Selected Archives of Volunteer Monitoring Listserv Discussions

From: Robert McCall [mailto:rmccall@postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 8:38 AM
To: Volunteer water monitoring
Subject: [volmonitor] Schedule for Specific Volunteer Tasks?

Hi to all out there in watershed land. I am working with a watershed group that is trying to put together a list of as many of the volunteer tasks they might run across, during their life span, associated with a dollar amount for the purpose of reporting to various other non-profits. I have seen across my email sites that lists volunteer time associated with a dollar amount but it is usually an average amount across the board. Please don't send me that type of average. It is useless to the group. Does anyone have a list of duties with an associated dollar amount for each type of volunteer activity?

Robert D, McCall
OSU Center at Lima in Findlay
Extension Educator II
Watershed Management
1219 W. Main Cross
Findlay, OH 45840-0702

Phone (419) 422-6106
Cell (419) 306-9407
Fax (419) 422-7595
email rmccall@postoffice.ag.ohio-state.edu

Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:52:22 -0500
From: "Hudson, Holly" <hhudson@NIPC.org>
Subject: RE: [volmonitor] Schedule for Specific Volunteer Tasks?

I work with Illinois EPA on several 319 implementation projects that use volunteer labor as match. I have posed a similar question to IEPA in the past and this is how they approach the hourly rate for volunteer labor:

For professionals and skilled labor, a person's actual hourly rate can be used if they are performing work on the project that is the same as their profession. For example, an engineer who normally gets $80/hour can identify that as the rate for volunteer time if he is preparing design specifications -- but not if he is planting seed or stuffing envelopes.

Otherwise, we [IEPA] usually refer to the Illinois Department of Labor county prevailing wage rates for determining the value of volunteer labor.

Or we allow the use of the Independent Sector web site which indicates that the value of volunteer time was $17.55 in 2004.

So, for example on one of my 319 streambank stabilization projects, we used the Illinois Department of Labor county prevailing wage rate for the “Laborer” category of $30.15/hour for adults doing brush clearing, manual streambank regrading, and planting and seeding. For minors (e.g., Boy Scouts) helping to do the same type of work on that project, it was acceptable to IEPA for us to use the $17.55/hour rate from Independent Sector.

Holly Hudson
Principal Environmental Analyst
NE Illinois VLMP Coordinator
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission
233 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 800
Chicago, IL 60606
ph: (312) 454-0400
fax: (312) 454-0411
email: hhudson@nipc.org
web: www.nipc.org

Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 09:44:30 -0400
From: Nancy Hadley <hadleyn@dnr.sc.gov>
Subject: Re: [volmonitor] Schedule for Specific Volunteer Tasks?

We don’t assign different values to different tasks. Volunteer time is valued by the hour, so a more time-consuming task has a higher value. We can assign average times to various tasks in order to get a value per task. Is that what you are looking for?

Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:42:47 -0400
From: URI Watershed Watch <uriww@etal.uri.edu>
Subject: RE: [volmonitor] Schedule for Specific Volunteer Tasks?

I would suggest contacting environmental consulting firms and trying to get information on how they do their billing. I would assume that the OEPA must require similar break-downs from the consulting firms in their contracts, so they should be able to provide the type of information you need (whether they are willing to provide that….)

Good luck! Elizabeth Herron

URI Watershed Watch
Phone: 401-874-4552
Fax: 401-874-4561
Web: http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/

Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 11:41:22 -0400
From: Jeff Schloss <jeff.schloss@unh.edu>
Subject: Re: [volmonitor] Schedule for Specific Volunteer Tasks?

You may need to be very careful here if your state OEPA is under federal guidelines. As our University accountants explained to me, many government agencies have in-kind match rules that parallel tax law. So if you really had a professional donate his or her time to a volunteer effort where they actually acted as a professional attorney or engineer the only way you could claim that as match is if their company paid them from non-state or federal funds to cover their time. If however they donated their time gratis- you could only claim the accepted volunteer rate for the agency overseeing the match. It apparently gets even more complicated if the person is self employed.
If your state agency is opposed to using the average volunteer match per hour rate for that specific year your best bet would be to follow Elizabeth's suggestion or get rates that the state OEPA would pay for a sample technician or an engineer and set a rate table that is pre-approved by the OEPA before you start to tally the match so at least you have a record of that agreement in case you or the agency are audited.

-Jeff

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