The main method of contact for the Parks Corps is email WhatsApp, and Microsoft Sharepoint. Please monitor our team Microsoft Sharepoint, WhatsApp, personal email, and PARKS-provided (if applicable) email for communication from the Program Coordinator and Program Manager. Failure to do so will lead to missed opportunities and deadlines.
The New York State Parks Corps uses a group Microsoft SharePoint. On it, you will find important general information for the Corps along with a “shared drive” containing handouts, resources, and recordings of the trainings throughout the year. Members and supervisors can only access the Microsoft SharePoint from the email addresses verified with the Program Coordinator.
The ADP portal is the interface you used to apply for this Parks Corps position. The same portal will be used to track your time logs manage your benefits throughout your term of service.
The NYS Parks Corps is funded, in part, by AmeriCorps. In addition to serving 1700 service hours (1200 for seven-month, 900 for five-month positions), AmeriCorps requires each member across the country to report on their service tasks to receive a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. The NYS Parks Corps satisfies this requirement in two ways: Weekly Time Logs through the ADP portal and a Output Report, hosted on the team SharePoint.
Each Parks Corps member must complete a bi-weekly ADP timecard for every two weeks they're in service through the ADP portal. Timecards should be entered and approved on the final Friday or Saturday in the two-week ADP timecard, whichever represents the member’s last day of service. All time logs start with a Sunday and end with a Saturday. Members can only have one week with zero hours and must maintain a minimum of fourteen hours per week. Notify the Program Coordinator if you plan to travel out-of-state for work or take an absence from service longer than three days, and ensure no "AmeriCorps prohibited activities" are included, listed on the next page.
If it contributes to your professional development, upholds SCA’s mission, and doesn’t violate AmeriCorps’s prohibited activities, it can probably be counted as hours!
Each NYS Parks Corps service site will be assigned a team Output Report at orientation, hosted on the shared Member Drive. If you're the sole member at a site, it is your responsibility to keep this up to date. If you're part of a team at a service site, the Output Report is to be shared by all members, sans the "monthly log" tab.
For environmental education and volunteers, please count each individual only once, unless it's a different program entirely. For stewardship, please count mileage/acreage for each project only once, unless there's a different project scope or more than two weeks has passed.
To access, visit the Output Report link assigned to you our your team at orientation or visit the team site. The Output Report will open to the "Overall Progress" tab.
Expected Use of the Wireless Router:
To be used for SCA NYSPC virtual trainings & AmeriCorps National Direct virtual trainings.
To be used to boost capacity for communication in an emergency.
To be minimally used for personal access.
Router may need to be positioned in an area that has T-Mobile service.
If the usage exceeds 50GB, the router will be throttled and unusable for trainings. If this happens, it is the member’s responsibility to travel to a place with reliable service, use their own computer/phone, and reliably access the training.
Wireless Router Use Instructions:
Use the provided plug and charger to charge the wireless router before use.
Push the main power button to turn on the wireless router.
After the device boots, ensure that you have at least 3G service by checking the display screen.
Use the menu to access the WIFI settings to gain the WIFI’s name and password.
Connect to the wireless router with a device with WIFI capability by choosing the correct WIFI name and entering the password when prompted.
When done, push the main power button to turn off the wireless router.
Wireless Router Sites:
Thousand Islands Region Environmental Education Stewards, Wellesley Island State Park
Thousand Islands Region Conservation Stewards, Westcott Beach State Park & On-Hitch
Finger Lakes Region “Conservation Stewards,” Finger Lakes Region “Conservation House”
Finger Lakes Region “Environmental Education Stewards,” Finger Lakes Region “Environmental Education House”
Allegany Region Environmental Education Steward, Allegany State Park
Reinstein Woods Environmental Education Steward, DEC Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve
While charging time to the AmeriCorps program, accumulating service or training hours, or otherwise performing activities supported by the AmeriCorps program or AmeriCorps, staff and members may not engage in the following activities (see 45 § CFR 2520.65):
Attempting to influence legislation
Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes
Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing
Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements
Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office
Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials
Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization
Providing a direct benefit to the following entities—
A business organized for profit;
A labor union;
A partisan political organization;
A nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 related to engaging in political activities or substantial amount of lobbying except that nothing in these provisions shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and e. An organization engaged in the religious activities described in 7. above, unless AmeriCorps assistance is not used to support those religious activities;
Conducting a voter registration drive or using AmeriCorps funds to conduct a voter registration drive
Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services
Such other activities as AmeriCorps may prohibit.
Please note: Additional Prohibited Activities as of FY22_Program Year:
Census Activities. AmeriCorps members and volunteers associated with AmeriCorps grants may not engage in census activities during service hours. Being a census taker during service hours is categorically prohibited. Census-related activities (e.g., promotion of the Census, education about the importance of the Census) do not align with AmeriCorps State and National objectives. What members and volunteers do on their own time is up to them, consistent with program policies about outside employment and activities.
Election and Polling Activities. AmeriCorps Members may not provide services for election or polling locations or in support of such activities. AmeriCorps members may not engage in the above activities directly or indirectly by recruiting, training, or managing others for the primary purpose of engaging in one of the activities listed above. Individuals may exercise their rights as private citizens and may participate in the activities listed above on their initiative, on non-AmeriCorps time, and using non- AmeriCorps funds. Individuals should not wear the AmeriCorps logo while engaging in any of the above activities on their personal time.