Currently we are reporting the total number of attendees at a fair and the number of hours a coordinator spends at the activity. The system multiplies the two for total contact hours. For example: If 2000 people attended the fair and the coordinator was there for 4 hours, the system records this as 8000 contact hours. In order to obtain better data, we need to look at the data we are collecting and how we are entering it into iAHEC.
The number of participants was not meant to be the number of people who attended the fair but rather the number of people that coordinators spoke with, gave literature to, or people who stopped to look over the display. This would be an estimate. Total number of attendees may be noted in the comments.
One suggestion is that we estimate an average amount of time per participant and enter that number into the contact hours. For example: you estimate that you interacted with about 300 hundred people and that the average contact time was 10 minutes (.17 hours) - this gives us 51 contact hours. Doing this will result in changes to our numbers.
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.