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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Fwd: FW: Sea Grant Information Collection 1 message
Sarah Brabson - NOAA Federal
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 2:15 PM

---------- Forwarded message ---------From: Banks, Gwellnar
Date: Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 1:54 PM
Subject: FW: Sea Grant Information Collection To: "Brabson, Sarah"

FYA. May be some useful info here.

Gwellnar Banks "GB"
Paperwork Reduction Act Liaison
Office of the Secretary/OCIO
Office of Information Technology
Policy and Planning (OITPP)
U.S. Department of Commerce
(202) 482-3781; Room 6612
[email protected]

From: Balcom, Nancy [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 3:36 PM
To: Jessup, Jennifer
Subject: Sea Grant Information Collection -

Hi Jennifer:

I have the following comments on the Sea Grant forms

10/10/2014 12:36 PM

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90-1 Project Record Form – Having worked for Sea Grant for 24 years, to my best recollection, I have never filled this
form out.

90-2 Control Form – This form has important information although a few items could be deleted as they are not
tracked by the National Office and are usually left blank or cause confusion. I suggest that the following be
eliminated:

ICODE
Revision Date
Affiliation Code

The estimated time it takes to complete the form (30 mins) seems pretty accurate.

This form has now been put into an EXCEL file format by the National Sea Grant Office, which makes it easier to fill
out and put together from my standpoint. We have not yet tested the new EXCEL file with our PIs.

90-4 form Budget Form – All of the information required on the 90-4 is necessary.

I find that the amount of time required to fill out the each form is about 15 to 20 mins. We first complete an EXCEL
budget form with macros that is required by our grants office and then have to copy those budget numbers into this
form. Some of the categories in the 90-4 versus the EXCEL file are different, so it can take a little extra time to make
those conversions. Since a 90-4 form is required for each year of an award plus another for the total budget, it would
be helpful if the form was set up in EXCEL so that individual year data are automatically combined into the total (all
years) sheet. We have done this within our office to make it easier for our PIs to fill out. If an EXCEL version is not
feasible, a fillable PDF version would be useful.

Thanks

Nancy Balcom
Associate Director and Program Leader, Connecticut Sea Grant
Senior Extension Educator, UCONN Extension
University of Connecticut
1080 Shennecossett Road

10/10/2014 12:36 PM

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Groton CT 06340
Tel: 860.405.9107
FAX: 860.405.9109
E-mail: [email protected]
www.seagrant.uconn.edu

-Sarah D. Brabson
IT Infrastructure Investment Program Manager
PRA Clearance Officer
NOAA OCIO
Governance and Portfolio Division
Office 301-628-5751
Cell 301-448-8978

10/10/2014 12:36 PM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

90-2 Project Summary Form Comments
1 message
Mary Beth Barrow
To: Dorn Carlson

Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 11:52 AM

Dorn:
I am sorry you missed our meeting at SG Week but, I wanted to send a few comments about the form.
I have used it in two different ways, with eSea Grant for the omnibus and for some miscellaneous calls that have
happened this year.
1) With the omnibus call, it was very easy and saved A LOT of time. With the copy paste option out of eSea Grant
into the 90-2, I really didn't have to do much. I confirmed that everything was in there and all the numbers added up.
It was very simple to use and very efficient.
2) For my miscellaneous calls where I had to use both the long and the short form, I found that the form was easy to
use. I would send the PI the older version of the 90-2 and have them complete that and include a few additional
questions that were not on the old form. Once I received it back, it was simple to complete. In the future, depending
on eSea Grant, I would have PI fill it out. But, since the form was new, I completed it myself.
3) During the FO meeting at SG Week, some expressed that the search option was not easy to use but, I found the
opposite. I thought it was easy once I did it a few times.
I hope some of these comments help you!
Mary Beth Barrow
-Mary Beth Barrow, CRA
Fiscal Officer
North Carolina Sea Grant
North Carolina State University
1575 Varsity Drive, Module 1
Campus Box 8605
Raleigh, NC 27695-8605
Voice: 919-515-9103
Fax: 919-515-7095
and
Business Officer
Water Resources Research Institute of UNC
North Carolina State University
1575 Varsity Drive, Module 7
Campus Box 7912
Raleigh, NC 27695-7912
Fax: 919-515-2839

10/10/2014 12:08 PM

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Mail - Re: (Sea Gran...

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Re: (Sea Grant Association: Research Coordinators Network) Sea Grant Week RC
Network Revised Agenda
1 message
Mona Behl (Basecamp)
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 10:14 AM

Write ABOVE THIS LINE to post a reply or view this on Basecamp

Mona Behl posted a comment about this message on Basecamp.

Re: Sea Grant Week RC Network Revised Agenda
Many thanks for sharing the documents, Syma. The agenda looks great. There are a lot of
different topics on the agenda that I sure hope we have the time to discuss -- I look forward to
learning more.
Charles -- I didn't have that issue. Maybe because I checked "enable macros" button in the
dialog box (that appears when one tries to open the 90-2 form)? Not sure.
Dorn -- A few minor points for your consideration.
1. I liked the ease with with one could prefill data from eSG. One has to delete and rename
some columns so that only relevant information appeared on 90-2 long form (check fit data).
Not sure if this is an "issue", but it would save some time if no changes were needed, once
the information was downloaded from eSG.
2. I wonder if it is possible to re-organize the sheets such that some sheets that appear
towards the end (for example, "ProjDataInput", "FundDataInput", "Check Fit Data", etc.) could
appear before the SG summary forms (S1, S2, ...., S50). It took me a while to locate these
sheets because it wasn't intuitive (at least for me) that there are more sheets beyond the SG
summary forms (although you did mention "the last tab and the second-to-the-last tab" in the
instructions).
I hope that my points make any sense. Please let me know if you need further explanation.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Mona
Mona Behl, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator and Climate Change Specialist
Texas Sea Grant College Program
Texas A&M University

10/10/2014 12:24 PM

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TAES Annex Building, 4115 TAMU
730 Lamar Street
College Station, Texas 77843-4115
Phone: 979-458-0449
Email: [email protected]
View this on Basecamp

This email was sent to: Jonathan Pennock, LaDon Swann, Penny Dalton, Alan Desbonnet, Chuck Hopkinson, Chrys
Chryssostomidis, Peter Rowe, Ruperto Chaparro, Judy McDowell, David Bryant, Darren Lerner, Steve Sempier, Steve Jones,
Cornelia Schlenk, Phyllis Grifman, Susan Park, Kola Garber, Phil Moy, Valerie Brady, Dorn Carlson, Shauna Oh, Jennifer Merrill,
Jurij Homziak, Jim McKenna, Kathy de Zengtita, Loretta Leist, Eric Obert, Christopher Winslow, Jim Hurley, Charles Sidman,
Dominiqua Dickey, Kurt Grove, Lynn Vaccaro, Michele Frandsen, Sarah Kolesar, Thomas Hook, Lynn Wardwell, Susannah
Sheldon, Mike Allen, Lauren Land, Jeanette Schnars, Deborah Jefferson, Susan White, Elissa Schuett, Mona Behl, Catherine
Riseng, Ginny Eckert, Matthew Bethel, Laura Biggs, Lane Smith, John Fear, Judy Johnson, Jeffrey Brodeur, and Syma Ebbin.
Stop receiving emails when comments are posted about this message.

10/10/2014 12:24 PM

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Mail - 90-2 comments

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

90-2 comments
1 message
Alan Desbonnet
To: Dorn Carlson

Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 9:01 AM

Hi Dorn,
I think the form is fine. It makes for less work in the long run, e.g., putting the data into PIER. While I agree that
the 90-2 looks formidable upon opening it and seeing its full extent and capacity, it is pretty simple to work with and
self explanatory. We had PIs use it for the Aquaculture NSI and only 1 out of 6 applicants stated that it was confusing
and difficult, and that they were going to use the OLD 90-2. But upon being told they had to use the new Excel based
90-2, they figured it out quite quickly and without further complaint.
It does make a bit of double work at the proposal submission stage, but removes the step of putting into PIER
post award. Net result is no increase or decrease in handling time.
I would suggest we continue to use the Excel based 90-2 as it removes the potential for error creation by leaving
it up to each program to input 90-2 data into PIER post award. Use of the Excel based 90-2 ensures continuity from
pre-award to post award.
Alan Desbonnet
Assistant Director
Rhode Island Sea Grant
University of Rhode Island
Graduate School of Oceanography
Narragansett, RI 02882
401­874­6813

10/10/2014 11:55 AM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Re: Excel upload for foreseeable future?
1 message
Marcus Duke
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 3:21 PM

OK, thanks for the clarification.
Actually, the spreadsheet has worked very well for us after some initial trials, but there is one quirk.
Once we populate a worksheet, we can’t overwrite the existing data with new data, which happens often enough to
warrant being able to do so. We've had to duplicate the original Excel file and use that duplicate each time we want to
import data to it (i.e., if I reimport to the original, we don’t get correct output and then my local copy seems to become
unusable and I have to download it from Ben’s wiki again). That seems rather odd.
Marcus Duke
Computer Systems Admin/Web Editor
Washington Sea Grant
[email protected]
206-685-0171

On Jul 21, 2014, at 12:08 PM, Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal wrote:

Hi Marcus. We aren't envisioning dropping the Excel approach for entry of project data in the near future.
I would like to make some minor changes in the format, now that we have some actual field experience in using the
90-2 form. I'd welcome comments on ways it could work better from your end.
dorn

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 2:19 PM, Marcus Duke wrote:
Hi, Dorn: I’m working with Kathy and Ben at MIT towards finding a vendor to take over development and
management of eSeaGrant for existing and would-be adopters of this solution.
Is the Excel spreadsheet we produce from eSeaGrant going to remain viable for the foreseeable future (i.e., at
least 1-2 more years)? Or are you contemplating substantive changes to that near-term, or even a different
approach entirely (something other than Excel)?
Marcus Duke
Computer Systems Admin/Web Editor
Washington Sea Grant
[email protected]
206-685-0171

10/10/2014 12:49 PM

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10/10/2014 12:49 PM

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Mail - 90-2

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

90-2
1 message
Ebbin, Syma
To: "[email protected]"

Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 4:21 PM

Dorn,
I didn’t see your email until I just went on basecamp now, so I hope this is of some use in your revision of the 90-2.

I use the 90-2 to interface with PIs who are submitting proposals and I need a form and directions that match exactly
what a PI would have to fill in to submit the 90-2 correctly. When the current 90-2 opens it is not clear to me what to
do, so I didn’t want to send it to PIs since I didn’t think they would know what to do with this form either. Think of your
user group as a group of individuals who need to be stepped thru this process and have every field identified as to
what is required or desired. The form should open up always on the directions page which outlines exactly what
pages the PI should complete or not – it should not open on the partnership page which is where I think it opens now.
Since PIs are not req to fill this out, it adds to the confusion.

Thanks for allowing us input.
Best,
Syma

Syma A. Ebbin, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator,
Connecticut Sea Grant
Associate Professor in Residence,
Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics

EcoHusky Faculty Advisor

1080 Shennecossett Rd.
Groton, CT 06340
[email protected]
Phone: (860) 405-9278

10/10/2014 1:43 PM

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Fax: (860) 405 9109
http://www.seagrant.uconn.edu/

10/10/2014 1:43 PM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

RE: Materials for FO meeting: Bulk Upload writeup
1 message
Ebbin, Syma
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Hi Dorn,
Thanks for sending. Since Nancy does all of our PIER uploading I guess I didn’t focus on this. What I need are
succinct instruc�ons tailored to PIs who complete this form with their research proposals. I would cut and paste
these into our Full proposal guidelines. We (CTSG) ask that all files (except the 90­4) be compiled into 1 pdf, to
make it easier to download all our proposals which we receive via email.

Syma

Syma A. Ebbin, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator,
Connec�cut Sea Grant
Associate Professor in Residence,
Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics

EcoHusky Faculty Advisor

1080 Shennecosse� Rd.
Groton, CT 06340
[email protected]
Phone: (860) 405­9278
Fax: (860) 405 9109
h�p://www.seagrant.uconn.edu/

10/10/2014 12:23 PM

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From: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:43 PM
To: Ebbin, Syma
Subject: Fwd: Materials for FO meeting: Bulk Upload writeup

Syma, attached are some 90-2 form instructions that we sent out last summer.
Also, at the time I made a couple short movies showing a form being filled out:
90-2 Form being filled out
A Lookup Table in the 90-2 form being used

The "Table of Contents" being filled out (only the Long Form of the 90-2 has a Table of Contents in it)
-dorn

10/10/2014 12:23 PM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

90-2s for 2014 aquaculture starts (including one from 2013 Extension RFP)
1 message
Gene Kim - NOAA Federal
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:28 PM

Hi Dorn,
Here is the combined 90-2 info for the 15 research projects and one extension project from the 2013 competition
(second year start).
There are two tabs.
The first has the compiled info for 16 projects into the ProjectRecords tab. When the co-PI list exceeded four, I could
not add any more people. So, this is not precise. Programs should verify.
The second has the yearly breakdown of funds.
The individual files files are at:
Z:\Aquaculture 2014\Notificaitons\Funded letters\fy15 90-2

--Gene W. Kim, Ph.D.
NOAA
National Sea Grant Office
Program Director for Aquaculture &
Federal Program Officer for Gulf Of Mexico SG Programs
1315 East-West Highway, R/SG
SSMC3, Rm 11805
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: (301) 734-1281
Fax: (301) 713-1031
E-mail: [email protected]
compiled 90-2 for FY15 starts (including one aqua extension).xlsx
48K

10/10/2014 12:26 PM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Fwd: FW: Comment on Sea Grant Project Summary Form 90-2
1 message
Sarah Brabson - NOAA Federal
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 9:36 AM

Happy Tuesday! sb
---------- Forwarded message ---------From: Banks, Gwellnar
Date: Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 9:33 AM
Subject: FW: Comment on Sea Grant Project Summary Form 90-2
To: "Brabson, Sarah"

Good morning, Sarah.
Gwellnar Banks 'GB'
E-Government Team
Office of Information Technology
Policy and Planning
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Phone No. (202) 482-3781 Fax No. (202) 482-4281

From: Jessup, Jennifer
Sent: Monday, August 4, 2014 9:34 PM
To: Banks, Gwellnar; Mickelson, Glenna
Subject: Fwd: Comment on Sea Grant Project Summary Form 90­2
FYA
Jennifer Jessup
OITPP/OCIO
US Department of Commerce
202-482-0336
-------- Original Message -------Subject: Comment on Sea Grant Project Summary Form 90-2
From: Lane Smith
To: "Jessup, Jennifer"
CC: William Wise ,Cornelia Schlenk

Hi Jennifer,

10/10/2014 12:31 PM

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We were requested to submit comments to you regarding the Sea Grant Project Summary Form 90­2 that our offices use. The
form was redesigned last year as a spreadsheet for submi�ng project summary informa�on to the Na�onal Sea Grant Office.
We find the spreadsheet format useful since we can enter project summary data into one file instead of mul�ple files as a form
for each project. The data is then exported to the Sea Grant PIER database that is used for repor�ng and can also be exported to
our own database used by our office. This saves us effort by allowing us to enter the data only once. If we need to create a single
form we can export from our database into a document template.
The spreadsheet is complex and there is a learning curve involved. But once you become familiar with using the spreadsheet it is
fairly straight forward. The ul�mate development would be to enter this data online through a project summary database
website. I think that would help streamline the process by elimina�ng the need for a file to keep track of and keep up to date. Let
me know if I can provide you with any other informa�on or if you have any ques�ons.
Thanks,
Lane

======================
Mr. Lane Smith
Research Program Coordinator
New York Sea Grant
125 Nassau Hall
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794­5001
Phone: (631) 632­9780
Web: www.nyseagrant.org
======================
New York Sea Grant: Bringing Science to the Shore
><> ><{{{(*> ><(("> ><(('> ><(('> ><(("> ><{{('> ><>

-Sarah D. Brabson
IT Infrastructure Investment Program Manager
PRA Clearance Officer
NOAA OCIO
Governance and Portfolio Division
Office 301-628-5751
Cell 301-448-8978

10/10/2014 12:31 PM

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Fiscal Officers Network Fiscal Officers Network

90-2 Project Summary Form and bulk uploading
From: Dorn Carlson
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 at 10:00am

Hi Fiscal Officers. I was very sorry to miss many of you at Sea Grant week by arriving late. I'm
glad I got to see some of you though.
We have to get permission to continue to use the 90-2 Project Summary form for collecting project
information to upload it into PIER. Every 3 years by law we must re-seek permission from the
Administration, and it's now time.
Our request needs to include user comments about the form, especially about how much time and
effort it takes to fill out. If I had seen you at Sea Grant Week for your meeting, this is something I
would have asked you for.
Could any of you who have comments on using the form please send them to me? By this time
next week would be best, so you can do it and forget about it (also because I have to prepare the
paperwork next week). Comments can be as brief as you like, and can be positive, negative, just
neutral, or contain suggestions for things that should be different next time. You can send your
comments as an email to me at [email protected], a reply to this Basecamp message, or as
a PIER suggestion. (I will also be harvesting comments you've already given me via these three
routes.)
In addition to using your comments in our application next week, I'll actually try to address them in
future months.
Thanks very much!
Dorn
Sea_Grant_Long_Form_90-2 mod 5.4k.xlsm
1.73 MB

Elyse Larsen Thu, 25 Sep at 7:08pm

Hi Dorn,
Based on our FOs Network meeting at the SGW 2014, we have a discussion re: the
Form 90-2 bulk upload form. The feedback from FOs is as follows:
i. Real-time ability to add/modify patners would be helpful. Current process is
cumbersome - have to contact the NSGPO to have this done. Even if we could enter
it real-time and have it be approved later would be helpful. As it stands, cannot even
select a partner unless it is already in the system.
ii. The automatic upload feature was nice - didn't need to enter in PIER first.
iii. The process is still time-consuming, but not as much as it previously was.
Best,
--elyse

10/10/2014 12:02 PM

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Theresa Lee Wed, 1 Oct at 4:04pm

Hi Dorn,
Feedback regarding the Form 90-2 bulk upload:
The mechanics seem to be the same and the formulas and macros work as before.
The only persistent problem I saw was with the partners (affiliations) list. The list has
been cleaned up a bit for duplicates but there are 849 new entries (there are 4 entries
in the current version that are not in the new one). I agree with Elyse that the
programs need a way to easily correct and update the list (e.g., remove multiple
entries for the same partner).
Hope this information helps!
Theresa

10/10/2014 12:02 PM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Fwd: FW: message to Directors about 90-2 form OMB re-approval.
1 message
Sarah Brabson - NOAA Federal
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 3:57 PM

From: Jessup, Jennifer
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 3:23 PM
To: Banks, Gwellnar
Subject: FW: message to Directors about 90-2 form OMB re-approval.

FYI/

Jennifer Jessup
Office of IT Policy and Planning
Office of the Chief Informa�on Officer
Department of Commerce
202-482-0336

From: Madson, Rose [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 3:04 PM
To: Jessup, Jennifer
Cc: Carlson, Dorn; James Eckman
Subject: Re: message to Directors about 90-2 form OMB re-approval.

Hi Dorn,

The 90-2 form has actually improved since it was changed into the excel upload form. It is very easy and quick to
complete.

Thanks,

10/10/2014 12:35 PM

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Rose Madson
Business Manager
California Sea Grant
Ph: (858) 534-4601
Fax: (858) 534-2231
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu

On Jul 25, 2014, at 10:20 AM, Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal wrote:

Dear Directors, Research Coordinators, Fiscal Officers,

This is a heads up that our 90-2 form and other forms have come up again for review and renewal under the
Paperwork Reduction Act. As part of the review, the government solicits comments on the forms. They are interested
especially in how much time and effort it takes to fill the forms.
Please consider commenting. The user comments are a necessary part of the review and renewal process of these
forms. They are also very useful to me--I will get to see all of the comments. Especially after so many recent changes
in the form and use, if not the content, of the 90-2 form, I would welcome the feedback.
Comments are due by the week after next, on August 4. Any comments should be sent to Jennifer Jessup at
[email protected]. More info is in the Federal Register notice (attached).

Thanks,
Dorn Carlson
National Sea Grant Office
[email protected]

-Sarah D. Brabson
IT Infrastructure Investment Program Manager
PRA Clearance Officer
NOAA OCIO
Governance and Portfolio Division
Office 301-628-5751
Cell 301-448-8978

0362 frn pub 060414_32224.pdf
171K

10/10/2014 12:35 PM

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

RE: FW: Advice on completing grant proposal documents
1 message
Dan Marklein
To: "Dorn Carlson ([email protected])"
Cc: Terri Liebmann

Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 3:26 PM

Thanks for the quick response, Dorn. Your answers here are fine by me. I will copy them into my response to
Hartleb.

Also, I am going to get back to you with addi�onal informa�on on grant balances. But in a nutshell we have lots of
subagreements that I can’t get real �me financial informa�on on. But I can tell you that nearly every dollar is out
there commi�ed and budgeted within the respec�ve department and campus budgets. Except for a li�le PD we
are not holding anything back and in fact we are wai�ng anxiously for the rest of our FY14 award. Also we plan on
using our one­�me expanded authority �me extension on NA10OAR4170070. What is a strategic date for
reques�ng that? Now, or wait un�l we are closer to the current scheduled end date of June 30? I realize it needs
to be before the final 10 days.

As always Dorn, thanks for your �mely assistance.

Dan

From: OAR HQ Sea Grant Aquaculture OAR HQ Sea Grant Aquaculture ­ NOAA Service Account
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 7:36 PM
To: Dan Marklein
Cc: Terri Liebmann
Subject: Re: FW: Advice on comple�ng grant proposal documents

Dan, my answers below in blue. You Programs have considerable authority in this area, so if you disagree with what I
wrote, you can answer him differently, or we can talk before you answer him. You can also tell him to leave some or all
boxes of the 90-2 blank, if you want to fill them in yourselves. And before they ask, if they have no partners, they can
leave that box blank.
thanks,
Dorn

On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 11:57 AM, Dan Marklein wrote:

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Gene or Dorn,
Can you please answer Chris Hartleb’s questions here regarding some 90-2 inconsistencies?
Thanks!
Dan
From: , Chris >
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at 10:39 AM
To: Dan Marklein >, Philip Moy
>
Subject: Advice on completing grant proposal documents
Phil and Dan,
I am preparing a full proposal for the “NOAA Sea Grant Aquaculture Research Program 2014.” I have all the parts
prepared except for “Project Summary Form 90-2”, where I have run into some questions. And the federal
instructions say to “consult with your local SG program if you don’t know what to do.” Here are my questions and
they all involve Page 8 (highlighted) on the federal RFP:

1)
In the past, the Project Summary was 2-3 pages at the start of the proposal. But this time the federal
instructions say to use Form 90-2, which is an Excel file (http://seagrant.noaa.gov/fundingfellowships/
seagrantformsandtemplates.aspx), at the top of the list on the website. Yet, the instructions still say 3-page
maximum. I’m not sure how you measure page length in an Excel file? Or am I to still generate the 2-3 page
Project Summary at the start of the proposal as I’ve done in the past And include Form 90-2? That’s not what the
federal instructions say.
Prepare the project summary as you always have. You can copy your project summary narrative (or paraphrase it,
or excerpt part of it) into the 90-2. The 90-2 submission doesn't count against the page limit of the narrative. The
90-2 itself has no page limit to its answers.

2)
The Excel file instructions say to fill in all yellow boxes (required), yet the federal instructions (attached) say to
enter the Abstract, containing the Objectives, Methodology, and Rationale into the “Objectives” box. What goes
into the Methodology and Rationale boxes if everything is in the Objectives box as the federal instructions say to
do?
If you write the objectives, methodology and rationale all into the objectives box, then the methodology and
rationale box can remain empty. We'll accept it either way--this is to accommodate some Programs whose proposal
writing software only works one way, or the other.
3)
Also, the federal instructions say to include the Project Period (start and end dates) in the Excel file, but there
is no box (yellow or otherwise) in the Excel file to enter them into.
Sorry, my mistake when creating the "short form" 90-2 from the long form we used for omnibuses. I guess the best
answer is to use the (uncolored) box E6 for the "Initiation Date", and box E7 for the "Completion Date".

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Chris
Christopher Hartleb, Ph.D.
Professor of Fisheries Biology &
Co-Director Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility

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University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
800 Reserve Street
Stevens Point, WI 54481
(715) 346-3228 / FX (715) 346-3624

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Input on the 90-2
1 message
Fredrika Moser
To: Dorn Carlson
Cc: Fredrika Moser

Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 11:38 AM

Hi Dorn:
If I recall correctly you asked us to provide feedback on the 90-2 form that we have been using and if it seems to be
acceptable in the format as it now is being tested.
I asked several people in the office and, overall, they said it was fine. The only substantial comment was:
"It should be made clear that if an abstract is requested, that it should be placed in the Objectives box (similar to the
note about the data sharing plan may be included in the Methodology section). This is particularly important to clarify
because SG requested abstracts, not separate O, M, R sections in the most recent omnibus, and we have been using
abstracts lately (which are more common for researchers to write).”
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Fred
p.s. I’ve attached our old SRT report as you requested when we met. If you have further suggestions as to what we
may have left out or ideas for improving what we have we would welcome them.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Fredrika Moser, Ph.D.
Director, Maryland Sea Grant
University System of Maryland
4321 Hartwick Road, Suite 300
College Park, Maryland 20740
email: [email protected]
phone: 301-405-7500 (main)
fax: 301-314-5780
www.mdsg.umd.edu
@MDSeaGrant
Facebook:MarylandSeaGrant
***************************************************

9-MDSG_Site Review 2011 Briefing Book.pdf
1745K

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Sea Grant Association: Research Coordinators Network

Sea Grant Week RC Network Revised Agenda
Posted by Syma Ebbin on Aug 14

Dear All,
Based on our conference call and your input, I've revised the SG Week agenda (see
attachment). I've indicated those of you who (I believe) volunteered to lead
discussions. We don't have much time scheduled for this meeting, and at this point I
fear our agenda topics exceed the time allotted, so we may have to "cut bait" as my
daughter says. If you would like to reorder the agenda by topic priority (most
pressing issues first, etc.), or if you have any other suggested changes, corrections,
additions, etc., please send and I'll revise accordingly.
I am hoping we will be able to patch folks in who are not attending via phone and/or
weblink. I'll send call-in details when I get them.
Also note, Dorn would like to have a discussion the new 90-2, so please start
generating feedback on this new form if you are so moved.
I'm also uploading here a revised RC network list. Please check for errors. I'm missing
some past chairs. If you happen to know the identify of these missing chairs, please fill
them in. If we have any new RCs not listed, please let me know.
Finally I'm still requesting feedback on the RC update I sent out a week or two ago.
The deadline to get input to me is 8/22.
thank you and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you down in Florida.
Syma

Agenda_RC_ SGWk2014 ver2.docx

RC_Listing_Aug2014rev-2.xls

28 KB

40 KB

Discuss this message

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Dorn Carlson
Please let me second Syma's message. I'm especially interested in hearing about, and
discussing, what's wrong with the 90-2 form, or what could be done better. As a new
3-year OMB approval of the form is coming up in October, September is the perfect
time to fix what's wrong with it.
The form was originally designed with the Omnibus submissions in mind, for example,
not for one-off competitive proposals where you might expect the form to be filled
out by the PI himself, instead of someone on your office's staff. Does it work for that?
Why not? Don't be shy; I have thick skin.
"He who correctly criticizes me is my teacher; he who correctly tells me I am right is my
friend; and he who flatters me is my culprit." -Chun Tzu
Posted on Aug 14

Dorn Carlson
Thanks Sarah. The main purpose of the Table of Contents is to capture the
year-by-year funding of projects. The original 90-2 didn't capture yearly totals, only
the overall project total, and I thought the transition to the new form might be easiest
if I did it with a spreadsheet tab that looked like the omnibus table of contents that
many Programs produced.
But that's not the only approach. Should the 90-2 tab itself include a place to break
out funding for each year of the project?
-Dorn
From: Kolesar, Sarah
Date: Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 9:00 PM
Subject: RE: (Sea Grant Association: Research Coordinators Network) Sea Grant Week
RC Network Revised Agenda
To: "'Dorn Carlson' ([email protected])"
HI Dorn,
Thanks for the reminder to provide feedback. On the whole, the new long-form 90-2
files are an improvement. It’s easy to miss the Table of Contents sheet, though – I
think because it looks like it belongs to the instructions and the first 90-2 says “Start
here.” “Maybe the Table of Contents tab should say “Finish here.” Classification codes
are kind of a pain, but I don’t think anything can be done about that. Since only so
many characters fit into a cell, probably the maximum length of each section should
be specified, so that information can be given to the PIs (Objectives, Methodology,
etc.).
Hope this helps!
Take care,
Sarah
Posted on Aug 14

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Sarah Kolesar
HI Dorn,
I really think the Table of Contents is useful, it’s just easily overlooked when one is
focused on completing 90-2s. It would be really cool if the yearly values could
“roll-up” from individual project tabs into the TOC. This would alleviate date entry
errors causing discrepancies between the TOC and individual projects (which our
program has experienced). And if each separate 90-2 had spaces for Year 1 & 2
request and match, that might be possible.
Again, there is more than one way to design these forms, balancing ease of use and
simplicity. And I very much appreciate your efforts to streamline the process!
Take care,
Posted on Aug 14

Charles Sidman
Hi Dorn,
One issue that we had was that the spreadsheet macro's and drop down menu's
stopped working once the information was saved. This meant that changes could not
be made after saving the spreadsheet. Did any of the other programs have a problem
with this?
Thanks,
Charles
Posted on Aug 15

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Mona Behl
Many thanks for sharing the documents, Syma. The agenda looks great. There are a
lot of different topics on the agenda that I sure hope we have the time to discuss -- I
look forward to learning more.
Charles -- I didn't have that issue. Maybe because I checked "enable macros" button
in the dialog box (that appears when one tries to open the 90-2 form)? Not sure.
Dorn -- A few minor points for your consideration.
1. I liked the ease with with one could prefill data from eSG. One has to delete and
rename some columns so that only relevant information appeared on 90-2 long form
(check fit data). Not sure if this is an "issue", but it would save some time if no
changes were needed, once the information was downloaded from eSG.
2. I wonder if it is possible to re-organize the sheets such that some sheets that
appear towards the end (for example, "ProjDataInput", "FundDataInput", "Check Fit
Data", etc.) could appear before the SG summary forms (S1, S2, ...., S50). It took me a
while to locate these sheets because it wasn't intuitive (at least for me) that there are
more sheets beyond the SG summary forms (although you did mention "the last tab
and the second-to-the-last tab" in the instructions).
I hope that my points make any sense. Please let me know if you need further
explanation.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Mona
Mona Behl, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator and Climate Change Specialist
Texas Sea Grant College Program
Texas A&M University
TAES Annex Building, 4115 TAMU
730 Lamar Street
College Station, Texas 77843-4115
Phone: 979-458-0449
Email: [email protected]
Posted on Aug 15

Susannah Sheldon
Hi Charles,
I had that problem when I saved initially as .xlsx, which does not allow for macros. I
saved again as .xlsm, which enables macros.
Susannah
Posted on Aug 15

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Charles Sidman
Susannah and Mona,
Thanks for the suggestions. I am not involved with the 90-2 forms so I'll pass your
suggestions along to Ed and Jackie.
Charles
Posted on Aug 15

Phyllis Grifman
I know each program is different but it seems to me that for a lot of us, the 90-2s are
handled by fiscal officers. I'm wondering if this should be a joint discussion (if the
agendas of both groups can manage that).
Posted on Aug 15

Kathy de Zengtita
Hi Mona and all,
In terms of eSG -- probably best not to design the 90-2 to fit whichever version of
eSG you have right now. Assuming the network decides to support it, eSG can be
changed to suit the final requirements of the 90-2.
Posted on Aug 15

Jennifer Merrill
I agree with Phyllis; I've been hoping for a concise list of changes to forward on to our
fiscal officer for her to review, rather than bury her in another bunch of emails. Can a
summary of suggested changes be made and shared with the FO's?
Happy weekend everyone!
Posted on Aug 15

Cornelia Schlenk
Regarding other agenda items: For #3, I was actually thinking about the mini-bus, so
items #2 and #3 can be combined. And just fyi, Lane Smith will not be at SG Week in
person, but he plans to call in to the RC session(s). I am not sure, but his #10 may be
captured within #6.
Thanks, Cornelia (NYSG)
Posted on Aug 17

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Cornelia Schlenk
Regarding the RC list: Please note that the last name of past-chair Fredika is Moser.
Also, I was the originating chair in 2002-2003 and then co-chair 2003-2005. My
co-chair was either Fredrika or Steve Rebach (NCSG, now retired). Things were a bit
more fluid when we were just starting out! Then Steve became the chair between my
time and Fred's, I believe.
Cornelia (NYSG)
Posted on Aug 17

Jennifer Merrill
Regarding the Optimization of Metrics: Program comments are due to Chris Hayes
tomorrow. I wonder if we could get a collated list of comments from Chris to discuss
while we are all together at SG Week?
Posted on Aug 21

Syma Ebbin
I’ve asked Chris for this and he has said he will provide us with the feedback he has
received.
Syma
Syma A. Ebbin, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator,
Connecticut Sea Grant
Associate Professor in Residence,
Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics
EcoHusky Faculty Advisor
1080 Shennecossett Rd.
Groton, CT 06340
[email protected]
Phone: (860) 405-9278
Fax: (860) 405 9109
http://www.seagrant.uconn.edu/
[cid:[email protected]]
Posted on Aug 28

image001.png

By-the-minute history for this message...

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

modified 90-2 form
1 message
Peter Rowe
To: Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

Sat, Oct 4, 2014 at 4:24 PM

Dorn –

I hope things are improving with family medical issues.

I did look over the modified form and perhaps you can use what I contribute if it is not too late. I know you were
planning to get it out this past week.

That is one big excel file with tabs all over the place! Much more than before if I remember.

I did not test any pages, but I thought the validation tab early on could be useful. Again, another check and balance to
make sure everything adds up.

Kind of like the TOC tab that checks the budget amounts. I do know that in the previous version, if the 90-2 tabs got
moved around – say S-2 switched with S-5, it did not seem to switch well in the TOC page!

Thanks for adding in a new partners page. This should make it easier to add them and then find them on the partners
page. Will these new partners then be put into PIER for us so that we do not have to send requests to Chris Hayes?
One of the things though is that we often get new partners after the fact with leveraging and so on, so I guess we will
always have to ask, or will a modified PIER allow us to enter then now?

On the S-tabs most of the yellow boxes have a not that there are formulas that may be inadvertently be changed, why
is that? Are they linked to another worksheet? It is interesting that “objectives’ has this note, but Methodology,
Rationale and Data sharing plan do not.

Why give a choice to where put the data sharing plan? Does that not just muddle the matter? Just keep it for the Data
Sharing Plan cell and not the Methodology cell.

That is a quick glance. I am sure I would find more if I look deeper Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any
questions on my comments.

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All the best,

Pete

Peter M. Rowe, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Sea Grant Administration
Director of Research and Extension
New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium
22 Magruder Road
Fort Hancock, NJ 07732

732-872-1300 x 31

www.njseagrant.org

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

90-2
1 message
Susannah Sheldon
To: "[email protected]"

Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 4:11 PM

Hi Dorn:
I do not have anything substantial to add to any comments I’ve made in the past during development. I populated it for
our Omnibus process and found it to be fairly straight-forward. It seems like ages ago now, however I do not recall
having any concerns with it at the time.

Thank you,
Susannah

Susannah Sheldon
Program Manager
SC Sea Grant Consortium
287 Meeting Street
Charleston, SC 29401
phone: 843.953.2078
web: www.scseagrant.org
facebook: www.facebook.com/scseagrant
twitter: @SCSeaGrant
Coastal Science Serving South Carolina

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Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal

PIER interface with the new Ecsion eSG (EeSG?)
1 message
Katharine M de Zengotita
Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 10:30 AM
To: "Dorn Carlson - NOAA Federal ([email protected])" , "Chris Hayes
([email protected])"
Cc: Susannah Sheldon , Shauna Oh ,
"[email protected]" , Mary Beth Barrow ,
"[email protected]" , "Kolesar, Sarah" , W Benjamin Bray
, "Deepak Seth ([email protected])"

Hello Dorn and Chris,

We need to give our requirements to Ecsion by November 15 for the (re)construc�on of eSG. People are asking:
will the Ecsion system transact with PIER in some fashion? I’m referring to the new 90­2 and/or an Excel sheet for
transferring annual report materials such as metrics, impact statements, etc. into PIER.

This capability will be included in the requirements I am pu�ng together now. However, in order for this to
succeed, the Na�onal will need to commit to supplying us with a person to work with (Chris?) for that part of the
build. If you are not able to do this, you might want to consider contrac�ng separately with Ecsion at a later date
to create an input/output rela�onship between EeSG and PIER.

Let me know.

Kathy de Z.

---------------------------------------------------Katharine de Zengotita, Program Coordinator
MIT Sea Grant College Program, E38-300
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 253-7042

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