Regional and national volunteer reports

I've been looking over the annual reports for the regional and national volunteer programs. There are some interesting details in the reports. Here's our regional report, followed by the national one:

Annual Activity and Expense Report
Pacific West Regional Office
Report Date: Nov 20, 2007
Fiscal Year: 2007

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Volunteer Coordinator and Region Information
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Total Volunteers: 48,690
Parks reporting: 58
VIP Coordinator: Peggy Dolinich

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Volunteer hours by category:
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Administration: 17,891.00
Campground Host: 98,004.50
Cultural Resource Management: 61,041.50
General Management: 51,419.55
Interpretation: 432,250.79
Maintenance: 321,680.10
Natural Resource Management: 351,626.05
Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 104,744.00
Training: 16,259.25

[Total hours: 1,454,918.00]

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Program costs by category:
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Housing: $ 318,965.43
Meals: $ 381,904.60
Recognition/Award: $ 88,450.02
Supplies: $ 206,335.88
Training: $ 70,230.28
Transportation: $ 304,064.56
Uniforms: $ 90,460.62

[Total costs: $ 1,460,412.00]

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Other Information
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Number of SCAs: 321
SCA Hours: 126,357.0
Number of International VIPs: 64
International VIPS Hours: 19,097.5

Annual Activity and Expense Report
Servicewide Report
Report Date: Nov 20, 2007
Fiscal Year: 2007

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Volunteer Program Information and Coordinator
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Total Volunteers: 160,399
Parks reporting: 371
VIP Coordinator: Joy Pietschmann

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Volunteer hours by category:
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Protection/Operations/Law Enforcement: 314,374.70
Campground Host: 381,774.50
Administration: 136,616.05
Natural Resource Management: 874,753.55
Interpretation: 2,125,834.28
Training: 63,750.00
Maintenance: 1,123,220.00
General Management: 118,749.55
Cultural Resource Management: 324,847.70

[Total hours: 5,463,920.33]

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Program costs by category:
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Supplies: $ 669,536.86
Transportation: $ 640,210.40
Recognition/Award: $ 299,477.00
Training: $ 192,994.71
Uniforms: $ 361,125.42
Housing: $ 896,511.27
Meals: $ 809,638.13

[Total costs: $ 3,869,493.79]

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Other Information
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Number of SCAs: 1,419
SCA Hours: 489,708.3
Number of International VIPs: 130
International VIPS Hours: 38,219.0


The first thing I see, comparing these reports to last year, is that volunteer participation is up, but servicewide and in our Pacific West region. Nationally our total number of volunteers is up by 3.8% and total volunteer hours is up by 6.4%. In our region, the number of volunteers is up a whopping 30%, though volunteer hours are only up 4.1% (suggesting a significant increase in short-term volunteers).

I also see that at the national level the number of SCA interns is down by 47% from last year--a loss of over a thousand people! I wonder why? To make the matter even more puzzling, SCA hours are only down 0.3%. At the regional level, our SCA participation is up about 6%. It makes me wonder if there's an error in the national numbers somewhere. [update: I found the error! One of the national parks reported 1,241 SCAs last year... with a total of 976 hours. The invasion of the lay-about interns! That park listed 5 SCAs in 2005 and 4 this year. So, the 2006 number is in error, and in fact, SCA numbers nationally have gone up 5.3% over the past two years.]

Finally, I see that nationally, international volunteer participation is up 18%, from 110 last year to 130 this year, with a 10% increase in their volunteer hours. Good job to the folks in our Office of International Affairs! It's also interesting to note that almost 1 out of 5 international volunteers in the entire National Park Service this summer were at Mount Rainier (mostly through our partnership with the Japan Volunteer-in-Parks Association), and nearly half of the international volunteers servicewide were here in the Pacific West Region.