WEMIS Reporting

The Washington Extension Management Information System (WEMIS) is designed to collect and summarize data needed to meet federal and state accountability requirements. It also provides summarized data to each contributor for documenting the extent and breadth of outreach. The main value of the WEMIS data is to allow program colleagues, such as teams or county office groups, regularly to review their outreach to underrepresented groups and people of color. Each county has a civil rights plan that should be updated regularly based on census data. It should document the composition of the population of the county, and discuss how Extension programs will reach each group. At least once a year, there should be a meeting for faculty and staff to discuss what progress is being made towards reaching protected classes and people of color in proportion to their presence in the county, and what additional creative ways can be used to increase the effort. WEMIS data provides the basis for that discussion. People who work in Extension should know where the people of color are in their county and make all reasonable efforts to meet their needs. (See Civil Rights section of the Policies and Procedures Manual Online.)

WEMIS data must be entered electronically at http://ext.wsu.edu/wemis and should be submitted MONTHLY by every person who delivers Extension programming. The WEMIS year is the calendar year to allow these data to be used in annual reports and plans of action.

Hours spent in the month on each Extension program should be reported. You need to know and understand the Extension Plan of Action so that you can report your work under the right program. If your work does not fit into one of the listed programs, then you are either working on something that is not a priority or else you are on the very cutting edge.

In the first space, select a program from the picklist. (When this program has been reported continue to the next space, select another program, report it and so on until all your hours have been accounted for.) Under the item headed "Hours" enter the total number of hours expended for the first selected program. Include all time spent planning, implementing, evaluating and reporting the program. Don't forget to include time spent in travel, staff meetings, supervising staff and volunteers, managing human and fiscal resources, marketing or other support activities. The total number of hours reported for the month should be the total number of hours you worked that month.

Number of contacts should be reported by racial/ethnic group and gender. These should be direct contacts with constituents you made in the month. DO NOT INCLUDE CONTACTS WITH EXTENSION EMPLOYEES. First record contacts by ethnic origin and then show how many were female. The program calculates and reports male and female contacts from this information. If you cannot confirm the race of a contact, you may make a reasonable judgement. People participating in a workshop or on a mailing list may be asked to list their race and gender on a signup sheet, but this is voluntary. While this system is not perfect, your judgement is certainly more accurate than that of someone writing a report in the Pullman office. If you cannot tell, report as white, and male.

You may include:

• persons who represent business, agencies or institutions which you serve or which contribute to you programs
  
  
• personal face-to-face contacts made in your office; business or home visits; committee meetings (non-Extension participants); conferences; and consultation.
  
  
• Audiences when you presented material. If you did not present material, do not report contacts except those significant, face-to-face interactions which you may have with other attendees. Significant means that you have directly engaged with a person regarding Extension interests.
  
  
• Newsletters sent to controlled mailing lists for which you have identified ethnic and gender characteristics.
  
  
• Telephone or mail contacts in which the person's ethnicity and gender are known or can be reasonably assumed.

You may not include:

• Extension employees.
  
  
• Telephone or mail contacts where the ethnic or gender characteristics are unknown.
  
  
• Mass media contacts e.g. radio, television, newspaper, magazine.
  
  
• Form letters, meeting notices.
  
  
• Number of bulletins distributed.
  
  
• Fair gate numbers.

Remember to save your report or it will not be submitted to the system.

REPORTING PROFESSIONAL LEAVE

You should report time spent on professional leave. If all your leave is taken during one calendar year, you can submit all your monthly reports electronically at the end of the leave. If your leave spans two years, submit the reports for leave taken in the first program year, prior to going on leave. Then submit reports for leave in the second year, after the leave. The leave should be reported against those program elements which best reflect the general content of your study.

REPORTING VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY

You are strongly encouraged to report time and outreach of volunteers who work under your supervision. WEMIS provides a simple way to report these data at the same time that you report your own activities. You will be able to access a summary of volunteer service time and contacts. To report volunteer activity, use the 500 series of program elements and for each time of volunteer program, enter the total number of hours, number of contacts and number of these that were female. You will need to use your own reporting system to accumulate these total numbers. A statewide system for volunteer hour reporting is currently under development. Remember to save your report or it will not be submitted to the system.