OMB Part A Justification for PVSA application

Part A. Justification:

1. In January of 2002, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush called on all Americans to dedicate 4,000 hours or two years of their lives to volunteer service. He created the USA Freedom Corps, a coordinating office at the White House to oversee these efforts and to bring increased attention to the ways in which the Administration could work together to enhance opportunities for all Americans to serve their neighbors and their nation. The response has been positive. Last year, 65.4 million Americans volunteered, an increase of more than 6 million since 2002.

In support of the President’s call to service, the Corporation manages the President’s Volunteer Service Awards program. In the past three years of the program, more than 500,000 Americans have received this honor. The PVSA application is completed by any organization interested in honoring their volunteers with the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

Organizations may link to the application through the USA Freedom Corps website at www.usafreedomcorps.gov or the President’s Volunteer Service Award website at www.presidentialserviceawards.gov. The application may be completed electronically using an online form or by printing off and submitting the form via mail.

2. The President’s Volunteer Service Award application enables organizations using or supporting volunteers to submit applications for their outstanding volunteers to receive a President’s Volunteer Service Award.

3. Use of this application is 100 percent electronic in that users establish a user ID and password that automatically creates an account which is only accessible to that individual user. The application can only be updated by the user who established the account. All responses will be collected electronically.

4. No other application of this nature has been created by the Corporation for National and Community Service or any other government agency for the purpose of allowing users to apply online for the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

5. The application does not impact small businesses or other small entities.

6. The frequency of data collection is “on occasion” and the application is voluntary.

7. There are no special circumstances that will require information to be collected in a manner that is not consistent with the requirements.

8. The initial 60 day Federal Register notice was published on November 20, 2006. A copy is attached. No public comments were received.

9. There will be no payments or gifts to respondents.

10. A privacy policy listed on the website informing all potential users that the information the user provides is not accessible by any Federal agency and that only the user has access to their individual service accounts. Also, no cookies or individually specific identifying information such as SSN, DOB, etc. will be collected when using this application. The policy will inform potential users that the aggregate data – not attributable to any individual – may be generated to identify trends and national figures about the service activities of Americans.

11. The proposed data collection for OMB does not include any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. It is estimated that approximately 40,000 users per year will elect to use this application. It is estimated that this will take approximately 15 minutes per user. Therefore it is estimated that the annual burden will be approximately 10,000 hours.

13. There is no annual cost burden to respondents resulting from this information collection activity.

14. There are minimal expenses associated with this collection. The total cost for staff time and technology are estimated at $5,250, which will allow organizations to submit information for volunteers across the nation to be honored with the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

15. The estimates have been adjusted to meet the needs of the smaller number of users. The initial time of burden was based on 100,000 respondents.

16. There will be no publishing of any information from a user’s service hour account

17. The expiration date will be displayed as required. No exception is requested.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement on item 19.