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Dear Ms. Laurent,
I write on behalf of Northbridge Settlement Council regarding the reporting circular issued 5 January for the Community Resilience program. The circular advances the final report due date from 31 March to 15 February and states that submissions must be lodged via the GrantSync portal only; email delivery will not be accepted. Uploads are limited to 25 MB per file and must follow the prescribed naming convention. We support fiscal discipline; however, the revised timetable intersects with activities already contracted under our agreement (Grant ID CR-2024-118, value $96,000).
Our work plan comprises three streams: (A) fourteen outreach workshops; (B) a translation toolkit (twelve languages); and (C) an evaluator’s outcomes report linked to pre-/post-surveys. Thirteen workshops are complete; the fourteenth is scheduled for 12 February at Parkview Library. Our independent evaluator (contracted 22 January) advised that fieldwork closes 20 February, with the signed report due 28 February. The translation vendor’s consolidated PDF is due the same week. The portal requires the evaluator’s certificate at submission; under the new date, we cannot furnish the signed report without truncating data collection and undermining validity. Compounding this, the GrantSync outage recorded as Incident #INC-2317 (30 January–2 February) delayed our preparatory uploads.
Section 5.4 of the contribution agreement permits a variance “with prior written consent.” Section 7.2 specifies that “reporting shall be in the form prescribed by the City unless the City system is unavailable,” in which case alternate means may be used. In light of the above, we respectfully request either: (1) a 21-day extension to 7 March; or (2) a phased submission—financial statements and inventory by 15 February, with the narrative, evaluator’s report, and translation toolkit by 7 March. If portal constraints persist, we ask to transmit the oversized deliverables by SFTP. We further request that late penalties be held in abeyance during any verified outage, and that the 25 MB limit be relaxed for the toolkit.
To expedite review, we can provide a draft narrative by 14 February and meet for a pre-submission check on 8 February at 10:00. We appreciate the program’s objectives and seek a remedy that safeguards methodological integrity without compromising fiscal close.
Sincerely,
Amara Voss
Program Director, Northbridge Settlement Council
I write on behalf of Northbridge Settlement Council regarding the reporting circular issued 5 January for the Community Resilience program. The circular advances the final report due date from 31 March to 15 February and states that submissions must be lodged via the GrantSync portal only; email delivery will not be accepted. Uploads are limited to 25 MB per file and must follow the prescribed naming convention. We support fiscal discipline; however, the revised timetable intersects with activities already contracted under our agreement (Grant ID CR-2024-118, value $96,000).
Our work plan comprises three streams: (A) fourteen outreach workshops; (B) a translation toolkit (twelve languages); and (C) an evaluator’s outcomes report linked to pre-/post-surveys. Thirteen workshops are complete; the fourteenth is scheduled for 12 February at Parkview Library. Our independent evaluator (contracted 22 January) advised that fieldwork closes 20 February, with the signed report due 28 February. The translation vendor’s consolidated PDF is due the same week. The portal requires the evaluator’s certificate at submission; under the new date, we cannot furnish the signed report without truncating data collection and undermining validity. Compounding this, the GrantSync outage recorded as Incident #INC-2317 (30 January–2 February) delayed our preparatory uploads.
Section 5.4 of the contribution agreement permits a variance “with prior written consent.” Section 7.2 specifies that “reporting shall be in the form prescribed by the City unless the City system is unavailable,” in which case alternate means may be used. In light of the above, we respectfully request either: (1) a 21-day extension to 7 March; or (2) a phased submission—financial statements and inventory by 15 February, with the narrative, evaluator’s report, and translation toolkit by 7 March. If portal constraints persist, we ask to transmit the oversized deliverables by SFTP. We further request that late penalties be held in abeyance during any verified outage, and that the 25 MB limit be relaxed for the toolkit.
To expedite review, we can provide a draft narrative by 14 February and meet for a pre-submission check on 8 February at 10:00. We appreciate the program’s objectives and seek a remedy that safeguards methodological integrity without compromising fiscal close.
Sincerely,
Amara Voss
Program Director, Northbridge Settlement Council
Choose the best option according to the information given in the message:
1. Main purpose?
2. New due date?
3. Why extension?
4. “They will not accept email submissions.” Who are “They”?
5. “Abeyance” means …
6. Tone?
Here is a response to the message. Complete the response by filling in the blanks. Select the best choice for each blank from the drop-down
Dear Ms. Voss,
Thank you for 7..... After review, the Grants Office approves a phased submission for CR-2024-118: 8..... Late penalties will 9.... during any verified GrantSync outage (ref. #INC-2317). For files exceeding 25 MB, we will provision an 10.... and accept delivery there; please retain your audit trail. We confirm a pre-submission review on 11.....
We appreciate your commitment to methodological integrity and fiscal timelines. Please cite Section 5.4 in your cover letter and upload the draft narrative by 14 February to facilitate our review.
Sincerely,
Émile Laurent
Program Officer, Community Resilience