1601-New Supporting Statement B

1601-New Supporting Statement B

Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

1. Describe the potential respondent universe and any sampling or other respondent selection methods to be used.

The survey instruments will be distributed at business recovery workshops held at a local venue shortly following a disaster. The pool of respondents will be limited to those businesses which were directly or indirectly affected, negatively or positively, by the disaster. Businesses will be encouraged to complete the survey at their leisure during the course of the workshop activities, which could take several hours. Time constraints are not expected to be a factor in limiting response rates. Based on similar workshops held in Louisiana during the 2005 hurricane season, PSO expects a 40% response rate among workshop attendees with a majority of respondents being small businesses with less than ten employees.

2. Describe the procedures for the collection of information.

Data will be collected at a local government sponsored business recovery workshop following a disaster. Blank survey instruments will be made available for attendees to pick-up, complete, and submit. Because businesses will be able to complete the survey unattended, very few labor resources will be required to administer and collect the survey.

The follow-up telephone survey will be conducted several months following the administration of the written survey. Respondents will be contacted using the telephone numbers they provide on the written survey instrument.

3. Describe methods to maximize response rate and to deal with issues of non-response.

Maximum response rates will be encouraged by limiting the length of the survey to one sheet of paper and by providing necessary materials such as writing instruments and surfaces. Survey questions were designed so that respondents would be able to answer them quickly and easily using knowledge readily available. PSO will remind attendees about the survey several times throughout the workshop, and also walk through the audience to collect completed responses.

The follow-up telephone survey will be limited to a small number of questions in order to encourage high participation rates.

4. Describe any tests of procedures or methods to be undertaken.

The Private Sector Office will evaluate the draft instrument using various computerized methods (Excel, Stata, and /or SAS). All of which are technology that can analyze data, by breaking it down into descriptive statistics and conduct modeling (if required), and study potential errors, which may be related to comprehension, task definition, information retrieval, judgment, and response generation. This form appraisal can be used as a starting point for identifying particular instructions, questions, or response categories that may be problematic and could compromise the quality of the data in surveys.

5. Provide the name and telephone number of individuals consulted on statistical aspects of the design and the name of the agency unit, contractor(s), grantee(s), or other person(s) who will actually collect and/or analyze the information for the agency.

Gary Becker, Senior Economist, DHS, PSO

202-282-9013

Samuel Lee, Economist, RTI Contractor for DHS PSO

202-282-9761

OMB 83‑I (10/95)