[nagdu] Another Reason for Having Your Own Harness

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Julie,

Wow!  Good thoughts, all of them.  You're talking about a *real* consumer
survey and report. The kind that requires work and time and everything.
/smile/

You've covered pretty much all the bases, too, in your summary.  Over the
eyars I've managed to do enough work at some level or other in the
preparation or reporting of those things, I at least recognize competency
when I see it.  I also decided long ago that, while it is all very
interesting, I would carefully steer my own career away from being in danger
of having to plan and/or run such an operation.  /smile/  I stick with the
geek stuff!  Unless I get wrenched aways from my computer to make survey
calls or take a break to join the crew for the mass mailing.  /smile/

So what I'm saying is, it's an excellent idea and something I would support
strongly by being really impressed and saying, "You go girl!"  /smile/

Also, I'm trying to remember about how to round up contact information for
the target consumer group, in case something comes back to me that would
useful for this target group...  Mostly I've worked with voter lists as a
pool for the survey participants, or information provided by the seller of a
product for customer satisfaction surveys.

Getting contacts for the survey through the programs themselves does pose
some challenges, but perhaps many of those could be overcome with clever
politicking...  Another art I leave to those who are clever politickers.
/smile/

Great thoughts.

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 10:22 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Another Reason for Having Your Own Harness

Tami,

I think the ideal situation would be for someone to contact graduates by 
phone or perhaps email to get the survey questions answered.  This way we 
would have a better chance of reaching more graduates in a reasonable amount

of time.  for example the survey could be done once a year with one month 
being randomly chosen.  All graduates from all programs would be the 
potential pool of respondents.  Of course this means working closely with 
all of the programs to get the information out, since graduates would need 
to initiate the contact for privacy reasons. It could be as simple as a 
postage paid card that the graduate could drop in the mail with his/her 
preferred method of contact filled in.  The interviewer could then follow up

within a set amount of weeks from graduation.

This would keep the information current, with a more evenly distributed pool

of respondents and make it possible for everyone to participate no matter 
what their internet ability.   It would eliminate people who had an issue 
with a particular program 20 years ago.  It would also ensure that each 
individual was only able to respond once each survey cycle.   If the survey 
was done by phone or the participants preferred method of communication it 
would drastically reduce the amount of error associated with lack of 
familiarity with filling out forms on the internet.

the survey/report could be done yearly for a few years to accumulate enough 
information to be useful.  then it could be done every two or three years to

keep it updated and relevant.

Just some thoughts,
Julie





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