June 20, 2013
Volunteer Pass Program
Attached is a memo signed by Director of Civil Works, Steve Stockton establishing a volunteer pass program which enables volunteers who have served a minimum of 100 hours at Corps managed areas to receive a waiver of all day use fees via an Annual Day Use Pass. The purpose of this program is to support and recognize volunteers who have served the Corps in an exemplary way and encourage their visitation and use of Corps parks. The main goal of the program is to increase visitation to Corps parks by enticing volunteers to visit new places, bring friends and family, and continue to explore and enjoy Corps recreation opportunities even after their pass has expired.

Tutorial, Memo, & FAQs can be found at https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/employees/volunt eer/pass.cfm

The process is as follows:

1. Volunteer can accumulate hours toward a pass at multiple Corps projects.
2. Each Corps project Volunteer Coordinator will need to set up a Password the first time they access the central database system, located at https://gateway.erdc.dren.mil/nrm/vhs/
3. Volunteer coordinators will verify their volunteer's hours and enter them into the central database.
4. Data needed for tracking include: first/last name, phone number, state of residence, hours earned
5. Hours may be entered at any time. At a minimum, enter volunteer hours in the database when the volunteer has reached 100 hours to earn a pass, or once a year, whichever happens first.
6. If a volunteer works at multiple Corps projects, each volunteer coordinator will be able to add hours to the volunteer's cumulative record in the database.
7. When the volunteer reaches 100 hours, the current coordinator whom the volunteer works for may provide the Annual Pass to the volunteer at the volunteer's request, and input the issue date into the central database to prevent issuance of more than one pass per year.
8. Start date for tracking volunteer hours will be retroactive to January 1, 2013. Do not enter any volunteer hours earned prior to this date into the system.

Please see the attached memo with concept paper and FAQs for more details. The second attachment is a step-by- step tutorial that demonstrates how to use the database. Webinar sessions will be conducted the week of June 24 to go through the tutorial and answer questions.

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