Bulk Mailing, email or snail mail: The way we are currently entering the data - total number of recipients and total hours it took the coordinator to do the mailings - results in artificially high contact hours. The system multiplies the number of recipients by the contact hours entered. So if I sent out a newsletter to 500 people and it took me 3 hours; the system records this as 1500 contact hours. In order to collect better data, we need to revise how we are entering the information. This will also result in fewer contact hours being reported.
Suggestion: That the estimated reading time of the literature mailed per person be entered as Total hours and this is multiplied by the total number of recipients to calculate contact hours. For example: a four-page newsletter takes about 15 minutes to peruse. You enter .25 in Contact Hours and this will result in 125 Contact hours being recorded for the activity.
If we report the information this way, we will no longer be collecting the coordinator's time. We do not need this for our federal reporting but is this of value to our centers? One possibility would be to add a field for the coordinator time - should it be activity time or prep time plus activity time.
Making changes in the way that we record the information will create changes in our numbers. This is an issue for everyone and we invite discussion and suggestions so that we may all be involved in the decision process. Please post your ideas and opinions below. We will collect the suggestions that result and everyone will vote on the best resolution.