RMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Income Maintenance/Child Care(IM/CC) Random Moment Sampling (RMS) is a system used to document staff effort in support of federal, state, and local programs. DCF maintains a separate Social Services Random Moment Time Study (RMTS) and Child Support (CS) RMS. Expand content below to view answers to user's frequently asked questions. What do all the RMS program acronyms mean? Below is a listing of most common acronyms used. AMSO - Agency Management, Support, and Overhead BC - BadgerCare CARES - Client Assistance and Re-Employment and Economic Support CC - Child Care CLTS - Children's Long-Term Support CTS - Caretaker Supplement BRITS - Benefit Recovery Investigative Tracking System FC - Family Care FMLA - Family Medical Leave Act FPOS - Family Planning Only Services FS - FoodShare FSET - FoodShare Employment and Training IM - Income Maintenance MA - Medical Assistance MPE - Marketplace Exchange RMS - Random Moment Sampling RMTS - Random Moment Time Study (Social Services) SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program WHEAP - Wisconsin's Energy Assistance Program WIC - Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children What can I do if my WIEXT ID is locked? If you type the incorrect password multiple times, your account will be locked. You can either call the DCF Service Desk at (608) 264-6323 or you can visit the DWD Helpdesk web page to reset your Wisconsin logon account password. If you try to recover your account via the website and you get a message that your e- mail is being used by more than one account or that DWD doesn’t recognize that address, you must call (608) 266-7252. They will be able to consolidate your accounts, so you have just one DWD/WIEXT ID associated with your e-mail address. The RMS administrator does not have the ability to reset/unlock passwords/accounts. What if I was on a break or off when the sample was sent? If you were on a break, at lunch, on leave, vacation, sick, FMLA, PTO, office closed for county holiday, office closed due to an emergency, use program code 370 – not specific to a program and activity code 610. A comment must also be added. What happens if enough valid responses aren’t received? Responses are important to ensure we receive a valid number of responses, or the resulting statistics will not be valid and will negatively affect federal funding. If enough observation surveys aren’t being responded to, it could result in an increase of the number of overall requests. Do I need to include comments when responding to the IM/CC RMS observation? Comments are only required when you use: Social Services, program code 340 County Only Funded, program code 350 Not Specific to Any Other Program Choice, program code 370 If you select any of these codes, include a comment noting the specific program and activity you were working on at the sample moment. Although not required, comments are helpful if there are questions, so feel free to include clarifying comments. Who do you contact if you have questions on how to record an IM/CC RMS observation? Send an email to the DCF RMS Administrator. Include the observation number you are working on. Why does the logon box keep coming back when trying to access the system? When this occurs, it is usually due to an incorrect username and/or password. Remember, passwords are case sensitive. If you accidentally type the incorrect info, e.g., have your caps lock on when your password is in lowercase, the system will lock you out after multiple failed attempts. If you are unsure of your username or password, go to DWD Profile Management Site or go the the DWD website listed in the RMS observation e-mail and click on the Logon ID/Password Recovery link to recover your username or password. You can also call the DWD service desk directly at (608) 266-7252. Make sure that you are using your DWD WIEXT ID not CARES or another system ID. Why am I sampled at a time when I normally don’t work? Do I need to record this? We cannot have all schedules in the RMS system so you may be sampled at times you are not normally scheduled to work. Yes, you must respond to every sample. It is also recommended that you check with your supervisor to ensure the correct schedule is entered in the system. Record these observations using program code 370 - Not Specific to a Program and activity code 630 - Sampled Outside of Normal Work Hours. You must also add a comment into the comments field. My work hours have changed, what should I do? When your work hours change, ensure your supervisor is aware and they can update the IM/CC RMS roster to reflect your new schedule. The current quarter samples are already selected with your old schedule so you may still be sampled outside your new work hours for the rest of the current quarter. If you are, record the observation to Program Code 370 - not specific to a program and Activity code 630 - sampled outside of normal work hours. You must also add a comment into the comments field. When samples are created for the next quarter, your updated work schedule hours are what your samples will be based on. I wasn’t working on a case, do I still need to respond? Yes, even if you are not working on a case, you still need to answer your observations. If you are working on a specific program, you should record non-case related program specific work to the program codes. For example, if you are reading information pertaining to the food stamp program, you should use the “FoodShare” program code and the “professional reading” activity code. Why do I receive a message saying “could not determine action” when clicking on the link in the RMS email? In a few instances, some county e-mail systems are not accepting the link in the e-mail – when clicking on the link, the entire link is not being picked up. Check with your IT staff to see if there are settings on your computer that can be changed so the entire link is picked up. This is a very frequent issue when an agency changes or upgrades its software or system. Normally, IT just resets your settings and things are back to normal. Below are approaches used by others to overcome the link issue: Highlight the link from right to left and click on it when the entire link is highlighted. Copy and paste the link from the RMS e-mail to the address bar of your Internet browser. If working on a case that is eligible for multiple programs, which program code should be used? The program code depends on what you were doing at the actual moment in time that you were sampled (surveyed). For example, if a client is eligible for FS/MA/CC, but you were working on an activity related only to the child care portion of the case, you would use the child care program code. Conversely, if you were updating general information for this case that affected all these programs, you would use the multiple program code FS/MA/CC to capture the activity related to all three programs. The program selected should specifically list the programs that were being worked on or affected at the time of the sample (survey). For example, if you were working on both FS and MA, if there is no specific program option that lists both of those programs, then the 025 – IM programs only option should be selected. If you were working on CC, BC, and MA, if there is a specific program that lists all three codes, then that program code should be selected. If not, the code 075 – IM/CC program option should be selected. 025 should be used when no CC is involved and 075 should be used when CC is involved. What code should I use if I’m attending training? If attending training when the observation is received, record Program Code for that specific program. CARES worker web (CWW) training is recorded to IM/CC Common and Program Specific Training.
