January 17, 2001
It seems some site contacts have not seen the official AD-421/419 request letters sent out by CRIS to the Directors' offices. The deadlines this year are the same as last year: February 1 for fiscal year reports and April 1 for calendar year reports. This information is always posted on the CRIS Web site.

Please also review your Director's office address in Administrative functions "Edit Site Information" to be sure CRIS is using the most current address.

December 8, 2000
Here is complete information about how to contact the CRIS office.

November 16, 2000
All of the 2000 Checklists that we can do have been done. If you don't see your 2000 list yet, please contact Pat Downer (pdowner@zoo.uvm.edu).

October 19, 2000
It appears that letters from CSREES officially requesting the AD-421 and AD-419 reports will not be going out until late October or early November. The checklists are normally timed to be done along with the letters. Please feel free to request your checklist whenever you are ready by sending email to Pat Downer (pdowner @zoo.uvm.edu). Before requesting the checklist, make sure you have taken the last step to submit any changes you may have made to project information using Manage Project info and that you have checked to be sure you don't have any AD-421 reports entered but not yet submitted to CRIS (sometimes the PIs go in there and enter them without you knowing about it). To see if there are any, go into Display / Edit AD-421 and select the option to view All reports, include only those not yet submitted to CRIS, and select all reports that contain text whether marked complete or not.

If you still have delinquent reports from 1999, don't worry about those, you can still submit late 1999 progress reports even when your 2000 checklist is there. You DO have to submit the 1999 report before you submit a 2000 report, however.

To submit a 1999 progress report after you have received your 2000 checklist, you need to edit the reporting period on the AD-421 form input page to show the correct year for the 1999 report. Then after you have submitted the 1999 report, go into Display / Edit AD-421 and select only the project you are working on, choose the option to include reports whether submitted to CRIS or not. The resulting table will include a "Clear" button which will clear out the 1999 report and put the project back onto the visible 2000 checklist.

September 25, 2000
New item! A new category of grants has just been added to the CRIS system. In addition to NRI Competitive Grants, Special Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Small Business Innovation Research, a category called "Other Grants" will now be used to include such programs as Future Food and Ag. System grants, Fund for Rural America grants, a category the grants office calls Other Programs, Biotechnology Risk Assessment grants, Federal Administration - Direct Appropriation grants and others. In essence, if you don't know what type of grant you have, select "Other Grant".

September 25, 2000
Again this year, the Program of Research is required only for McIntire-Stennis and Animal Health Programs. This is due by October 15, 2000. Your Director will be receiving a letter from CSREES soon requesting submittal of the 2001 Program of Research if you have projects funded by one of these 2 programs. To complete this requirement, simply click on the link in the white message box on the home page and follow instructions to review and submit the Program of Research.

While there is no official reconciliation required for other projects, you should make sure your project list is up-to-date before the checklists are generated in mid-October.

If you have reviewed your project list using the Administrative function Manage project information and it is correct for the upcoming FY or calendar year 2000 AD-421 and AD-419 reporting, you may request your 2000 Checklist prior to mid-October by contacting Carolyn Deckers (cdeckers@ cris.nal.usda.gov).