The Services to the Field category provides funding to advance the presenting field in all areas of management and presentation. Requests are welcome from organizations interested in conducting and/or administering projects and activities that provide professional services to New York State performing arts presenters. Such services may focus on programmatic, informational, or managerial areas and may include professional development workshops, roundtable discussions, symposia, artist showcases, or projects that utilize new technologies. Priority is given to services carried out on a regional or statewide basis.

Evaluative Criteria

Grant requests are evaluated in accordance with agency-wide criteria.

Application Instructions

The online application form includes the questions below. Applicants are also required to submit: online Organizational Budget, Project Budget, (please use the Budget Notes section to detail income and expense items), Cultural Data Project Report and support materials.

Please note that your request amount may not exceed 50% of the total Project Budget.

New applicants are required to contact NYSCA staff before the deadline.

Application Narrative Questions

Artistic/Programmatic

1. Program Summary
Briefly describe the proposed service and how it relates to other programs in the organization. Provide a specific timetable for the project.

2. Challenges
What are the key programmatic challenges and how will they be addressed?

3. Audience/Constituency
Describe the constituency to be served and the level of use. Identify methods used to determine the need for this service and outline specific goals of the project related to that need. If applicable, detail the process to be used for selection of participants.

4. Service Delivery
Describe how the organization can effectively deliver these services in terms of technical, administrative, and informational capacity. If a website or listserv is part of the service, how does it support the service(s) and how is it maintained?

Managerial/Fiscal

5. Project Staff
Identify key staff, advisors, and consultants providing the service, summarizing their credentials and roles. If selection of project personnel is pending, describe the process and outline the qualifications of individuals being sought.

6. Finances
Describe any plans, projects, and activities for meeting the expenses of this project. How is the board involved in these efforts?

7. Organizational Development
How do you actively engage board, staff, and the public in organizational planning?

Service to the Public

8. Outreach and Marketing
Outline the outreach plan for the proposed service. Include efforts to reach constituents in under-represented communities. Provide cost or fees associated with the project.

9. Evaluation
Describe the methods for ongoing assessment and evaluation. If the proposed project is a one-time event, what are your intended outcomes and how will they be assessed?

Support Materials

10. Support Materials
Please list all of the support materials and/or work samples being submitted. These materials are critical to the application's assessment.

Support Materials

1. Representative samples of relevant printed materials.

2. Sample questionnaires and in-take forms or evaluations of the services.

3. Listing of program participants, if ongoing.

4. Résumés for consultants, facilitators, speakers, etc.

5. Outreach/promotional plan for proposed service.

Electronic Materials Guidelines for Submission of Support Materials

Instructions for FY13 Support Materials
The Council is now requiring electronic submission of all Support Materials, including forms, documents and work samples.

There are Exemptions to this requirement. Please see Exemptions to Electronic Support Materials below.

Remember to review Program Specific Requirements for all Support Materials indicated in each Program’s guidelines.

Support Materials can only be submitted electronically while the Council’s online Registration and Application period is open.

Requirements for Electronic Submission of Support Materials
Electronic Support Materials must be submitted online to http://nysca.slideroom.com. Remember to review Program Specific Requirements indicated in each Program’s guidelines prior to uploading. All Support Materials including forms and documents for all Program categories including General Support, Project Support, Regrants and Partnerships, can be uploaded as images, video, audio and/or PDF.

If the Support Material is in the form of a URL(s), please create a separate text document titled URL Support Materials, a description of the work sample/content and the URL (link) embedded in the text document. Include this document when uploading all your Support Materials online to http://nysca.slideroom.com.

For Time-Based Media (video and audio) the following is a general guideline to help applicants prepare content for electronic submission:

Images: 5MB maximum (jpg, png, tif file formats)
Videos: 60MB maximum (mov, mp4, wmv, flv file formats)
Audio: 30MB maximum (mp3 file format)
PDF: 10MB maximum (pdf file format)

60MB per Video clips is approximately 6 minutes
30MB per Audio clip is approximately 10 minutes
10MB per PDF is adequate for up to 10 pages of graphical content. Most text only documents are less than ½ MB.

IMPORTANT: When uploading all time-based materials (audio and video), the maximum length allowed is no more than six minutes per sound and/or video clip.

The maximum number of electronic items allowed (uploads) is no more than twenty-five (25) per proposal. For example: One PDF equals one item, one JPG equals one item and one media clip equals one item.

INSTRUCTIONS for uploading and Technical Assistance during the electronic materials submission process are available by emailing your question to support@slideroom.com Monday through Saturday, between 9am and 9pm, Central Standard Time.

Ensuring the Playback Quality of Your Hard Copy Support Materials

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure the availability, quality, compatibility, and playback stability of all Support Materials which are exempt from the electronic materials submission requirement

Applicants are encouraged to test and verify that their Support Materials are playable prior to submission.

All Support Materials should be able to meet basic presentation requirements for the following hardware:

• Windows XP PC
• 1.6 GHz processor
• 256 mb RAM

In addition, all Hard Copy Support Materials should be able to meet basic presentation requirements for the following software:

• For Time-based Work (Film, Moving Images, Music and Soundwork): VideoLAN VLC Media Player (click here for a complete list of compatible file formats)
• For Still Images: Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 OR XnView multimedia viewer (click here for a complete list of compatible file formats)
• For Electronic Print Materials: Microsoft Word 2003 OR Adobe Acrobat Reader (most current version)