There Are Currently Three Data-Entry Templates: Admin, RMT, and CD

From: Steven Monai, NIVMA TRENDS database steward To: All TRENDS contractors interested in using the Access data-entry templates Date: September 21, 2000

Please note that the TRENDS database (and its steward) are in the process of moving. Therefore, we ask that contractors hold off requesting templates until after October 10, 2000.

Current Status of the Templates As of September 21, 2000, there are three data-entry templates: Admin, RMT, and CD. By early November 2000, I intend to have two more ready: Vegetation Description and Subplot.

How to Obtain the Data-Entry Templates This year, I intend to run the template data-entry process as a simple scheme of “request- and-response” between individual contractors and myself. If contractors want to enter their post-harvest data through the Access templates, each must send me an explicit request for the templates. I prefer that template requests come via email (although alternate methods can be accommodated). A complete list of all the installations for which the contractor will be using the data-entry templates should come attached to the request. An Excel spreadsheet or an Access table containing the obligation numbers (i.e. TM, CP, BLK, INS) is the preferred installation list format. Template requests should be sent to my NIVMA email address: [email protected]

Once I have received a request, I will check that all the installations in the provided list currently exist within the TRENDS database. If so, my response to the request will be an email containing the Access templates loaded with all the data for the requested installations. If I receive a list of installations containing obligation numbers that do not exist in the TRENDS database, I will ask the sender for clarification, and a new request will need to be sent.

Data-Entry Guidelines when using the Templates I ask that contractors enter only post-harvest information though the templates. In particular, please do not enter new pre-harvest installations through the templates. All pre-harvest paper forms should be sent to NIVMA (c/o IFS) for keypunching, as usual.

Another rule of thumb is this: Keep each installation's post-harvest paper forms together. This rule applies even though there are several post-harvest activities that don't yet have data-entry templates (and thus will need to be keypunched at IFS). Once you've started entering data through the templates, I ask that you please send us the paper forms for completed installations in batches of no more than, say, ten installations at a time, so that a fairly constant and manageable flow of paper forms arrives at IFS for keypunching. Do not wait until you’ve entered all the data you can through the data-entry templates before sending us any paper forms. On the other hand, I ask that you send the digital data (that is, the Access database containing the templates) only once, after you've completed all your template data-entry.

Ideally, after the templates are returned to me, the data they contain will enter the TRENDS database with no problems. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world, and I expect to encounter some small number of errors that will need to be corrected. These will be handled on a case-by-case basis. If there are very few errors, I may simply ask the contractor for the corrected values and then make the fixes myself here. If there are numerous errors, I might ask the contractor to fix them through the templates, and then resubmit the data to me. With that in mind, contractors should hold onto their copy of the templates after they've submitted them until I have explicitly indicated that the data they submitted has successfully entered the TRENDS database.