably a 48-

hours.

15:05:14 They should be responsive by then. If you don't get a response, I think 

you need to circle back.
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15:05:24 This time of year there is staff in and out, so it might take just a tiny bit 

longer, but I think overall they’re probably pretty responsive to your questions.

15:05:38 If it takes a little time, it could be that maybe it's not a simple question 

and they have to check with other staff in the agency to find an answer for you. 

Definitely give them a little more time.

15:05:52 You are welcome. You have asked some fantastic questions. What else 

can we answer while we are all together?

15:06:11 It looks like we have got some more time on the call. If you have 

additional questions, we will certainly stay on here to answer them.

15:06:20 If we have answered all of those, then we can close out the call early. I 

do not want to cut you short if you are still thinking about a question.

15:06:42 Actually is asking a great question. Can you share what types of 

recognition items are appropriate for the budget. Excellent question that goes 

back to that point that I made earlier.

15:07:09 Where we can't give you the specifics of what you would put on your 

budget. So short answer is, no. The longer answer is, it would be appropriate for 

whatever you all are proposing in your narrative and aligned to that.

15:07:19 Is on you all to make the justification of here's what you need to include 

on your budget. Whether it is for that line item or anything else. You want to 

make sure that everyone of your budget line items is connected back to your 

program narrative.

15:07:31 And that those costs are reasonable, necessary, that you are providing 

the appropriate allocation and you are well aware that everything in there is 

allowable.

15:07:40 Under the Uniform Guidance, under the Notice of Funding Opportunity 

and under the application instructions.

15:08:13 Where do we submit the OFMS? I believe that is on the funding page if 

I'm not mistaken that it has all of that information. I'm going to go to that page 

right now and pull the information.
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15:08:26 >> Tracey, I can give you a head start. It's in the Notice of Funding 

Opportunity. There is a whole section of additional documents. I will put it in the 

Chat.

15:08:46 This is where it becomes imperative to read both the NOFO and the 

allocation instructions. This is actually a mailbox, but there is other places. I know 

we get a little nervous answering these questions and we are happy to do so.

15:08:46 Please, please, please make sure you are sending stuff to the right 

place.

15:08:54 I will go ahead and add it to the Chat now.

15:09:09 >> Thank you. I also just pulled up the site and just so folks can see, 

here is where it is referenced in the heading, and you can scroll down.

15:09:11 There is the section and the link to the survey itself.

15:09:39 Okay. Ashley has another question. Per recording, it said the evaluation 

Section H is not only where we put the external evaluation cost, but also might 

also be an appropriate place to put internal evaluation time.

15:10:09 Section H - for your evaluation, because to look at both the evaluation 

of your program and of your systems. It is not where you would assess the 

progress toward your performance measures.

15:10:15 You are really looking at the impact on the community and the 

assessment of the overall program design and the systems.

15:10:32 You can put any of those costs in that section. And if you have an 

internal evaluator that is helping with that, absolutely that could be included in 

there.

15:10:59 Other questions? How about those of you that have not asked any 

questions? Is there something we can highlight for you or give me some detail on 

how you might answer that in your budget?

15:11:11 Concerns that you have about what you would put in there? The 

appropriate way to justify it, to calculate it, anything like that.

15:11:22 Allocation can often be a challenging piece of the puzzle. I want to 

make sure you all have that information, as well.
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15:11:41 Kayla is saying there has been a lot of discussion about three-year 

budgets. Is the program required to be a minimum of three years long, or can 

applicants apply for a one-year program?

15:11:52 Great question. You will actually submit a one-year application. Your 

program narrative, your budget narrative will all be reflective of a single year of 

operation.

15:12:04 If you are funded, generally your awards are funded as three-year 

awards. It will give you that first year of funding upfront, and appropriate MSY's to 

go with that.

15:12:16 We will give you that upfront and next year you would apply for a

continuation. And you get the second year funding, and then the third year of 

funding in the third year.

15:12:25 You are just looking for this first year of content for now.

15:12:34 Rachel is asking, should allocation rationale be included in the 

calculation for something?

15:12:43 It really depends. We want to know, how did you come up with the 

figures that you have included in your budget?

15:12:58 In some cases, it is pretty clear. If you are looking at travel costs, you 

might know that it costs - let's go back to the question about the AmeriCorps 

symposium.

15:13:17 Assuming, let's say you are in Indiana and coming to DC. Maybe you 

know that the flight is going to be $400.

15:13:17 Perhaps you know that your lodging is going to run about $200 a night 

and you will be there three nights.

15:13:27 There is there going to be pretty standard explanations. But there might 

be some other things. Like the member healthcare, where you are required to 

budget for all of your full-time members.

15:13:42 Or less than full-time members that are serving in a full-time capacity. 

Maybe you have got 20 members, but you are only including 10 members in that 

line item.
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15:14:01 It could be because for the last three years you have only had 50% of 

your members accept that benefit.

15:14:01 If you put 10 members in there, it's going to flag to the reviewer to say, 

they did not budget healthcare for all of their full-time members.

15:14:14 If you put 10 members in there and you say it's based on historical 

records or some kind of content to that, then it gives us enough information that 

we say okay.

15:14:26 This was not just a mistake that they made that they did not budget for 

all of the members to receive healthcare or all of the full-time members.

15:14:29 But it's really based on a historical information. That is the kind of 

rationale that you would want to include. If it is not obvious from the actual 

calculations.

15:14:46 >> This might be a good place about the commercial about before you 

submit, have someone that is not familiar with it take a look at it.

15:14:46 That is what our reviewers will do at the -. That is not your intent,

necessarily.

15:14:58 If it's not clear, I know we are all big components of saying give it to 

someone fresh and have them look at it.

15:15:07 Have them give their feedback on it. If they can understand it.

15:15:15 >> Absolutely. I appreciate you adding that. To add on to that, you are 

all working in these documents, you are living and breathing them right now.

15:15:22 You can probably start quoting the content narrative to me if we took 

everybody off mute right now.

15:15:40 Words that are missing, or calculations that you transpose that figure, 

those are things that are not going to necessarily jump out to you because you 

have been living and breathing this for way too long.

15:15:56 Not just for the budget, but for your program narrative as well, if you can 

give it to someone else, a former colleague called it a Mom test.

15:16:09 Give it to someone who has nothing to do with your program. To me it 

seems much easier because you have someone to just go through and do the 
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math to make sure that the content of the budget narrative actually does make 

sense.

15:16:25 Whoever you give it to, just let them make sure that it does serve as a 

standalone document and everything is clear, that the math is correct.

15:16:25 Those are all things we are checking as part of the review.

15:16:50 There's nothing worse than having this fantastic program coming 

through a strong application, but the application is not scoring as high because 

there are lots of calculation errors or they didn't provide the level of detail that we 

need to understand how they budgeted those costs.

15:16:51 That's why we try to emphasize that as much as possible for you all.

15:17:05 Thank you for the commercial, Lisa, I appreciate it. We have a few 

more minutes. If there are any other questions, we will certainly take them.

15:17:17 If there are not, then we will close early. We will definitely give you a 

few more minutes to toss out any additional questions that you have.

15:17:54 >> Tracey, we have another great question in the Q&A.

15:18:01 >> I see it. Ashley is asking if amending the budget proposed award is 

allowable?

15:18:29 It's not only allowable, it's something that is required. If you viewed the 

recording, you saw we went through the budget management process, we talked 

about the fact that you all are determining your needs and figuring out what it is 

that you want to do with these grant funds.

15:18:34 Then you put together your budget based on your plans and the 

activities you want to complete.

15:18:36 And then you will set the budget management process and you will 

have ways of monitoring your budget.

15:18:51 And then when needed, modify your budget. We didn't go into the 

details of that. We will certainly talk about that when you are funded for these.

15:18:55 --.
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15:19:10 This is December and you are writing a budget for a program that might 

not start until the middle of next year, or maybe even later. Things change, and 

we know that and recognize that.

15:19:17 We definitely have built-in opportunities for you to amend the budget, as 

necessary.

15:19:31 Not just right after you get an award, but throughout the life of the grant. 

It's a living, breathing document.

15:19:48 We want to always reflect what is going on. We know sometimes it 

might take a course correction and change your needs.

15:19:48 The budget will have to change accordingly. It is important to keep that 

in mind.

15:19:52 When you get the terms and conditions of your word, you will see those 

times when it is required of you.

15:19:52 It is also noted in the Uniform Guidance.

15:20:04 Definitely there are other times when things come up and you say, this 

is very different from where we are and we need to amend the budget and we will 

work with you to approve that.

15:20:23 It's funny that we talk about the cart a little bit before the horse. This is 

part of the whole budget management process. We want you to know how to 

manage these budgets once you get your award.

15:20:29 I think it's fine to talk a little bit about that during this time. Thank you for 

the question.

15:20:33 Other questions you all have?

15:21:01 I will give you a couple minutes in case something comes to you. If you 

all are typing and need some time to enter it, again you can also raise your hand 

if you want to ask by voice.

15:21:11 We will certainly unmute you to hear your verbal question.

15:22:02 It looks like things - Ashley, you put in another question. Percentage of 

staff time. In prerecorded training mentioned ensuring you don't budget more 

than 100%.
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15:22:02 We have existing programs with percentage of time budgeting, how do 

you account for one program closing and the brief overlap.

15:22:13 It isn't more than total adding up to 100% versus in real time you could 

have 60% --

15:22:32 >> Hopefully it makes sense to others, as well. Sometimes you do 

have that overlap and I think it is important for reviewers to have an 

understanding.

15:22:42 Especially if they are looking at more than one. They had to have an 

understanding it might have 60% in this grant and 60% in this grant and there is 

a month overlap.

15:22:53 But for this period of time where you are overlapping, you are not going 

to be budgeting that staff at 120%, it's just going to be the other times.

15:23:01 I think that's something you can probably put, a handful of words in your 

budget narrative.

15:23:16 Just say, you might not even want to go into the details of what you just 

put in this question. You could just do that simple language that I included in the 

recording.

15:23:29 Where no staff budgeted at more than 100%, or something like that.

15:23:38 If you gave us that kind of language, it just raises a flag for us that we 

know that you know not to budget or not to charge these salaries to more than 

100%.

15:23:46 And that you have the awareness and understanding, and you will

manage your grant accordingly.

15:24:03 I think it is up to you to figure out what is the exact language to use. 

Again, we know that there are character limits in eGrants, so you might not be 

able to give us the great American novel.

15:24:15 You should be able to add something that provides a little bit of 

clarification, and this goes back to the question that was asked earlier about what 

kind of rationality we want to have in these budgets?
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15:24:25 That is a perfect example where a little additional information is helpful, 

can cut down on clarifications.

15:24:45 We have about five minutes left. If you have additional questions, we 

will definitely take them.

15:24:58 Ashley is out of questions. Thank you for asking all of the questions, 

Ashley.

15:25:07 They were great. As Lisa said, if one person has a question about 

something, there is probably someone else who does.

15:25:13 And there is probably people who are not joining us live today that may 

have the same question. We definitely appreciate you asking them.

15:25:32 Kayla, was it you that just had your hand up? If you have a question 

and you want to be unmuted, we can certainly unmute you.

15:25:39 If that was by accident, that is fine, too. I have done that plenty of times. 

I understand the accidental hand raise.

15:25:59 All right, it seems like the questions have definitely dried up a little bit. 

I'm guessing you are all out of questions. I think it's probably safe for us to start 

to wind down.

15:26:16 I will remind you, if you have questions or you are not sure of something 

or if something is allowable or required, you go back to the Notice, the application 

instructions, you go back to the recording.

15:26:30 Or just the slides or the sample budget. There are a lot of resources 

that are out there that will certainly support your budget development.

15:26:50 And help you create a strong, a compliant, and a competitive budget. I 

would definitely encourage you to use those resources that are available.

15:26:59 I'm going to ask before we close. I will ask Mike to flip us over to slide 

25, please.

15:27:09 It is a checklist that is in the recording and we showed this a couple of 

times throughout.

15:27:23 I think these are important points to remember. These are the 

highlights, when Lisa was talking about having that other person go through and 
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look at your budget, I think these are probably the highlights of what you want to 

look at.

15:27:38 You want to make sure that what you are putting in here really does 

follow what's in the Notice and that all of your costs are allowable and reasonable 

and necessary and allocable.

15:27:40 And you are looking at the Uniform Guidance, as well as the Notice,

and the instructions.

15:28:00 And you are estimating those resources in the best way that you can 

and you are making it clear to us how you were able to determine those costs.

15:28:01 And you are putting the information in the correct budget categories. 

You are not putting training in travel and vice a versa.

15:28:06 And mixing the member and staff support costs in each other's cavities.

15:28:17 It is specific what goes where. Again, part of this is me telling you 

because it creates less for work for you.

15:28:34 We don't want you to have to fix these during the clarification process. 

We want to comment strong and correct the first time, so the more you can do to 

pay attention to this, and then give us the descriptions and make sure that math 

is correct, the better off we all are.

15:28:48 And it will definitely cut down on the number of clarifications that you 

have during that process. I will definitely encourage you to keep this checklist in 

front of you.

15:28:58 Give it to whoever is doing the Mom test for you and just keep it in mind 

as you are looking through your budgets one last time before you submit.

15:29:11 With that, I will thank you all again for joining us. We appreciate it. And I 

wish you the best as you finish putting your applications and your budgets 

together. Good luck with the competition.

15:29:16 End of webinar.

15:29:18 Recording stopped.