By: Amy Zvonar
If you are a Volunteer Monitor, you may have recently received an email from AWW summarizing your data monitoring efforts from June 01, 2025 until August 31, 2025. If you monitored during this period and submitted your data, you received a “Thank You for Submitting Data” email. If you are a certified monitor but did not monitor during this period, you may have received a “We Miss You” email! Both emails are part of a new initiative by our staff to provide all certified AWW monitors with up-to-date information about their monitoring efforts!
With anything new, there is always a lot to learn. If you received an email, we hope you learned that we care about the data you submit. Committing to regular monitoring and submitting your data monthly requires time and effort and we greatly value your dedication. We hope you also learned that we value you. If you have not been able to submit data for any reason, these quarterly emails are one tool our small staff is using to reach out and offer our assistance.
We understand that there are times when monitoring and submitting data is not possible, and we encourage you to email us at awwprog@auburn.edu or call 334-844-4785 if you need help reengaging in monitoring.
Our staff is also learning from your responses, and we appreciate the positive and constructive feedback you have provided. You will see a few changes in the next round of Data Snapshot emails that reflect your suggestions. For now, we want to share some answers to the frequently asked questions we received:
Q: I monitor with a partner or a group. We submitted data every month this quarter, so why am I receiving a “We Miss You” email?
A: Monitoring with a partner or group is wonderful, but please make sure every person in the group follows AWW protocols for submitting data. When you enter data online, or submit a hard copy of your data form, make sure to list the names of every certified AWW monitor who collected the data. This will ensure that monitors who did the work receive credit in our database for submitting data.
Q: I submitted data for one of the months you listed, but the email did not give me credit for my submission?. What do I need to do?
A: Thank you for responding to the data snapshot email! Your attention to detail will help us ensure our data reporting is accurate. We will do the work on our end to make sure we have the data record you are missing. Most likely, we made an error when compiling the Data Snapshot email and we have your data. If we need anything from you, one of our staff members will reach out directly to you to resolve the issue.
Q: The email suggests I review my data, look for trends in my waterbody, and watch the Data Tools Webinars provided in a link. That seems like a lot. Do I have to do this?
A: No, you are not required to do this! Some volunteers may want to explore their data more, however that is entirely up to the individual volunteer. We do encourage you to periodically check your data and make sure it is accurate, but these Data Snapshots emails should help with that process. If you do want to watch one of the Data Tools Webinars and are experiencing any issues, please contact our staff and someone will help you!
Q: I do not collect Water Chemistry Data and/or Bacteriological Data. Why was the data type I do not collect still listed in my email with a date attached to it?
A: In order to create a universal email that could go to hundreds of volunteers, we needed to include a line for Water Chemistry Data and Bacteriological Data in everyone’s report. You will only see a number reflecting your data records in front of the type that you collect. It will look like this:
6 Bacteriological Monitoring Data Records, with the last one sampled on 8/13/2025
For the data type you do not collect, there will be no number or, in some cases, a 0. It will look like this:
Water Chemistry Monitoring Data Records, with the last one sampled on 8/13/2025
or
0 Water Chemistry Monitoring Data Records, with the last one sampled on 8/13/2025
We recognize that having no number but seeing a date is confusing. We are working to correct this issue. For now, rest assured that for the type of data you do not collect, there are no data records.
Thank you to all the volunteers who responded to these emails! You are helping us improve the Data Snapshot email experience.
Our next set of Data Snapshot emails will go out in December, and will cover the months of September, October, and November. We hope you will let us know if they are helpful to you, or how we can improve them to better support your monitoring efforts.
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