Non Substantive Change

May 29, 2008

Memorandum for: Reviewer of 1220-0025 and 1220-0026  

CC: Nora Kincaid, Program Analyst

Division of Management Systems

From: Aric Schneider, Supervisory Economist

Branch of Index Methods, Analysis and Evaluations

Division of International Prices

Subject: NonSubstantive Change for the International Price

Program Surveys

Since July 2003 the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) International Price Program (IPP) has sent notices via email to respondents participating in their survey via the web prompting the user that it is time to submit data. The email includes the month the user should provide data, the link to the BLS Internet Data Collection Facility (IDCF) to logon and submit data as well as links to the BLS internet website for news on statistical information and links to recent articles where IPP data was referenced.

In February 2008, in an on-going effort to improve response rates and ease respondent burden, the IPP added the IDCF assigned account number to their notification and reminder emails sent to respondents. Currently, the IPP is working with the IDCF (with BLS Division of Management Systems approval) to automatically populate the account number field on the BLS login home page with the respondents permanent account number.

At this time we are submitting a revised notification advance letter in addition to our reminder email letter. The reminder email was inadvertently omitted from the clearance package when it was last submitted. The reminder has been changed in similar ways as the notification letter. The reminders are sent to respondents that fail to report in the timeframe noted in the original notification. These changes are not expected to impact respondent burden.

The changes made to the IPP notification and reminder emails are summarized below:

• The respondents BLS permanent account number has been added to both emails.

• The IPP will be modifying both emails to include the account number assigned to the respondent in the URL. (e.g. https://idcf.bls.gov/default.asp?rID=CS88888888) see attachments. The IDCF will modify the default home page of the IDCF Gatekeeper application to look for the presence of a properly formatted account number, and when present, will automatically populate the account number field on the home page.

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