Assessing EPA's Public Involvement Activities Checklist for Administering the Questionnaire and Using Results1 Review questionnaires. Determine whether a questionnaire should be administered. Determine what questionnaire(s) should be administered. Identify one person to be responsible for coordinating the overall dissemination and collection of the questionnaire and to input the data into the Lotus 1-2-3 data input, analysis, and reporting program once the questionnaires are collected. Make plans to include the questionnaire feedback process in the agenda of your public involvement event. Specifically, plan to set aside a few minutes before the conclusion of your public involvement event and have participants fill out their questionnaires. You should also plan to make an announcement at the beginning of your public involvement event explaining the questionnaire feedback process and how feedback is needed from all participants in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the overall effectiveness of the event and how best to make improvements. Feedback is needed from participants who leave early and those who stay to the end. If you don't build the questionnaire feedback process directly into your event, and instead wait to the very end, chances are few participants will take the time to fill out their questionnaires. Participants may suggest that they would prefer to fill out their questionnaires at home or work. While this option is appealing for participants, chances are only a few will take the time to actually do this. The best chance for good feedback is when participants are actually at the event. Take the time to plan for this! Estimate the number of participants who will be attending the public involvement event for which questionnaires will be distributed. Make appropriate number of copies of the questionnaire. Bring questionnaire copies and extra pens or pencils to the public involvement event. Identify official who will be responsible for physically collecting the questionnaires. Clearly identify areas where participants should return their questionnaires. Hand out questionnaires with other public involvement activity materials either at the beginning of the event, or at a designated time during the event. Make it very clear to participants to whom, or to where, they should return their questionnaire. Urge participants to fill out their questionnaire even if they need to leave early. Identify the total number of participants attending (e.g., the total number of persons who could possibly fill out questionnaires). Recording Responses — For now, collect questionnaires and record responses in a tabular format that works for you. Include the date, location, total number of respondents and which survey you used on the form. 'Note: The instructions above are designed primarily for questionnaires that seek the perspective of participants about the effectiveness of a single event. Depending upon the type of questionnaire you wish to distribute and the type of public involvement activity you wish to acquire feedback for, you will need to tailor the steps of this checklist accordingly. ------- On an annual basis, EPA must report use of the surveys to the Office of Management and Budget. Just before Thanksgiving, send a summary of your use of all the surveys to: bonner.patricia@epa.gov. Please note all the surveys used, the number of times you administered each, and the total number of respondents to each survey. If you have seen improved ratings, add a note about what you changed and what difference it made in not only the rating, but the activity itself. That way we will be able to track the use of the questionnaires, and learn from you what is and is not working well, and gauge whether and how the questionnaires are useful to your efforts to improve public involvement activities. If you have suggestions for additional surveys or changes to existing surveys, send those along too. When it becomes available to you, input data into the Lotus 1-2-3 data input, analysis, and reporting program within one month of session and share results. Detach the Lotus 1-2-3 program onto your computer.2 Open the Lotus 1-2-3 program. Click on the "Getting Started" tab and follow the instructions. Review performance report and identify whether certain changes should be considered in preparation for the next public involvement event. Use the Lotus 1-2-3 performance reports to talk with managers and staff about the effectiveness of your public involvement activity and where changes may be necessary. Sharing data. ..EPA's Public Involvement Staff encourages you to send your completed Lotus 1-2-3 program files as e-mail attachments to: bonner.patricia@epa.gov. If you do so, Staff will be able to track the use of the questionnaires, learn from you what is and is not working well, and gauge whether and how the questionnaire was useful to your efforts to improve public involvement activities. We will not use the information you send to judge the strength of individual public involvement efforts. This data sharing could eliminate the need for summary annual reporting for OMB. Communicate overall results and what changes you intend to make to participants who attended your last public involvement event in the public involvement event summary report or other follow- up materials distributed to participants. A few brief sentences describing overall what participants thought of the event, their suggestions for improvement, and what you will do to improve the next event would let participants know that you valued their input. When you conduct another public involvement event, repeat the same steps listed above. However, after doing this, if you used a spreadsheet, be sure to go to the same Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet and follow the steps required to link the data from your first public involvement event to your second in order to summarize and compare your data over a period of time. 2Note: Separate Lotus 1-2-3 programs will be developed to match most types of questionnaires available (e.g., one for single event effectiveness for participants, one for overall effectiveness for participants, etc.). Be sure to use the appropriate Lotus 1-2-3 program to input your data. ------- |