Contact Script

Initial Contact Script

The interviewer will use the tracking sheet to record the feedback from the initial contact.

Hello, I'm [interviewers’ name] and I am working with the National Park Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Subsistence. We are conducting interviews in [name of community] to learn more about people's uses and harvests of fish and game.

Use this text for respondents in the randomly sampled communities –ONLY

We are interviewing a random sample of households and yours came up in our sample. It's important to us that we talk with everyone in our sample, even if you use little or no fish and game.

The purpose of the project is to understand the role of wild resource uses in the lives of people of [community]. Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary, and you don't have to answer any questions you don't want to. Most of the questions that I will ask have to do with hunting and fishing, and there are a few questions about family characteristics and jobs as well.

Your responses are anonymous - there will be no way to connect your name with your responses and we will not write your name on the interview form. The interview number on the form is to ensure that we have conducted a reliable number of surveys in this community. All information collected during this study will be summarized for the community and will appear in a report that will be available to all of the participants in the study.

The average interview takes about 60 minutes to complete. I would like to talk with the person who knows about the household's hunting and fishing activities. Are you this person? Would you like to participate in our survey today?

If YES – continue with on-site interview

If NO– (soft refusal) - ask them if there would be a convenient time to schedule the interview?" [use the contact form to record scheduling information]

If NO – (refused to schedule an interview) - ask them if they would be willing to answer the three non-response bias questions (listed below) and then thank them for their time.

1. How many people lived in your household in the study period,

2. How many years have you (the head of household) lived in this community,

3. Between January and December (insert study period), did members of your household use or try to harvest salmon

Record responses in spaces provided on the tracking sheet

If NO– (hard refusal) - end the contact and thank them for their time.