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Informant Selection Procedures: Selection Procedures. The Telephone Informants Were Selected Through Recommended-Contact

The document summarizes the informant selection procedures used in two locations - Boise and telephone interviews. [1] In Boise, 18 informants self-selected by completing and returning a survey that was distributed to 75 attendees at a water quality workshop. [2] For telephone interviews, informants were selected through recommendations from an advisory team and snowball sampling, with 21 informants ultimately interviewed by phone. [3] An email attachment provides an example initial contact message sent to potential telephone informants.

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Georgio Romani
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47 views

Informant Selection Procedures: Selection Procedures. The Telephone Informants Were Selected Through Recommended-Contact

The document summarizes the informant selection procedures used in two locations - Boise and telephone interviews. [1] In Boise, 18 informants self-selected by completing and returning a survey that was distributed to 75 attendees at a water quality workshop. [2] For telephone interviews, informants were selected through recommendations from an advisory team and snowball sampling, with 21 informants ultimately interviewed by phone. [3] An email attachment provides an example initial contact message sent to potential telephone informants.

Uploaded by

Georgio Romani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Water Outreach Education—Facilitating Access to Resources and Best Practices November 2002

APPENDIX B
Informant Selection Procedures

Boise
The Boise informants were self-selected. We distributed the original survey to the approximately
seventy-five attendees of the Water Quality Coordinators’ Workshop in Boise, ID, and requested
by announcement during the meeting that they complete and return the survey. Eighteen of the
attendees completed and returned the survey to project staff on their own initiative in response to
our general invitation.

Telephone
Selection Procedures. The telephone informants were selected through recommended-contact
and snowballing methods of sampling. We asked the ten members of the BEP Project Advisory
Team to recommend two to three of their contacts who, as natural resource management and
outreach education professionals, fit the description of the BEP Project audience. Four project
advisory team members gave us the names of twenty-two contacts.
Contact Procedures. We sent an introductory message by E-mail to the twenty-two
recommended informants (see Attachment 1 to this appendix). Some of the origin informants
recommended additional informants that we added to our list for a total of twenty-eight contacts.
One of the original contacts had already completed the survey in Boise and was not contacted
further for the telephone survey. A few of the contacts disqualified themselves or refused to
participate in the survey. We were unable to contact a few others. In all, we surveyed twenty-one
contacts via telephone.

Study of Provider Needs Page 1 of 2


Water Outreach Education—Facilitating Access to Resources and Best Practices August 2002

Attachment 1
Initial Contact Message

Subject: USDA, CSREES-funded, water outreach and education project needs assessment

Dear {Title and Name of contact}

I am contacting you at the recommendation of {First and Last Name of recommending advisory team
member} of the {advisory team member’s organization}. {First Name of recommending advisory team
member} is a member of the advisory team for the water outreach education project I am working on,
which is funded by the USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
(CSREES).

In the next few weeks, I will call you to make a thirty-minute appointment. My purpose is to conduct a
telephone interview with you as part of a larger needs assessment of natural resource professionals from
around the country. The interview consists of nineteen questions. I will ask you about your experience
and your needs for accessing and using best education practices and water quality outreach and
education materials. I am sending this message in advance of my initial call because I know many
people appreciate being advised that a research study is about to commence and that they have been
selected or recommended for inclusion in the study.

The needs assessment is part of important research being conducted in concert with a national advisory
team of natural resource management, outreach, and education professionals from across the country
through the USDA, CSREES-funded water outreach education project. The research looks for ways to
improve access to the sources natural resource professionals rely on for both outreach and education
materials, and best education practices. I am conducting the needs assessment interviews with resource
professionals recommended by members of our project advisory team.

I look forward to talking with you and getting your valuable contributions to this important project.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by E-mail at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark Stevens, Assistant


Water Outreach Education Project
Environmental Resources Center
Agricultural Hall, Rm 216
1450 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1562
608 265-0782
608 262-2031 (fax)
[email protected]

Study of Provider Needs Appendix B


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