Visit the IRS website:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=107930,00.html

Make a note of the target groups that are elegible for these free tax assistance programs.  Volunteers believe that not enough people are taking advantage of these free programs, but they are not sure why. 

We could conduct exploratory interviews on a sample of potential customers in a variety of ways, e.g. by a visit to where they live, by calling on the phone to where they live, or by asking them to come to a research facility for a face to face individual interview or focus group session.   There are a number of tradeoffs regarding available resources, reachability, transportation, perceived confidentiality, and such, but we will opt for now to recruit for focus group sessions.  At this point in the process, we are not interested in designing an entire research study, but are only interested in how we would recruit a sample of people to interview.

Write a screener to use in recruiting Texarkana MSA residents (only one per household) who are likely to qualify for the free tax assistance programs.  Some specific issues in recruiting are as follows:

• We would like a sample of at least 48 Texarkana-area residents (six focus group sessions of eight people).

• We want to recruit one extra person per session to make up for possible no-shows (recruit 54).

• Of the 54 recruits, we would like 40 to be residents in the postal areas of
  • Texarkana, AR (zip code 71854),
  • Texarkana, TX (75501, 75502, 75503, 75504, 75505, 75507),
  • Wake Village, TX (75501),
  • Nash, TX (75569)
  • Mount Pleasant, TX (75455). 

• We would like the remaining 14 recruits to be residents in the postal areas of:
  • Ashdown, AR (71822)
  • Atlanta, TX (75551)
  • Boston, TX (75557)
  • DeKalb, TX (75559)
  • Douglassville, TX (75560)
  • Fouke, AR (71837)
  • Fulton, AR (71838)
  • Garland City, AR (71839)
  • Hooks, TX (75561)
  • Linden, TX (75563)
  • Maud, TX (75567)
  • New Boston, TX (75570)
  • Redwater, TX (75573)
  • Simms, TX (75574)

• Although the program includes assistance to taxpayers with incomes under $35,000, we would only like to limit our interviews to those with a household income of less than $25,000 (excepting those who qualify for other reasons). 

• Each session must include at least
  • one person who qualifies due to income (household income of less than $25,000)
  • one person who qualifies due to age (anyone over age 70 regardless of income)
  • one person who qualifies due to disability regardless of age or income. 
  Someone who qualifies for more than one reason will still count as only a single person with regard to having a session that includes at least one person from each of the three categories.

• If someone has a disability that requires a wheelchair, or if someone otherwise requires transportation in a special vehicle, we can provide transportation, but can only provide transportation for one person per session if a special vehicle is required.  Otherwise, we can find volunteers to provide transportation to and from the session if it is needed.

• We don't have the resources to conduct the research with anyone who needs assistance with language translation, so we will not attempt to recruit from this group.

• The recruit would be paid $50 for a one-hour session.  (Each focus group session would run about 45 or 50 minutes.)

• For this particular project, perceptions regarding confidentiality are crucial.  Therefore, you must include the following statement in your screener: "Your identity will not be shared with anyone.  Any lists with your name will be shredded after this project is completed."

A screener should include the following where possible:

• The study number.
• The client organization.
• The client's name, address, phone number, fax number.
• The cities from which you will be recruiting.
• The interview session date and time for which you are recruiting.
• Who you are recruiting.
• How many you are recruiting.
• The length of the interview.
• The topic of the interview: be sure that it sounds interesting to the prospective recruit, but don't provide any more details than are necessary.
• Directions to the facility (ask if a recruit knows).

Anything not to be read on the phone should be put in bold and capital letters.

The following examples might be helpful:

• http://roo.tamut.edu/~bowen/courses/AU03/mkt_res/K9_screener.doc (class example)
• http://216.247.170.64/pf/Surveys/Focus_Groups/2000/3856scr.pdf
• http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/drowsy_driving1/listening/AppendixA.htm
• http://iat.ubalt.edu/courses/old/writ313.101_Sp02/screenerGloss.pdf
• http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/library/research/docs/finalreports/02-10phase3-f.pdf (See Appendix A, page 82 for the screener; this is a large document that would take a long time to download on a modem.)