User Manual ANR M+P FAQ
Go back to the ANR M+P user manual
Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
1) ANR Portal is saying Project Board is temporarily unavailable. What do I do?
Project Board is rarely down for more than a few minutes; ANR IT may be pushing improvements the software and/or portal environment. Wait a few minutes, refresh your web browser, and try again. Please make sure you are using Firefox or Chrome. If the problem persists, click on this link to access Project Board directly: https://projectboard.ucanr.edu
2) Who is required to report? What are the policies for new hires, individuals on leave, individuals retiring, etc.?
All UC ANR academics. Exceptions: Reporting is optional for those on sabbatic or medical leave. But please consider entering any outcome stories because they will be useful for accountability and advocacy efforts.
New hires: All new hires are required to start reporting in the fiscal year that they are hired. For example, if you were hired on August 1, 2023, then you are required to report for the federal fiscal year period beginning October 1, 2022 and ending September 30, 2023 (FFY2023). Focus on getting Project Board set up (i.e., FTE, Themes, and Clientele sections) and report any activities, reach to clientele, and outcomes achieved. Check out the Introduction (and tips for getting started) and Annual Reporting Checklists.
Part-time appointments: If you have an appointment with UC ANR of at least .15 or more, you are required to report in Project Board. Special exemptions may be given on a case by case basis.
Retiring: Please enter information into Project Board prior to your retirement date; the system is now open year round. Especially consider entering any outcome stories (in themes) because they will be useful for accountability and advocacy efforts. Before your last day, please complete the items in this off-boarding checklist.
3) I am an academic administrator/coordinator that directs a statewide program/institute or Research and Extension Center (REC). What are my reporting responsibilities in Project Board?
All academics are required to update the FTE section of Project Board for resource planning and programmatic maps.
Additionally, all academics are required to report Themes, Activities, Projects, Civil Rights Compliance data, into Project Board unless any of this information is already being reported via another mechanism. For example:
- Contacts: The program’s reach to Californians is provided to PP&E/ANR through another mechanism (e.g., internal reporting system data, annual report)
- Civil Rights Compliance: The program’s civil rights compliance is documented and provided to Office of Diversity and Inclusion/ANR through another mechanism (e.g., internal reporting system/survey data, entirely reported by other academics via Project Board)
- Outcomes: The program’s public outcomes are provided to PP&E/ANR through another mechanism (e.g., common measures report, WEBNEERS report, annual report, CDFA report, entirely reported by other academics via Project Board.
- Opting out of Project Board dossier export option: The program director does not wish to use Project Board’s dossier export feature for the Academic Program Review, or is not required to do ANR APR.
Project/Activity Questions
1) Can an activity be linked to multiple projects? Similarly, can a project be linked to multiple themes?
No. Activities can only be linked to one project or theme. Projects can only be linked to one theme. In the real world, activities/projects can relate to multiple themes, but in Project Board you will need to pick a single link.
2) What if I am not added as a collaborator to an activity, but feel as if I am a collaborator?
Verbally request it from the activity owner. If they still don’t do it, add it yourself so it’s included in your dossier export and you get credit in your review.
3) Where do I put my peer and non-peer reviewed citations?
In the ANR Online Bibliography, which can be accessed via the ANR Profile editing page in ANR Portal.
4) Where do I put presentations at national conferences? Extension activities or professional competence?
Professional competence, per the E-Book.
5) Where do I put presentations to ANR colleagues at a conference? Is this professional competence or university service?
Professional competence makes the most sense if you were invited to speak based on your knowledge and experience, per the E-Book
6) How do I report my project outcomes? / Why am I not asked to report outcomes at the project-level?
User input over the years indicated that a project may not have measurable outcomes (knowledge gain, behavior change, policy change, condition change) each year. Additionally, some users indicated that the program summary narrative (i.e., "themes" reporting in Project Board) is the place that they write their best outcome stories. Thus, outcomes reporting is no longer required at the project level as it was in DANRIS-X; it is only required at the "theme" level in Project Board.
7) Where do I put mentions of my work in trade publications? Sometimes it’s just a quote, sometimes they’ll take a photo of every slide we post at a talk and write up an article later.
Consider one of these two Extension Activity types: “media outlet program/interview” or “evidence of professional competence.” As an FYI, the activity would only be counted for ANR annual reporting (ANR annual report, federal report, etc.) if you list it as a “media outlet program/interview.” We don’t count up professional service, university service, or professional competence activities for these purposes.
8) Scenario for variation in reporting: Two academics give Extension talks at the same industry meeting. Academic A prefers to list the talk as an Evidence of Professional Competence activity because it is an invited talk and only one of 200 participants are the part of the clientele group that Academic A defined. Academic B prefers to list the talk as an Educational Presentation activity because although it was an invited talk, the vast majority of participants are part of the clientele group that Academic B defined.
Both academics are correct. Plan together in advance and set expectations. If you are Academic B and need to collect REG, perhaps volunteer to run the survey for it. If not appropriate or too late: always report attendees even if race/ethnicity/gender are unknown.
9) I conducted Extension activities for clientele in my counties, directed at defined clientele, but people come from neighboring counties and other countries attend. How do I report this?
Civil rights compliance reporting is not an exact science. A lumping approach is always suggested. So, you can and should report all of the attendees, and report them against your existing clientele groups. You can mention this in the Clientele description field or compliance notes if you like.
If over time, your reach is truly becoming statewide, consider revising your clientele group or creating a new one using statewide data as your baseline.
10) Academic D delivers Zoom webinars attended by 100 people. The recording is posted online, and an additional 200 views are logged by YouTube.
In Project Board Activities, always report the attendance and demographics of your “direct” contacts, which are the people you have direct communication with. So you should report the 100 live attendees. If you are particularly proud of that 200 additional views on YouTube, this could be something mentioned in Themes / program summary narrative. However, even more meaningful is to measure and communicate the outcomes of those 100 or 200 individuals as a result of your effort. Did the content inform any changes in behavior or decision making? Did you contribute to changes in attitude or learning?
11) My clientele are small-scale farmers and I intend to work directly with them in the future. In the meantime, I have been conducting Extension activities with organizations that work with small-scale farmers, whose demographics should be reported?
In Project Board Activities, you always report the attendance and demographics of your “direct” contacts, which are the people you have direct communication with. So please report total individuals from the organizations (not the # of organizations): If you interacted with 10 people in one organization, you would report 10.
Theme Questions
1) In my PR I provide an overall summary for each theme with clientele, needs and goals , but then list methods, outcomes, impacts under each project. Do I have to change how I write this in Project Board?
You can continue your exact process that you’ve been doing; here is the technical instruction on how to do so:
- Each theme form has two narrative textboxes: 1) Background, clientele, goals, inputs; and 2) Methods, Outcomes, Impacts.
- In the first narrative textbox, summarize as you normally would the clientele, needs and goals for the theme.
- In the second narrative textbox, use the text formatting editor to create project sub-headings and proceed with describing the methods/outcomes/impacts under each project.
Civil Rights Compliance Questions
Go to the civil rights compliance FAQs on the civil rights compliance user manual.
Common Extension methods and how to report them (developed with Forestry and Rangeland Program Team Nov. 21, 2024). Cheat sheet; more detail can be found in trainings and user manuals.
Dossier Export Questions
1) How do I get my dossier export from Project Board?
Click on the "Review & Compile" link in the top menu of Project Board. Select all of the items that you wish to include in your dossier export by clicking on the checkboxes next to themes, projects, and activities. Click on the blue "Export to Dossier" button on the right.
Your dossier won't export if there are any missing narrative fields in any of your themes. Click on "Themes" in the top menu of Project Board, fill in any missing fields on any missing themes, save, and try exporting again.
2) My dossier won't export because it says I have activities with missing information; how do I fix that?
- Click on “Activities” in the top menu, then scroll through the list of activities looking for any “!” hazard symbols in the second column.
- Click on the activity to edit and complete any missing fields.
- Repeat this checking process for the other activity types by clicking on “University and Public Service” and Professional Competence” in the top sub-menu.
- Once you no longer see any “!” hazard symbols in your activity lists, try exporting your dossier again.
3) My dossier export is missing some information or has highlighted yellow sections; what are those about?
These are placeholders for information that you add in your MS Word copy of your dossier. If you do not need that section, such as "Research Results," simply delete it.
We have received several requests to add some of these highlighted yellow sections/data fields into Project Board. We will consider these as more funding for Project Board becomes available.
COVID-19 Guidance
1) How do I report my Extension activities and contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Download COVID-19 Guidance in MS Word