Mid-State: Report your Own Trail Hours 2011

[jonw9]

We are going to try something new for this year.

Because so many members are doing individual trail work during unorganized events, and to reduce the amount of paperwork required for the TCs, we are asking our volunteers to take a moment and record their own hours.

The document is a Google based spreadsheet. It is my belief that you are not required to have a Google account, or sign-up for any sort of account. All you need is the following link:
http://midstate.mmba.org/trailhours

There is also a link in my signature line.

After doing any trail work, go to the form andfill in: Your name, date work was performed, number of hours worked, what you did, organized or not, and acknowledge that you did indeed sign a waiver. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SIGN A WAIVER FOR EACH WORKDAY!

The waiver can be found here:
http://mmba.org/library/State%20Busines ... enance.pdf

This data will be logged on a separate protected form.

This is a trial program, so please bear with it. If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to midstate@mmba.org
If you don't feel comfortable putting your full name on the sheet, just put first name, last initial and send a message to the above address.

Thank you, and I hope this helps record a highly productive season on trail building, and maintenance.

Here is a good thread explaining the trail hours and benefits: http://www.mmba.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=100971

Jon
President of the Mid-State Chapter

[Di_bear]

Hey Jon,

I think the hours should be for any public trails. For example, the year before last, I did trail work all over the state, but hours were submitted through my "Chapter." This year, I did three hours in Owosso, but it's not technically a "Mid-State" trail.

If you want a breakdown for each trail that's fine, but perhaps you should add an "Total" tab for those of us who just need to report total hours.

Di

[jonw9]

Hey Jon,

I think the hours should be for any public trails. For example, the year before last, I did trail work all over the state, but hours were submitted through my "Chapter." This year, I did three hours in Owosso, but it's not technically a "Mid-State" trail.

If you want a breakdown for each trail that's fine, but perhaps you should add an "Total" tab for those of us who just need to report total hours.

Di

It is my understanding that the FAFL and trail hours are for those Mid-State trails. If you go and work 17 hours at Poto, it is that chapter which should record and report those hours.

I don't also believe that sweeping the River Trail (public) should be accounted in these hours either, but somebody with a definite, official answer can chime in.

Also, I was not notified of your Owosso hours, so they were not submitted.

We can create an "anyplace else" tab for those that wish to record their hours from elsewhere, but I don't want them to be double counted.

[TenSpeed]

Can someone explain the need for this? Is it mandatory? Last year, a tree was down at Burchfield. I was out there for about an hour taking care of it. Does this need to be reported? I didn't do it to log hours, I did it so others could ride.

[jonw9]

Can someone explain the need for this? Is it mandatory? Last year, a tree was down at Burchfield. I was out there for about an hour taking care of it. Does this need to be reported? I didn't do it to log hours, I did it so others could ride.

There is a benefit for logging hours.

In addition to tour FAFL award at the end of the year, these hours are good for advocacy so we can report "We had 97 people log 1200 hours of trail building and maintenance at Burchfield".

So contrary to some opinions, it does serve a purpose other than to pat ourselves on the back and brag on the forums about how much we do.

[TenSpeed]

OK, thanks for the clarification. Makes total sense.

[jonw9]

OK, thanks for the clarification. Makes total sense.

No problem at all. Thanks for helping clear the trails.

[Di_bear]

Hey Jon,

I think the hours should be for any public trails. For example, the year before last, I did trail work all over the state, but hours were submitted through my "Chapter." This year, I did three hours in Owosso, but it's not technically a "Mid-State" trail.

If you want a breakdown for each trail that's fine, but perhaps you should add an "Total" tab for those of us who just need to report total hours.

Di

It is my understanding that the FAFL and trail hours are for those Mid-State trails. If you go and work 17 hours at Poto, it is that chapter which should record and report those hours.

I don't also believe that sweeping the River Trail (public) should be accounted in these hours either, but somebody with a definite, official answer can chime in.

Also, I was not notified of your Owosso hours, so they were not submitted.

We can create an "anyplace else" tab for those that wish to record their hours from elsewhere, but I don't want them to be double counted.

In the past, when I submitted hours from the UP, it was just straight-up counts based on what people told me they did. I don't know how other chapters do it. You don't know about the Owosso hours because I didn't report them. That's okay, though. After Glen's done, the hours get sent to me.

[Di_bear]

OK, thanks for the clarification. Makes total sense.

On the state level, we can show people how many hours our volunteers logged to demonstrate the worth of our organization. The comparison to other user groups can be quite interesting. In that sense, every hour building or maintaining a mountain bike trail helps.

[dauber76]

Ji

Hey Jon,

I think the hours should be for any public trails. For example, the year before last, I did trail work all over the state, but hours were submitted through my "Chapter." This year, I did three hours in Owosso, but it's not technically a "Mid-State" trail.

If you want a breakdown for each trail that's fine, but perhaps you should add an "Total" tab for those of us who just need to report total hours.

Di

It is my understanding that the FAFL and trail hours are for those Mid-State trails. If you go and work 17 hours at Poto, it is that chapter which should record and report those hours.

I don't also believe that sweeping the River Trail (public) should be accounted in these hours either, but somebody with a definite, official answer can chime in.

Also, I was not notified of your Owosso hours, so they were not submitted.

We can create an "anyplace else" tab for those that wish to record their hours from elsewhere, but I don't want them to be double counted.

Reporting hours for non-trail days and non-official trails is a perfect reason why this spreadsheet will help. For many people, they put in more hours on thier own clearing trees or face slappers than on official trail days. Also trails like Ella sharp and rose lake don't get officially reported, but they are reportable hours. I wouldn't count the river trail, we're talking mtbing here.

And as stated earlier, we need a better tally both for total hours and hours by trail that we can use for lobbying purposes.

[Loren]

See also http://www.mmba.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=100971 for some ideas for categories, gleaned from other clubs.

[jonw9]

Ji

Hey Jon,

I think the hours should be for any public trails. For example, the year before last, I did trail work all over the state, but hours were submitted through my "Chapter." This year, I did three hours in Owosso, but it's not technically a "Mid-State" trail.

If you want a breakdown for each trail that's fine, but perhaps you should add an "Total" tab for those of us who just need to report total hours.

Di

It is my understanding that the FAFL and trail hours are for those Mid-State trails. If you go and work 17 hours at Poto, it is that chapter which should record and report those hours.

I don't also believe that sweeping the River Trail (public) should be accounted in these hours either, but somebody with a definite, official answer can chime in.

Also, I was not notified of your Owosso hours, so they were not submitted.

We can create an "anyplace else" tab for those that wish to record their hours from elsewhere, but I don't want them to be double counted.

Reporting hours for non-trail days and non-official trails is a perfect reason why this spreadsheet will help. For many people, they put in more hours on thier own clearing trees or face slappers than on official trail days. Also trails like Ella sharp and rose lake don't get officially reported, but they are reportable hours. I wouldn't count the river trail, we're talking mtbing here.

And as stated earlier, we need a better tally both for total hours and hours by trail that we can use for lobbying purposes.

So then maybe we should consider switching back to each individual having their own tab, where they can document hours, and which trail, etc.

Do you know the answer as to where my Poto hours would be reported? Record them here, or does the Poto document them. I would think if it was an organized day, it would be the latter, and an individual day would be the former?

[Di_bear]

Hm...perhaps this is something worth touching on at the state board meeting so we can come up with some guidelines.

For the FAFL awards, I am simply interested in the total number of hours that each person has worked. That's all I need. That's it. I can definitely understand the value of collecting hours for each trail within each chapter, but I feel that is a chapter job.

My recommendation would be to collect the total number of hours worked from each member of your chapter. For example, one year I worked in Copper Harbor and I showed up for a trail day at Luton, but joined the Northeast Chapter (neither trail is in that chapter) and my total hours were reported through them.

For chapter purposes, ask *everyone* to specify the number of hours they worked on each Mid-State trail, so you can use that for local advocacy reports.

Next year, we'll be more prepared and we can put the request in the December newsletter that goes out to everyone.

[G.Cook]

Had this "problem" of earning chapter hours state wide for the past few years . Works great for collecting FAFL schwag working on various chapter trail days .Hit the jack pot the year they were giving out work gloves .
Oh , and this past year I got a very nice T from the NCTA Hiawatha Chapter .

[jonw9]

:lol: Had this "problem" of earning chapter hours state wide for the past few years . Works great for collecting FAFL schwag working on various chapter trail days .Hit the jack pot the year they were giving out work gloves .
Oh , and this past year I got a very nice T from the NCTA Hiawatha Chapter .

I will bring you another pair of gloves to the expo, I am sure you need them!