ES-237 is the federal report number assigned to the annual statistical report of 4-H and youth participation in organized clubs, camps, school enrichment, special interest topics, and individual study. This report is to be completed by each county, complied into a state report, and submitted to the National 4-H Office.
What dates to I use for the Ohio 4-H Year?
The Ohio 4-H year will follow a “school” calendar for reporting data. A new 4-H year begins in the Fall. For the 2003 reporting year, counties may enter any educational or training programs that took place between the dates listed below. Data entry for 2004 Group Enrollments must wait until the database rollover has been performed.
Correct dates to use for all
group enrollments:
Reporting Year 2003: September 1, 2002 – August 31, 2003
Reporting Year 2004: September 1, 2003 – August 21, 2004
4-H is part of the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Partial funding for 4-H programs is received through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Therefore, to receive this funding, each county and state must report yearly on participation in these programs by the race, gender, grade and residence of each participant.
Why
all the fuss?
The accuracy of the Ohio ES-237 report that is generated by the Blue Ribbon Youth Enrollment program is only as good as the quality of the data entered by each county office. Missing or incomplete member statistics or projects WILL affect the county and state ES237 totals.
The Blue Ribbon Youth Enrollment program was chosen for its ES237 reporting features. Our goal is ACCURATE reporting of Ohio 4-H data. If you are having problems with your verification reporting, please call and request additional help.
(Please refer to Chapter 6
of the User’s Manual for Complete Details).
You may print your master files by
going to Reports|Print Data Files.
Check the master club code file (File|Club Codes). The integration status of the club and the community must be marked. This establishes the integration status of each member.
If the club is located in an ethnically or racially mixed community, enter a check mark for yes. Community is defined as the area the club draws membership from.
If the club itself is not integrated (racially mixed), leave the integrated box blank. The race of the club must be indicated. This was a new federal requirement for 1999. Check this file carefully. Print the master club report (Reports|Print Data Files|Club Code File) to verify the accuracy of club statistical data.
It is possible for a club to be located in a mixed community and not be integrated. However, a club cannot be integrated in a community that is not integrated.
Check the master project code file. All project codes must have an ES-237 code and a Federal Initiative code to count toward participation in a federal curriculum area. The complete list of federal curriculum codes can be found in the Appendix of the User’s Manual. Print the master project code list (Reports|Print Data Files|Project Code File) to verify the accuracy of the file.
Any project codes added by individual counties must also have an ES-237 and Federal Initiative code.
Check the master activity code file. Any activity that is to be counted in a federal curriculum area must have both an ES-237 code and a Federal Initiative code. Print the master activity code list (Reports Print Data Files Activity Code File) to verify the accuracy of the file.
Go to File County Information. All information must be completed except for Account # and Tax Exempt #. The District Code should contain a single digit number.
East District: 1 Northwest District: 3 Southwest District: 5
Northeast District : 2 South District: 4
Go to Preferences/Member Defaults. Make sure the correct county code has been entered on this screen. This code is required in the ES237 files sent from the county to the state office.
3. Input
Data
All members and leaders who are associated with organized clubs and are maintained in the database, as individual records should be already entered into the member file at this time.
Add all remaining 'Group Youth Enrollments' records. Go ES237|Group
Youth Enrollment. Group records are added for any activities that involve
youth, but the names and addresses of the participants are not needed in the
member database for office management purposes. This usually includes school
enrichment programs, special interest activities, camps, etc. If the group
activity involves a specific project or activity code, enter a valid code on
the screen. This will account for the participation under the curriculum
section of the ES237 report. Entering a club code is entirely optional.
Add records to account for any additional volunteer participation. Go
ES237|Group Volunteers. Group volunteer records can be used to count volunteers
who have not previously been entered into the database, but have participated
in such activities as fund raising, county fairs, trips, etc.
Add any remaining training activities into the training log. All
training, which ultimately affects youth and has been conducted or facilitated
by county extension staff, can be counted. The ethnic and gender information on
the training record is optional.
4. Verify Data
Print the 'Verification
Report' (ES237|ES237 Verification) to validate all member/leader records.
Following is a list of items to check:
1. The categories of members,
cloverbuds/mini 4H, and special count on the membership charts found on pages
one and two of the ES-237 report.
2. Project,
general/organizational, activity, and resource leaders count on the volunteer
chart on page three.
3. Members and leaders of
status new, returned, and terminated are counted on the ES-237 report.
4. All members, cloverbuds/mini
4H, and special must have a valid grade, residence, gender, race, and at least
one participation type.
5. All leaders must have a
valid race.
6. All youth leaders and adult
leaders must have 'Y' marked in at least one leader type column. (There is an SQL statement that may be used
if the majority of your columns are blank.
This will make all volunteers have “Direct” involvement.) [See Appendix D for an example.]
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B. Group Youth Report
Correct Ohio dates to use
for all group enrollments:
Reporting Year
2003: 9/1/02 – 8/31/04
Reporting Year 2004:
9/1/03 – 8/31/04
Print the 'Group Youth Report' (ES237|Print
ES237 Group Files|Youth Group Records). This will assist you in checking each
record for balanced numbers, correct integration designation, and
project/activity assignment. Totals are printed at the end of the report.
Print the 'Group Volunteer Report' (ES237|Print ES237
Group Files|Volunteer Group Records). Verify the records that have been entered
for additional youth and adult volunteers.
Print the 'Training Log
Report' (ES237|Print Training Log File) to verify the training records.
5. Print the 'ES237 Statistical Report'
- Go to ES237|ES237 Statistical Report
Print 'Test-Member/Leader
File Data'. This report will accumulate all data from members and leaders that
have been entered into the database as individual records. This report does not
include any group records. Check for balanced numbers. (See step 6 for
information on numbers that must balance.) If numbers do not balance, go back
to the master code reports and verification report to check for incomplete
data. Balance the data on the Test Member/Leader Report before proceeding. If
the report shows as unbalanced on the test version, it will not automatically
balance on the final report. Balance each part and then print the final report.
Print 'Test-Group Data'. This report will accumulate
all data from the group records and training log. If the report numbers do not
balance, check the group record reports for errors. If curriculum information
does not seem to be correct on either the test- member/leader or test-group
report, check the associated project or activity code in the master code files
for valid ES237 curriculum numbers.
When both of the above reports are balanced,
print the final report (ES237|ES237 Statistical Report|Combined Processing-Final
Report). This report should be balanced and the process is complete.
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6. Balancing
Report Numbers
Following are checkpoints for proofing your ES237
report:
·
Total youth on
line 8 must equal total youth in chart 13.
·
Total youth
(duplicates eliminated) on line 9 must equal total youth (no duplicates) in chart 13.
·
Total units on line 8 must equal total units in chart 13.
·
Total units
(duplicates eliminated) on line 9 must equal total units (no duplicates) in chart 13.
·
Total youth
(duplicates eliminated) on line 9 must equal the total on chart 10 and chart
11.
·
Total youth by
source on chart 12 must equal the grand total on page 7.
7. Where to look if my report does not balance:
A. If chart 13 is lower than line 8, check that
each club record in the Master Club Code File has a valid integration code.
Also check that each youth group record has a valid integration code on the
second screen. Chart 13 is calculated by integration code. The integration code
for each member is determined by the primary club code. Remember, Mixed
Community - No and Integrated Club - Yes is invalid. It is impossible to have
an integrated club in a community that does not have more than one race.
B. If chart 13 is still lower, check to see that
each member has a primary club code. This is easy to do in the member query. If
the primary club code is blank, that member will have no integration code and
will not count on chart 13. Also, if a member has been assigned to a club code
that has been deleted from the Master Club Code File, that member will not have
an integration code and will not count on chart 13. This pertains to both
active and terminated member as they both count on the ES-237 report.
C. If the Training Log records are not printing
on the report, the Test- Member/Leader report is being printed instead of the Test-Group
report or the Final-Combined report. The training log and other group
records do not print on the Test-Member/Leader report. This report prints only
from the member/leader file.
D. If an excessive number or identical number of members
are printing for each delivery mode on lines 1-7, a number of members have
every participation code marked in their personal club membership file (under
the club tab). This can be easily detected on the ES-237 Verification report.
Members will have a complete line of 'Xs' under delivery mode. Ninety-nine
percent of members in the member file should have only 'Organized Club' marked.
This error can be corrected with an SQL statement.
E.
The report won't
print. Check to make sure the updates have been put on the program. Go
Help|About. The date display should be February 2, 2000 or later.
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F.
Invalid integer
error on page two indicates a problem with the project or activity file. This
usually has occurred if 1999 has been entered a 'Year in Project' instead of
1,2,3,etc. The program is looking at 1999 as an integer that is too huge for a
short integer field. This error can be
corrected with an SQL statement.
G.
Number of units
without duplicates is a negative number. Duplicate units have been added to
group youth records without entering a balancing number of units on the first
line. The number of duplicates will ultimately be larger than the total count
of units, resulting in the negative number.
Submitting ES-237 information to the
State 4-H office:
1. Go to Utilities|File Utilities.
2. Go to Select|Select All. This
should highlight all files within the window. Scroll to the bottom
of the File Utilities window. The last file in the set should be
named, "Z5Lite
4.
Go to Windows Explorer or My Computer and check the diskette to be sure the
files
are in fact on the diskette. The
explorer will show that the 'px' files have been copied along with the 'db'
files. If the diskette looks complete, it is ready to send to state along
with the printed report. This completes the ES237 portion of year-end reporting.