OHATS (Organizational History and Tracking System) is an organized and systematic way for a group, program or network of community organizations to record, observe, analyze and report contributions and key events that influence progress toward its mission and goals. For example, one can use OHATS to track accomplishments and results, organizational procedures, lessons and best practices, critical external events that influence the work, and service delivery details and statistics.  NOTE: As of 10-23-15 OHATS site is not functioning due to MySQL error. Volunteers needed to fix problem.

The idea behind OHATS is simple and proven throughout history: if a community group tracks actions, events, lessons and results important to their success then they can learn from them and be more successful.  View OHATs archive at this link. View 2001 version at this link.

OHATS simplifies the collection and organization of data to increase:
- the number of organization staff and stakeholders who document important actions and events
- the number and type of actions and events reported (such as lessons and best practices), and
- the rate of exchange of such intelligence.

OHATS uses a set of core measures for all participating organizations and can include specific measures to best capture the work and mission of your organization, group or network. Events and actions described in OHATS can be organized and presented in a variety of formats and can be grouped and analyzed in order to identify graphical patterns of progress over time.

OHATS addresses a need present in every organization, but more acute in networks and collaborations. It allows any organizational stakeholder to document and see what he/she does to achieve the organization’s mission, while demonstrating the cumulative impact of actions across stakeholders. It categorizes accomplishments and lessons (across time, goals, location, and other user preferences) so progress can be analyzed using charts and graphs. OHATS is Internet-based so it can be used anytime, anywhere, without database software or skills.

Objectives. OHATS fulfills two objectives:

To enable staff and any stakeholder (such as program volunteers and clients, business and civic leaders, philanthropic organizations, social researchers, and policy makers) to document what they do to achieve the mission and objectives of the community organization or network, and

To enable clearer and easier exchange of documented ideas, lessons and best practices within and outside community organizations and networks.

Use of OHATS by Tutor/Mentor Connection. With a small grant received in 1999 the T/MC began to create a version of OHATS that would document the actions of T/MC stakeholders to achieve the mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  See History to learn more.