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General Requirements for All Applicants

All applicants must directly address the following specific requirements in their LGRMIF applications. Be sure to address each requirement in the appropriate Project Narrative section listed below. Individual categories have specific, additional requirements that you must also address.

  • Records Focus (Address this requirement in section 3. Plan of Work: 3b, Grant Requirements.)
    • Demonstrate that your project focuses on improving the management of records in your local government by addressing the following:
      • Demonstrate that you are prepared to address the appropriate retention and disposition of the records involved in your project. If you are proposing to implement new technology, explain how you will maintain the records and make them available for the full retention period (especially if the records are permanent) and destroy the records appropriately when their retention period has passed.
      • Base project costs on the records involved whenever possible (such as volume, condition, or other characteristic of the records). For example, determine the number of hours needed to inventory and organize records based on the cubic feet of records and the specific work activities to be accomplished
      • Address specific records management issues, including increased access to records, vital records protection and disaster management, preservation, confidentiality, security, compliance with FOIL and other records laws, and the legal admissibility of information.
    • Projects that propose to create data or records or to improve a business process are not eligible for funding. Examples of these include:
      • water meter reading projects
      • projects to initiate or enhance a government’s ability to transact business over the Internet
      • the implementation of incident voice recording systems
      • the creation of GIS data by use of Global Positioning System (GPS) units
      • the installation of billing programs and other software applications that do not manage records as their primary purpose
      • Business Process Analyses (BPAs) are also ineligible.
  • Adherence to Archives’ Standards & Guidelines (Address this requirement in section 3. Plan of Work: 3b, Grant Requirements.)
    • ​Give details on how you will adhere to State Archives standards and guidelines relevant to plan your project. These can include the Archives’ standards for digital imaging and microfilming, as well as guidelines in the form of workshops, publications, or advice from a State Archives’ Regional Advisory Officer. For your convenience, references to applicable written standards and guidelines are included in the descriptions for most grant categories.
  • Program Improvements (Address this requirement in section 2. Intended Results: 2b, Anticipated Benefits.)
    • Explain how this project will help you develop or enhance the capacity of your records management program or system. In other words, explain how this project will help build a program or improve an existing component of a program rather than just maintain it.
    • LGRMIF grants are not intended to support ongoing operational costs of a records management program. Funds are not awarded to address records that have accumulated since the completion of a previous project, to pay for upgrades to software and hardware already funded through an LGRMIF grant, or to cover payroll costs that are not directly associated with the grant project.
    • If you are proposing to redo a project funded under a previous LGRMIF grant, you must provide compelling justification about why you could not maintain the results of that project and how you will ensure you can do so in the future.
  • Project Staffing (Address this requirement in section 3. Plan of Work: 3a, Project Outline.)
    • Explain who will perform each project activity, including project management.
    • Indicate the qualifications of project staff (including consultants and vendors) and explain how and why they are qualified to conduct their assigned tasks for this project.
  • Supporting Documentation (Address this requirement in section 3. Plan of Work: 3b, Grant Requirements.)
    • ​Applicants are responsible for ensuring they submit the documentation required by their specific project category. We strongly encourage applicants to obtain electronic versions of any documentation from a vendor (for example, needs assessments, responses to RFQs, floor plans and shelving layouts, conservation treatment proposals), so that they can more easily integrate the documentation into their grant applications when applying on line.
    • Submit any supporting documentation only in the following electronic formats: Microsoft Word (.docx) or PDF for text-based documents; Excel (.xlsx) for spreadsheets; and PDF, JPEG, BMP, or PNG for images. Note: Please do not attach MS Word 2003 or 2007 (.doc) files; they must be converted to MS Word 2010 (.docx) format.
    • Needs assessments are not eligible for funding through the LGRMIF except for Inactive Records and Historical Records projects. However, if a needs assessment is essential for proving the viability of a project, it is the applicant’s responsibility to complete and submit one with the grant application. Applicants may either use government funds to pay a consultant or work with their RAO to develop a needs assessment in house.
    • Request for Quotes (RFQ). An RFQ is required when applying for fundseven if the services or products will be procured:
      • to purchase computer software with a unit cost in excess of $10,000
      • for purchased services where the fee for all activities for any single vendor or consultant exceeds $10,000
      • for remodeling, where the cost of any one activity exceeds $10,000
      • for remodeling, where any one contractor will receive over $10,000
      • off state contract
      • from Preferred Source vendors
      • from BOCES
      • from sole-source vendors, or 
      • by following your local government’s procurement requirements.
    • Vendor Quotes. Three quotes are required whenever a RFQ is required, except that only one quote is needed in cases where services or products will be procured:
      • off state contract
      • from Preferred Source vendors
      • from BOCES
      • from sole-source vendors, or
      • by following your local government’s procurement requirements.
    • If an applicant proposes a project that involves birth, death, marriage, or burial records, the applicant must indicate in the application narrative that it has discussed its proposed project with the Department of Health (DOH), which oversees those records, and confirm that the project meets with DOH’s approval. Contact the Registration Unit at the Office for Vital Statistics at 518-474-8187. (Note: DOH is approving that the parameters of your project meet DOH Guidelines. DOH is not approving your grant application).
    • If an applicant proposes a project that involves court records, the applicant must indicate in the application narrative that it has discussed its proposed project with the Unified Court System (UCS), which oversees those records, and confirm that the project meets with UCS’s approval. Contact Unified Court System records management staff at 212-428-2875 or records@courts.state.ny.us. (Note: UCS is approving that the parameters of your project meet UCS Guidelines. UCS is not approving your grant application).
  • Program Support (Address this requirement in section 3. Plan of Work: 3b, Grant Requirements.)
    • ​Provide concrete information to demonstrate how you will maintain and expand the results of this project long term without additional LGRMIF grant funding. If additional grant funding will be required in the short term, explain why.