so last year i got the census form and filled it out--the long form, 12 pages of questions, many of them redundant. Filled it out, sent it back. A few months later i got a follow up to the long form, a shorter set of the same questions. Answered the questions, sent it back. About a year later, i got a 'Census 2000 Quality Assurance' form. This time the document said it was a survey about the census process. but, it didnt ask any questions about the actual process but instead again asked the same damn questions covered in the first two forms. I filled that one out and sent it back. About a month ago, some guy from the census shows up in person to do a follow up to the quality assurance form I mailed in. He asks the same questions I've answered in the previous 3 forms, and i answer and off he goes. Just this evening I get a phone call from someone claiming to represent the Census, and he's performing a "quality assurance survey to the quality assurance survey." I ask him if he is aware that I've filled out 4 forms as well as met with a Census Bureau worker in person and I was tired of all of this. He blew that off and then said he has some questions to ask me and it will take about 10 minutes and my participation in the census was required by federal law. I repeated that I had already participated in the census and asked how was an internal audit part of the census. He doesnt have an answer for that, started asking the typical census questions and i hung up on him.
if this was a company trying to get my business, i could have demanded to be put on their 'do not call' list well before this. I'm amazed that the gov is spending this kind of effort to ensure >1< person's answers are accurate when there's a documented significant undercount among certain segments of the population. I didn't mind filling out the first form, but dammit that's enough already. at this point i'm beginning to wonder if "Census 2000" refers not to the year but to the number of times I'm expected to fill out that fucking form.
Jennifer said at 11:49 PM 09-29-2001: I worked as a census worker, and you aren't required to do shit, honestly. This sounds very fishy. I wouldn't answer anymore questions, I would also put in a call to their boss, if they come around again.
mary said at 12:08 AM 09-30-2001: I also worked as a census worker, and I never heard anything like this either. They weren't asking for your social security number or anything were they? this sounds suspect.
wil [email] said at 3:03 AM 09-30-2001: That fucking intrusive long form popped up at my house, too, and I refused to send it in. That's right, I'm not going to let The Man have any more of my info than he already has. So I answered the stuff that should be on the short form, and sent it in. So they sent some census worker out to bug the shit --i mean, interview me. She was really nice, and understanding about how I felt the questions were none of The Man's business. So when she asked me questions about how many rooms there were in my house, or how many TVs I owned, I just said, "I son't know."
And that was that.
Maybe you should send the census bureau a copy of Adbusters.
jeni [email] said at 5:08 PM 10-01-2001: i received two more phone calls today and on the last one, the caller said they would send someone out in person. great. now that would be a census taker visiting to check the previous census taker's work, which in turn checked the data on the original two forms. i have no doubt that this will all be followed up via a phone call.
i tried finding info about this to verify if it was legit at census.gov to no avail (note to the US Census Bureau: putting all your content--99.9% of which is pure text--into .pdfs is just LIMP) and their headquarters phone number leads to a voice mail hell in which every branch ends in a "no one can answer your call, please call back" message without the option to leave a message.
i wrote My Elected Representative an email. I doubt she'll do squat tho.
wil [email] said at 1:31 AM 10-02-2001: FWIW: according to my friend who worked for a congressman a few years ago, your elected representatives pretty much ignore emails.
The attention they pay to things, in descending order:
1. Hand-written letter
2. Typed letter
3. FAX
4. Phone call
5. Post card
6. Email
7. Bomb threat
talysman [ url ] said at 5:36 PM 10-01-2001: to fix the pdf problem, find out the name of the pdf, then search for it on google. google has a neat new feature that translates pdf to text on the fly.
those census people must be obsessing. the census is like, over, and stuff.
jeni [email] said at 7:51 PM 10-01-2001: i used adobe reader to access all their pdf files. its just stupid to make .pdfs of documents that contain only text (no formatting, no graphics) and make that the only way to access info from a website. they could have dumped everything into html with much less effort.
talysman [ url ] said at 9:03 PM 10-01-2001: yeah, but, I worked for the state of california before, and I can tell you: all government agencies are obsessive. especially about official documents, including those going on websites. everything's supposed to be particular sizes and margins and stuff.
I had an argument with my ex-boss when we were discussing plans for the departmental website. she was very insistent that we could NOT use plain text or html, ever! people might die! except that the department couldn't afford to get Acrobat to design the documents, so she wanted to scan the pages in and put them up as PICTURES.
I was pleased to discover recently that my ex-boss was fired after I left.
jeni [email] said at 3:57 PM 10-02-2001: yay! i finally tracked down the right person at the census bureau, she's the supervisor of the regional census field group, in seattle. i explained to her about how intrusive the repeated questioning had become and she agreed to pull me from the quality assurance pool. she explained that what they were really doing is testing multiple versions of their questions, each survey was slightly reworded. i told her that i appreciated the difficulities inherent in her job since i do something very similiar when i test my game stuff on kids but the big difference is that i a) am honest with the kids about why they are being asked to participate and b) i don;t threaten them to get them to comply.
