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Bonner AmeriCorps Manual - Exiting a Member

Page history last edited by Abby Rice 11 years, 10 months ago

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Bonner AmeriCorps Official Exit Policy


All Members must be exited from their Term of Service within 30 Days of the Member's Last Day of Service. Members must provide their Campus Administrators with a signed and dated original copy of their final Hour Log, any previous documents needing corrections, and a signed and dated AmeriCorps Exit Form no later than two weeks after the Member’s Last Day of Service. The AmeriCorps Member Evaluation must also be completed prior to the Member’s official Exit.

 

Failure of Members and Administrators to submit Hour Logs or other AmeriCorps documents to the Foundation by the specified deadline may result in hours served not being counted toward the Member’s term, and may jeopardize successful completion of the Member’s term. The Member may be exited from a term of service without an award if the Member fails to follow the document submission guidelines outlined above.

 

Steps and Timeline for Exiting an AmeriCorps Member


A member can exit AmeriCorps in three different ways: Having successfully completed all of his/her hours, falling short of enough hours to exit successfully, and exiting their term early due to compelling personal circumstances. 

 

There are three basic steps to the exiting process: 

 

Step 1.  Determine when to hold the exit interview.

Step 2.  Conduct the exit interview.

Step 3.  Send in the exit packet.

 

The Corporation for National and Community Service requires that we complete the entire exit process within 30 days of the member’s Last Day of Service.  We call this time period the “30 Day Window”: 

 



 

Watch the following video to see an "Ideal Exit" and to orient yourself to the terms and processes covered in this section: YouTube plugin error

 

Exiting A Member Who Has Completed All Hours


A member is eligible to receive an education award if he or she has completed the minimum hours service requirement (ie 300, 450 or 900 hours) for his or her term of service before his or her Required Exit Date. 

 

For example, a 300 hour AmeriCorps member is eligible to exit from his/her term of service and receive an education award as soon as she has completed 300 hours of AmeriCorps appropriate community service.  However, there are a few things the member must do to verify that the hours he or she has served are AmeriCorps appropriate before he or she can be officially exited from the program and receive an award:

 

  • All Hours Logged:  The member must log all hours in BWBRS;
  • All Hours Submitted: The member must submit BWBRS hard copy time sheets to be kept at the Bonner Office. All hours logged must be eSigned by the Member and Campus Administrator in BWBRS. (If using all eSignatures, Member, SITE and Campus signatures must be in BWBRS.)
  • Direct Service Hours Requirement: The member may not log over 20% of his or her hours as training hours and no more than 10% of his or her hours as fundraising hours in order to be eligible for an education award; 
  • The Cushion The member should ideally serve 15-30 hours beyond his or her minimum hours requirement to provide a “cushion” of hours for the exiting process.  For example: duplicate entries, hours that do not appear on a hardcopy, or hours that do not have the correct signature will not be approved towards that member’s term.  Usually 15-30 extra hours serves as a cushion to make sure that the member has enough hours to exit at the time of the final Bonner Foundation exit scrub.

 

Step 1: Is the Member Ready to Exit?


Use the screenshot below determine whether this AmeriCorps member is ready to come in for her exit interview:  

 

This member has enough hours to exit his term with an AmeriCorps education award!

    • Has served more than 900 hrs, the minimum hours requirement for his award;
    • Has served a cushion of extra hours; 
    • Has served over the direct service hours requirement;  

 

Step 2: The Exit Interview


If your member has enough hours to exit from AmeriCorps and has served over the direct service requirement, it is time to call him or her in for an exit interview.  Please make sure that the member’s exit interview happens within two weeks of the member’s Last Day of Service.

 

What is the Exit Interview?

 

The Exit Interview is a meeting between you and the student to:

  • Collect all outstanding AmeriCorps paperwork including hard copy time sheets and enrollment documentation;
  • Close all Open Cases.
  • Discuss the member’s BWBRS Service Accomplishments
  • Discuss the member’s AmeriCorps End Point Evaluation;
  • Fill out the AmeriCorps Exit Form.

 

The following checklist will help you organize your agenda for the member’s Exit Interview. By the end of the Exit Interview, each of the to-do items in the list below should be checked-off as complete. This must be submitted with each Member's exit form.

 

EXIT REVIEW SHEET

 

Remember to check the BWBRS Case Management Report to see if there are any outstanding issues that need to be resolved before your Member can be successfully exited.

 

Step 3:  Send in the Exit Packet


The Exit Packet needs to arrive at the Bonner Foundation within two weeks of the Member’s last day of service.  

 

***MEMBER'S REQUIRED EVALUATIONS MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE EXIT PACKET IS SENT.

 

 

 

 


 

 

Exiting a Member Without an Award


As an AmeriCorps Administrator, it's your responsibility to identify Members who are in danger of not completing their service commitment. All members must be exited from their term of service within 30 Days of their Last Day of Service. If members stop serving hours midway through their term, they must be exited promptly. This constitutes "Release for Cause."  If a Member is unavailable or unresponsive, you must try at least three times to contact the Member regarding their exit. If they cannot be reached, you should complete the exit form on their behalf and submit a signed and dated Memo on Campus letterhead explaining why the exit form was not completed by the Member in question.

 

Please edit the names and the reason. This must appear on campus letterhead, signed and dated buy the Bonner Coordinator.

 

Memo Template: 

I have attempted to contact [MEMBER NAME] multiple times to have them complete their AmeriCorps exit form. Due to [REASON i.e. Member left the campus, is abroad...] they could not be reached. In the Member's absence I, [YOUR NAME], have completed the AmeriCorps exit form on their behalf.  

 

 

Step 1: Should the Member be Exited? When?


Members can be "Released for Cause" for multiple reasons (see here). Keeping track of Members submission of hour logs, and forwarding them to the Foundation each month, will help you identify members falling behind in hours. 

 

Below are some scenarios of when a Member will be exited without an Education Award, or "For Cause":

 

Disciplinary Reasons

When a Member is released for cause for disciplinary reasons, the member should come into the office for his or her exit interview when you are discussing the fourth offense.  This meeting should take place promptly and all paperwork should be submitted to the Foundation within two weeks of the member's Last Day of Service. When completing the member's End of Term, be sure to include a description of the reason for the early release, and submit documentation of the disciplinary issues.

 

Member Requests to Exit Before Completion of Hours

When a member has asked to exit his or her term early for any reason other than those that are considered compelling personal circumstances, the member should come in for the exit interview within two weeks of his or her Last Day of Service.

 

Member "Drops Off the Face of the Planet"

You may not be able to schedule a meeting with the member because he or she is not responding to your phone calls or emails.  In this situation, you will not be able to conduct an exit interview with the member, but it is absolutely imperative that you send in this member’s exit packet within two weeks of the member’s Last Day of Service, and that you submit documentation of your attempts to contact the Member to complete an exit form. 

 

Member Serves Until the End of the Term, but Doesn't Complete the Hours

If a member has reached his or her Required Exit Date but has not completed the minimum hours requirement for his or her term, that member will be exited from AmeriCorps without an award.  No hours served after the Required Exit Date will count towards that member’s term of service.  The member should come in for his or her exit interview within two weeks of his or her Last Day of Service.  The final hour log should be submitted to the Foundation within two weeks of the member's Last Day of Service.

 

Step 2: Conducting the Exit Interview


Even though the member is not completing his or her term, the Exit Interview Process is the same.  See above.

 

Step 3: Sending in the Exit Paperwork


All outstanding paperwork must be completed and the Exit Review Sheet and the completed Exit Form, must be submitted to the Foundation, even though the member will not be earning an Education Award. See above for what to include.

 

 

Exiting a Member With a Partial Education Award


There are some situations when a member may need to exit from AmeriCorps for “Personal Compelling Circumstances.”   

 

If a member needs to exit from AmeriCorps due to Personal Compelling Circumstances and he or she has served more than 15% of the minimum hours requirement for his or her term, that member is eligible for a partial education award.  The amount of partial award is determined by the percentage hours of the term that the member has completed.  To calculate the pro-rated award use this equation: % of hours completed by a member = % of the education award received.

 

Example:  A member served 165 hours of his 300 hour term before he exited for Personal Compelling Circumstances.   He has completed 55% of his term.  The education award for a 300 hour member is $1,000.  This member will receive 55% of his education award which comes out to be $550.

 

The Exit Packet should be submitted to the Bonner AmeriCorps staff within two weeks of the Member's Last Day of Service. Follow instructions for The Exit Interview and the Exit Packet above.

 

**Please note: Members must submit sufficient documentation of Personal Compelling Circumstance in order to be exited with a partial award. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions


Question:  Can a member continue serving after he or she has completed 300, 450, or 900 hours?

Yes!   As long as a member continues logging and submitting hours to the Bonner Foundation for review,  a member can serve as many hours past the minimum number of hours requirement as he or she would like to up until the member’s required exit date.   

 

In fact, many programs should advise members to do this if a member has finished the minimum required hours early but has a commitment to his or her service site until a pre-determined date.  For example, if a member is supposed to serve at an after-school care program for 10 hours a week from September to May,  but that member has finished his 300 hrs in March,  it is encouraged that the member continues serving, logging, and submitting hours to the Bonner Foundation for review until May. Regardless of when a member exits, they always have only 30 days from their last documented day of service to be exited formally from their term.


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