July 27, 2021
Reporting Contacts Q&A
Extension professionals utilize a variety of strategies to deliver educational programming including face-to-face meetings, virtual presentations, one-on-one consultations, and social media. All are effective strategies but require us to report our efforts differently.
The following information answers questions about how to report regional/statewide events and specialist responsibilities for reporting:
Q. How do we report statewide educational events at which multiple staff provide shorter educational sessions?
A. Direct educational contacts connected to a statewide event should be entered only once by the primary organizer of the event using the Program Activities module. This helps to eliminate duplicates within the system.
When you report a statewide event, include everyone who contributed and their role in the Collaborator field. We also recommend that you enter the names of the individual sessions along with the presenter in the Program Activity Comments box or you can upload a listing of those sessions as a file attachment.
A summary report of program participants sorted by local unit should also be uploaded as a file attachment to that record. Example: The statewide event coordinator for Discovery Days will complete the Program Activity in PEARS and include all the KSRE extension professionals that had a role in the event (presenter, organizer, chaperone, etc.) as a collaborator. As a collaborator, you will have access to the event information -- such as the number of youth from your local unit that participated. Agents can then include information about participation numbers along with their responsibilities at the event in their monthly board report.
Q. As a state specialist, I am often invited by a local unit agent to present a portion of the program. Should I count those contacts or should the agent that invited me count the contacts?
A. If the local unit agent is involved, only they should report those contacts using the Program Activity module. The agent should list additional presenters and collaborators to give credit to other KSRE extension professionals.
If the local unit agent isn’t involved, the specialist should report those contacts.