[MR] Pollings in general

[Michelle L. McDaniel]

Hey all!

In a previous life, I worked as a librarian in a library that specialized
in program evaluation literature. One of the things we had a lot of 
information on was how to conduct surveys and how to interpret the results.


Result rates for surveys vary widely. The cost of preparing and delivering
the survey directly affects the rate of successful response. (This is why
spam email and junk snail mail work, where even a one percent reply is
considered good response, so we keep getting inundated.) Also the perceived
importance of the topic affects the number of responses. The removal of the
ermine spots was terribly important to HRM Niobe. When fully explained there
was a greater impetus for the change. The change from the shell to the crown
does not have the same impact as the removal of the ermine spots. (There may
well be discussion of the reasons for the elimination of the ermine spots in
the archives of the Merry Rose. I could not find any specific posts as the
search engine for  the list before July 1999 is not working and the page for
the list between July 1999 and 2001 isn't working either.) 

The lack of response for the polling of Her Majesty's arms is just that, a
lack of response. It does not mean tacit approval or disapproval. (There is
a whole pile of research on non-responders) Check literature on response
rates for discussion of the topic. 

Two interesting web site on the topic are:
http://www.dssresearch.com/library/general/mailresp.asp which discusses
why response rates to mailed surveys are low and how to improve response
rates and http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol6/issue2/sheehan.html which covers
e-mail response rates and why they have been dropping since 1986.

If the heralds, Their Majesties, and Their Highnesses decide that they need
to re-poll the populace, I would suggest that the polling be conducted in
both the on-line and in-person petition formats. Just because recent surveys
show that a slim majority of Americans have access to the Internet, does not
mean that Atlantians, can conduct all business via the Internet. (Just
because many Scadians are extremely computer literate, not all are. Let's
not exclude those who aren't by only having an on-line polling.) (For more
info on improving response rates, see the above links.)

Anyways, if we want better response rates to pollings, those doing them
should look at how the professionals do them, the response rates they aim
for, and the ways they use to increase response. The research already done
by those professionals may provide useful information to counter the
decision made by Laurel.

Yours in service,

**aelfwynn of whitby** (who's really glad she no longer works in program
evaluation, it was boring ;-) )