LETTERS: AMERICORPS ISSUES ARE CLARIFIED

To the editor:

This is to clarify some issues raised in the two articles by Tamara Buck in the Sept. 28 edition of your paper. I'll begin by addressing issues raised by former members who alleged they were treated unfairly by staff. Allegations of poor management came from members who did not wish to abide by the federally mandated program policies and procedures. Some examples:

Failing to participate in required training activities, trying to count as service hours time spend accompanying a spouse on a business trip, trying to count time spent volunteering in activities of a religious nature (this is strictly prohibited by AmeriCorps policies), trying to count hours spent taking a court-mandated class on budgeting, trying to persuade staff to award an educational award after failing to complete the service hours because they took a full-time job, failing to report to the service site on numerous occasions, leaving the service site during scheduled hours without permission, falling behind in service hours and then failing to follow through on staff suggestions for catching up, consistently failing to actively participate in community service projects and falsifying time sheets (this is a Class B misdemeanor according to Missouri's criminal code).

I seriously doubt that any employer in this or any other community would reward employees who engaged in these types of behaviors.

Our staff has spent many hours agonizing over members who have had problems meeting their commitments. However, our reward has been that many managed to succeed.

All AmeriCorps members are adults, and as staff we expect them to demonstrate responsible, adult behavior. They are made aware of program and staff expectations during the weeklong pre-service training, during regularly scheduled training sessions throughout the program year and during one-on-one conferences with staff.

In other words, members have no excuse for not being aware of their commitments, and staff should not have to hold the hand of an adult to get him to live up to his obligation. We support our members in their efforts, but the ultimate responsibility rests with the member. For example, if a member is assigned to a school and for some reason falls behind in service hours, he can volunteer to assist with a variety of activities such as extracurricular school activities to catch up. After all, member who were serious about fulfilling their responsibilities did such things. It boils down to how willing people are in committing themselves to serve their community. Some of those committed members completed their required hours early and still continued to serve additional hours. It seems that the people who focus their time and energy on providing service do not have time to spend on griping about the AmeriCorps staff, the service site staff and the policies.

There were some figures presented in the article that could be misleading if facts behind them are not explored. For example, the article showed that only seven of the 1996-97 members earned education awards. However, there are at least that many more members who started late in the year who are expected to complete their required hours by the Dec. 31 deadline.

In addition to our focus on service, we also focus on member development. Therefore, we encourage members to develop and enhance job-seeking skills and encourage and support others to enroll in college or training programs. Many of the people who discontinue their service do so to take full-time employment or to enroll in an education program. Even though they do not earn an education award, they have achieved a desirable objective.

An additional comment about the allegation of poor management. I would like to hear the complainer's definition of that term, because it must be different from mine. Since I started working with this project a year ago, I have been extremely impressed with the level of efficiency and skill of the two full-time program staff members. I furthermore assert that the allegations in the article are totally without foundation.

I would like to clarify another bit of misinformation in the article. Members do not receive $13,800 as stated in the article. Instead, they receive $8,340 for a year of full-time service. The program in this budget year is allowed $11,750 in federal funds for each full-time member. All expenses, such as health insurance, staff salaries, worker's comp, training, travel and the $8,340 member living allowance comes out of that amount. The trend has been for federal dollars to decrease each year. For example, the amount received last year was $330,870 (not $456,551 as reported in the article), while the amount awarded for this year is $230,000. Consequently, the program has had to find ways to operate more efficiently.

Just in terms of hours served by members and staff, approximately 50,000 hours during the year, our AmeriCorps project, if we valued an hour of service at $10, contributed approximately $500,000 worth of service to the community. In addition, many more hours of service were contributed by a multitude of volunteers whose services were solicited by AmeriCorps. But beyond sheer numbers, when assessing the contributions of AmeriCorps to our community, we must also consider the value of helping a child at risk or failing in school to improve his academic skills and enhance his potential for becoming a contributing member of our community and society in general. This is what AmeriCorps is all about.

BILL THOMPSON, Project Director

Southeast Missouri Project Partnership for Community Service

Cape Girardeau

EDITOR'S NOTE: Information supplied by Bill Thompson to the reporter indicates the AmeriCorps program's fiscal year is Sept. 1 through Aug. 31, which was used in a graphic accompanying the stories. In the two AmeriCorps stories, one accurately listed the $8,340 living allowance, while the other used the $13,800 figure, which is the total amount the local program receives for each participant. Information supplied by Thompson also shows that the total funding last year to the local AmeriCorps program was $456,551.