March 15, 2022
You Never Know When…
One of the questions we often get regarding our Quarterly Effort Reports are, “Do those numbers even get used?” The quick answer is yes.
Those numbers go into our federal reports. Such reporting is necessary to receive our Smith Lever funds, which provides at least partial salary for our agents and some specialists.
The Quarterly Effort Report data is also used when Dean and Director Minton provides his mandatory K-State Research and Extension and College of Agriculture report to the Kansas Legislature. This year we had a lot to be proud of with those numbers: 708,792 direct educational contacts, 1,672,440 indirect educational contacts, and 153,296 volunteer hours. Think about those numbers. Over 2.3 million educational contacts in a state with just 2.9 million people. Enough volunteer hours to represent the work of 70 full time equivalents. Those are great numbers!
We also know that those numbers are under reported. With numbers this good, what is the harm in missing a Quarterly Effort Report now and then or even a little more frequently. No one will notice, will they?
Every contact matters. As a publicly funded educational entity, why wouldn’t we want to be proud of and brag about the true total number of people we reach? Also, you never know when someone is going to want more explicit information, perhaps information relating to your local unit’s, center’s or department’s numbers.
This year when Dr. Minton gave his report to the Kansas Legislature, one legislator, a great supporter of their local unit and K-State Research and Extension in general, was interested in their local unit’s contribution to those numbers. She asked if she could have them. Of course, we were more than happy to do this for them and by law we must reply to such requests.
We looked those numbers up. The direct educational contacts were respectable but maybe a little under reported.
The volunteer hours were way, way under reported.
The indirect educational contacts were not reported at all.
Ouch! Awkward.
Consistent and accurate reporting is very important. Do not fall into the temptation of thinking that your numbers are not important. They are, and you never know when someone may want to see your local unit’s, department’s, or center’s numbers.