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P2Rx Activity Measures
Proposed P2Rx Activity Measures Standard
Originally Published: April 15, 1999
First Review Period: April 15-30, 1999
Revised: September 23, 1999
Second Review: September 17-23, 1999
Revised: January 11, 2000
Third Review: January 4-10, 2000
Adopted: January 21, 2000
Revised: August 3, 2000
Proposed revision: August 22, 2002
Adopted: September 26, 2002
Background
The P2Rx Centers have agreed to collect a consistent base level of information on individual Center activities that will be provided to the P2Rx coordinator to aggregate and develop a national profile of P2Rx activities. This document focuses on activity measures - providing technical assistance, producing newsletters, attending and planning workshop(s)/meeting(s), managing information list serves, and participating on conference calls. The intent of this standard is not to provide a standardized form for adoption by each Center for use as its only measurement tool. Although the fields described below are modeled after a telephone call log, the intent is for Centers to integrate them, into existing regional Center program forms or other activity measurement vehicles. This document does not address website measures.
Because many of the Centers' activities or functions are funded through grants in addition to the P2Rx grant, it is impossible to attribute specific calls or responses to specific funding sources; consequently the aggregated information will be accompanied by a caveat clearly acknowledging that multiple funding sources support the programming that support a Center's ability to respond to a client.
The common set of activity measures described in this document is not intended to provide a comprehensive assessment of the activities of the Centers individually or nationally. The measures have been agreed upon to describe services delivered and to identify areas for growth and/or divestment. Aggregated data will be shared with funding sources, P2Rx user community and Center Directors. It is likely that the common P2Rx measures will be a subset of the measures already collected by individual Centers. It is expected that individual Centers will supplement these measures with more specific information such as the client contact information--information that is unnecessary at the national level.
RATIONALE
There is an increasing emphasis within EPA and other governmental agencies on the use of objective numerical measures of program effectiveness. This trend has been brought about by (among other factors) the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). In response to this need for objective metrics, P2Rx has developed this standard for activity measurement that can be adopted by all participating Centers. This proposed standard supports compliance with the GPRA by providing a common reporting standard that will greatly facilitate aggregation of statistics from participating regional Centers. It also provides individual Centers with a starting point for their own measurement protocols, and encourages informal benchmarking and information sharing among Centers.
Additionally, measurement of activity provides data for Center directors to make decisions on products, services, and marketing of information. The trends over time are especially valuable in determining effectiveness.
Demographic information on technical assistance requests is collected in order to better define current clients and to identify opportunities to provide appropriate information to clients in ways that fit their needs. Demographic information provides a useful "profile" of clients that is important to funding agencies. Geographic location of clients needing technical assistance is captured to show the reach of P2Rx. While it is desirable and expected that the majority of clients will be within a region, reaching clients nationally and internationally shows the value of information provided and web-based delivery.
Discrete numbers that reflect activity in several areas provide more meaningful information about each activity. The number of clients that received direct, technical assistance should be recorded separately from those reached through a presentation at a workshop or meeting because they represent different levels of service. Likewise, numbers and demographics of clients that receive a newsletter are recorded separately from those on a list serve as they can represent different audiences. Also, when looking at trends, if all activity numbers are included in a single measure, it's difficult to identify growth of individual products or services.
Number of meetings or workshops attended or sponsored shows networking and publicity for P2Rx and individual Centers. In order to get people to use services provided, promotion of services is essential. Thus, this measure shows funding agencies that promotion is occurring and may help Centers correlate increased usage as a result of promotion.
Numbers of state, regional, or EPA conference calls shows part
of the coordination, networking and technical services provided
by Centers. This measure is captured for reporting to funding agencies
and for gauging effectiveness of this participation.
It should be noted that each regional information Center is unique
in terms of audience served, maturity of program, information model,
and a number of other factors. These differences make direct comparison
of Centers based solely or primarily on their statistics invalid.
Thus it should be emphasized that the primary intent of this standard
is to facilitate the national aggregation of measures describing
activities of regional Centers, and help Center Directors and regional
EPA Project Officers make informed decisions about supporting different
activities.
PROCESS
Adoption of these activity measures is voluntary. The following
describes the process to be used by participating Centers:
Each Center will integrate the approved activity measures into its own forms/systems. Activity measures will be collected continuously.
Each Center will compile quarterly activity measures information and send it to the P2Rx coordinator every six months. The measurement period is as follows: January 1-June 30 and July 1-December 31.
The P2Rx coordinator will aggregate and disseminate the data to the regional Centers, P2 coordinators, project officers, and others. The information will also be used to update the P2Rx collateral materials.
Activity measures will be collected for technical assistance, newsletters, meetings or workshops, conference calls and list serves.
P2Rx Activity Measures
Location of technical assistance clients: (check one)
Within region
Outside region, within USA
International
Demographic information (for technical assistance)
Type of organization: (check one)
Government
Business, Industry
Consultant
Educational Institution
Non-profit
Other P2Rx regional Center
Individual (private citizen)
Other (unknown)
Technical Assistance (TA) responses (Record number of TA responses per demographic category.)
Newsletters distributed (Record number of issues published and total number of issues of newsletters distributed by all means)
List serve activity (Record number of e-mails sent or received on the list serve. Record number of subscribers. Record number of list serves)
Meetings or workshops sponsored and those attended where promoted P2Rx (Record total number of meetings or workshops organized or co-sponsored and number of attendees at these events. Record total number of meetings or workshops attended where promoted P2Rx)
State, Regional, or EPA conference calls/meetings (Record total number of conference calls and meetings, excluding P2Rx calls)
A caveat will accompany all activity reports, "The P2Rx centers provide services and engage in many interdependent activities that are funded through the P2Rx grant and other leveraged fund sources. The activity and web measures identified in this report are wholly or partially funded by the P2Rx grant."
Guidance on Definitions and Instructions
Note: The following is provided as guidance for interpreting measures gathered, to ensure that all regional Centers are consistent in their interpretation. Despite the instructions, which are provided in parentheses, this guidance should not be interpreted as dictating format or order or as defining the vehicle used to gather information, simply as clarification of the expectations of the common measures. The term "client" refers to the person making an information request. The request may be by telephone, fax, email, in-person, or by any other method of communication.
Location: (identify where the client resides, report total number of TA activities for each category)
Within region (within the EPA region(s) served by the Center. Centers may want to specify the client's state for their own reporting purposes. For aggregate reporting, the total number from within the region is all that is requested)
Outside region, within USA (outside the EPA region(s) served by the Center but within USA states or territories)
International (outside the USA)
Type of organization: (Check the most appropriate --one only.)
Government (Represents all government employees. To ease aggregate reporting, it is not necessary to differentiate the level (federal, state, or local) of government to which the client is employed. Individual Centers may want to track government clients by jurisdiction for their own reporting.)
Business/Industry (Represents clients employed by a for-profit entity that is not better described by one of the other designations below. For the purposes of this measure, trade or manufacturing associations are grouped with business/industry.)
Consultant (Represents clients employed by a consulting firm.)
Educational Institution (Represents clients employed or attending an educational institution.)
Non-profit organization (Represents clients employed by an organization designated as a non-profit organization by the Internal Revenue Service and not an educational institution. This designation includes but is not limited to environmental activist organizations, non-academic research institutions and resource centers, foundations, and others that are not better described by one of the other designations.)
Other regional pollution prevention information Center (Represents clients employed by one of the other P2Rx Centers.)
Individual (Represents clients that are private citizens, not affiliated with an organization for the purposes of this assistance.)
Other (Represents clients in which no other designation adequately characterizes the client, or if their organization is unknown.)
Technical assistance activity is considered to be any type of communication (personal, phone call, e-mail, etc.) where a request for information is made and the Center provides information. It does not include newsletter or list serve activity; unless the Center answers a specific question on the list serve. It does not include numbers of people that receive general information at meetings but does include contacts made at meetings that result in specific assistance. Demographics of all technical assistance, including the location of the client, should be recorded.
Newsletter activity is the number of issues of newsletters published by a Center and the number of recipients of the newsletter, via hard copy, e-mail, pdf download, or any other delivery system. Total newsletter activity is simply the number of clients multiplied by the number of newsletters published. No demographic information for newsletter recipients is included.
Meeting activity includes (1) all meetings or workshops the Center organizes or co-sponsors (2) the number of attendees at each such meeting, and (3) all meetings or workshops the Center attends, where the Center promotes P2Rx, either through a presentation or through distribution of brochures. No demographic information for meeting attendees is included.
Regional conference call and meetings activity captures the number of state, regional, or EPA conference calls or meetings in which the Center participates. (It is expected that Centers are providing P2 information or leadership on these calls.) No demographic information for call participants is included.
List serve activity includes the total number of e-mails sent on list serves run by the Center, number of people registered on the list serve at the end of each quarter, and the total number of list serves operated by the Center that are considered P2Rx projects. Number of e-mails means the number of discrete communications sent, not multiplied by number of clients on the list serve. No demographic information for list serve participants is included.
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