One client for this class is interested in how people feel about various businesses and aspects of the Texarkana area.  A few years ago, we had looked at issues of how tourists might feel about Texarkana as a place to visit, but we haven't yet looked at how local residents feel about this area as a place to live.  The client's website is open to anyone who wants to rate local businesses and such, but the sampling consists of self-selection.  That is, the client has no way to control who participates in online surveys and such.

Although an online survey could give us some important insights about what people like (or dislike) about living in the Texarkana area, we (members of this class) know that more open-ended exploratory research should be conducted first.  We additionally know that it is important to design an appropriate sampling plan.  At this point in the process, we are not interested in designing the entire research study, but are merely interested in how we would recruit a sample of people to interview.

Write a screener to use in recruiting Texarkana area residents to participate in a focus group session.  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)

• 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)
  • Mount Pleasant, TX (75455). 
  • New Boston, TX (75570)
  • Redwater, TX (75573)
  • Simms, TX (75574)

• All recruits must be age 18 or older (but not necessarily the head of household).

• All recruits must have lived in their particular zip code category (the immediate Texarkana city area or the surrounding area) for five years or more.

• The recruit would be paid $75 for a one-hour session.  (Each focus group session would run about 45 or 50 minutes.)

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 for the recruit.

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/AU07/mkt_res/K9_screener.doc (class example)
• 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.eeri.org/lfe/pdf/lfe_survey_appendix_35-121.pdf#search=%22telephone%20screener%22
• http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/drowsy_driving1/listening/AppendixD.htm
• 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.)