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We know that many AmeriCorps VISTA projects in
California and throughout the country spent MLK Day of Service volunteering
in their communities. As you know, it’s a day on, not a day off! Did your VISTA
project volunteer that day? Below are some great pictures from Reading Partners, LA Works, and UCLA BruinCorps!
Send photos and a brief description of what you did
to kgoyette@cns.gov or gericksen@cns.gov.
Here’s a breakdown of what the AmeriCorps VISTA projects did on MLK Day:
 READING PARTNERS: 630 total service hours logged that day between all their members! In the San Francisco Bay Area, 9,000 native plants were planted to build native grassland habitat
 LA WORKS: 1000 volunteers served at Lincoln High School to
build, garden, and paint. AmeriCorps members and volunteers did 50 different
projects across campus including
painting 15 murals, restoring 500+ lockers, rehabilitating gardens, and
building several new benches.
 UCLA BRUINCORPS: VISTA members volunteered at the Midnight Mission to help with their lunch service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Their group of seventeen prepped and served over 450 meals to guests
San
Fernando Middle School’s Maker VISTA members Carey Habiger and Lyna Abal were
heads-down and knee-deep working on a major grant application submission in
December 2017. As the year was winding down, this VISTA team and their
supervisor Toutoule Ntoya were ramping up their efforts to obtain a Career
Technical Education Incentive Grant (CTEIG) from the Los Angeles Unified School
District. Carey and Lyna contributed significantly to writing the application,
given their profound impact upon and understanding of the maker learning
landscape they themselves have helped to cultivate. Though the CTEIG is
generally only given to high schools, this driven duo ensured that SFMS could
check off a number of boxes that initially seemed very daunting. After
coordinating with nearby San Fernando High School and pooling other outside
resources, the CTEIG grant application was not only submitted successfully, but
at the end of the month, just ahead of the New Year, Carey and Lyna learned that
SFMS was awarded $300,000 towards the development and implementation of an
engineering and design program!
The VISTAs and team at San Fernando (and the Maker VISTA Program at Maker Ed!)
are incredibly proud of this accomplishment, especially considering the initial
challenges they faced as a middle school applicant and the number of
requirements they had to fulfill.
The Future Plans Form (FPF) is a required form that must be completed by each VISTA member. The FPF is the mechanism by which members select their End of Service action—i.e., early exit, regular exit, extension, reenrollment—and is subsequently used by both sponsors and Corporation State Offices (CSOs) to approve each member’s selection. The following is a general timeline that applies to most end of service actions. Early exits are handled on a case by case basis and are time sensitive.
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90 days from a member’s exit date: Full time VISTA members and leaders receive an automated email 90 days from their projected exit date (i.e., at the beginning of their 10th month of service), asking that they complete their FPF. When members log into the My.AmeriCorps.gov portal, they will see a new section at the top of their member homepage entitled “Close of Service Forms.”
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60 days from a member’s exit date: Members are expected to have completed their section (part A) of the FPF.
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45 days from a member’s exit date: Sponsors must complete part B of the FPF.
Failure to complete the Future Plans Forms causes: delayed access to the earned education award and
service verification letters (which include confirmation of Non Competitive
Eligibility Status), delayed
or incorrect close of
service travel reimbursements, if applicable, and overpayments and
underpayments
Please ensure that both you and your members complete the Future Plans Forms by the required dates. If you have any questions, please contact your Program Officer.
With
tax season underway, we want you to be aware of some important tax information
as it relates to your AmeriCorps VISTA members:
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2017
W-2 forms: All
W-2 forms were
mailed to members by January 31, 2018. This notification is also posted on your My
AmeriCorps portal login page as well. This includes the electronic version of
the W-2 form, which should be available in your My AmeriCorps account. You
can access the form online by logging into your My AmeriCorps account at https://my.americorps.gov/mp/login.do
and clicking on the My Tax Statements link.
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2017
W-2 form and program grants: If you are a member who is assigned to an
AmeriCorps VISTA sponsor supported by a program grant (meaning you receive
your living allowance payment directly from your sponsoring organization,
and not the Corporation for National and Community Service), your 2017 W-2
form will be issued to you by your sponsoring organization. You will
not have an electronic version of your W-2 form available in your My
AmeriCorps portal account. If you are assigned to a program grant and you
have not received your 2017 W-2 form, please follow up directly with your
sponsoring organization. If you are unsure about what type of sponsoring
organization you are assigned to, please contact the National Service
Hotline at 1-800-942-2677.
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Tax
changes:
The IRS has released the new 2018 tax rates and withholding allowance
rates. As such, most VISTA members will see a change in their net pay
starting next month.
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W-4
exempt status: If you have claimed exemption from income tax withholding on your
2017 W-4 tax form and intend to maintain that status for the 2018 tax
year, you have until February 15, 2018 to file another W-4 to renew
this status. You can complete this form online by logging into the My
AmeriCorps website and clicking on the My Living Allowance link. If
you have questions about how the IRS uses the form or how to complete the
form, online help is available on the My AmeriCorps website. If you do not
re-file for this exemption, Federal taxes will be withheld beginning in
the next pay period based on the last W-4 form recorded in the
portal. See IRS Publication 15 at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p15--2018.pdf
for more information about W-4s and withholding.
If
you have additional questions, please contact the National Service Hotline at
1-800-942-2677.
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