The following are responses to common inquiries that our interviewers are asked about the survey.  We are surveying 500 random digit dialing landline telephones, 350 randomly selected numbers from electronic white pages and 150 randomly generated cell phone numbers in the city of Danville, Pittsylvania and Caswell counties.  The sample is obtained through Survey Sampling International.

 

Why should I participate?

The Danville Regional Foundation is committed to activities, programs, and organizations that address the health, education, and well-being of residents of Danville, Pittsylvania County, and Caswell County. Your input is important in identifying the needs in your community.

Who is sponsoring the survey?

This survey is sponsored by the Danville Regional Foundation. The questions were prepared by the Center for Survey Research at the University of Virginia. The results of this survey will help to inform the Foundation in its ongoing work in your area.

 

How did you get my phone number?

We use a random-digit dialing method in order to get a statistically valid sample from cell phones and landlines.  For areas that frequently get underrepresented using random digit dialing we augment our sample with randomized numbers from a directory listing.  But in short your number had the same chance of being picked by our computer as any other phone number in the City of Danville, Pittsylvania county, and Caswell County.  Cell numbers groups are randomized using information from “rate centers,” a geographic area used by local exchange carriers to set rate boundaries for billing and for issuing phone numbers.  We do not know your name or address. 

 

Why do you want to call cell phones?

We realize that cell phones are considered personal by many people, though less so by others.  Cell phone-only households have been shown to have different opinions from other households.  The Foundation wants its decisions to be based upon the advice of a truly representative sample of area residents.

 

I share this cell phone . . . why was I picked?

Because only a small proportion of cell phones are shared we decided to treat them as belonging to the first individual who answers.  If an appointment is set up with that individual we will try to do the survey with him/her.  But if no definite appointment is made and a second person answers the cell, we will interview that person instead.

 

Why are you calling me all the way from Charlottesville?

The County asked the University of Virginia's Center for Survey Research to conduct this survey to be sure that the results are objective and scientific. Our  interviewers are UVA students or UVA temps.

 

Are you auto-dialing? I’m supposed to be on the “Do not call” list! 

Academic survey organizations are exempt from the list but strictly comply with the ethical standards of their professional organization (AAPOR).  As such we will remove anyone who does not wish to be contacted from our list.  Interviewers initiate the dialing of our calls, not a computer and we do not engage in large-scale “predictive dialing.”  As an academic survey organization, we are further bound by the University’s Institutional Review Board protocols and try to serve the public good by providing objective information on how citizens feel about government services and where improvements can be made.

 

What about confidentiality?

The results from all our interviews will be put together in a statistical report.  No one we interview will be identified in the report and no telephone numbers will be given to the Foundation.  We dialed your number at random and we don’t know your address.

 

Why do you want to talk to the adult with the most recent birthday (or some other specific adult)?

We use the “minimally intrusive” method to select people within a household.  Households with two adults or less will randomly pick a respondent using the computer.  When there are more than two people we need another random method to choose who within a household will take a survey.  This practice ensures that every adult in each household has the same chance of doing our survey.  We know that people in the same household don’t always have the same opinions.  If we always talked to the first person answering the phone, we would not get a truly representative sample of residents.

 

Why do you want to know my zip code (or the intersection nearest my house)?

We want that information so we can compare different parts of the Danville region to see if there is a problem in a particular area that the Foundation should give more attention to.

 

Why didn’t you ask me about ....?

To keep the interviews from getting too long, we are asking questions that are specific to the goals of the Danville Regional Foundation. If you have something that you think needs to be added, we can make a note of it.

 

I still have questions, who can tell me more?

If you'd like to know more, you can contact the Danville Regional Foundation at (434) 799-2176 , you can talk to my supervisor now, or you can contact Tom Guterbock at the Center for Survey Research (434) 243-5222, or call 1-800-CSR-POLL (277-7655).  I can have someone get back to you if you prefer.  My supervisor’s number is 434-243-5226.

 

How can I get the results?

The Danville Regional Foundation will have the results from this survey later this summer. You can check their website at www.danvilleregionalfoundation.org for more details.