Justification for Non-Sub Chnage

TO: Jennifer Park, Office of Management and Budget

FROM: Timothy Wojan DATE: 2/4/2014

SUBJECT: OMB CONTROL NUMBER: 0536-0071

Non-substantive change to extend pilot data collection period to 2/14/14 and to add an email reminder for nonresponse follow-up.

Data collection for the Pilot REIS was originally planned to stop on January 31, 2014.  However, a recent sample disposition report makes it clear that there are a large number of cases that may still respond.  Data collection over the holiday season significantly slowed the rate of survey completion.  Extending the telephone interview period by two weeks will ensure that all cases have had 4 call attempts and allow sending an email reminder.  The text for the proposed email reminder is below.  In addition, responses from the short form refusal conversion letter are still being received.  Extending the data collection period to February 14 should significantly reduce the current rate of nonresponse, providing better information for optimizing the response rate for the full study. 

The additional burden of the email reminder is computed below based on the number of nonresponse addresses that include an email address assuming one minute required to read the email and make a decision on deleting or responding:

Number of respondents	# of Responses per Respondent	Total Annual Responses	Hour Per Response	total hours
1199 businesses	1	1199	0.0166	19.98

Email reminder for nonresponse follow-up

February x, 2014

«contact»

«title»

«bname»

«addr1» «unit»

«city», «state» «zip»

Dear «contact»,

We need your help to identify the most pressing issues businesses face! The federal government creates programs designed to help businesses. When businesses thrive our economy improves and workers have more job opportunities. Your response will have impact and be heard by decision makers.

Recently we have tried to contact you to ask you to complete a survey about the challenges firms like yours face in today’s tough economy. If you have already completed this survey, thank you! If you have not answered the questions yet, we hope you will do so as soon as possible.

For this study we are contacting a wide variety of businesses across the nation. The results will help government understand some of what keeps businesses vital and thriving. The best way to understand barriers and obstacles to business is to ask directly.

To complete the survey, click on this link http://opinion.wsu.edu/business/ to go to the web page. Next, enter this access code «RESPID» in the space indicated.

What is learned from this survey will be shared with Congress, the Small Business Administration, other Federal agencies and the public. In the past, these agencies have created programs to foster and stimulate businesses activity throughout the nation. Please provide your input to help target these programs to meet the needs of businesses such as yours.

If you have any questions, contact us at 1-800-833-0867 or [email protected] and we will be happy to assist you. Thank you very much in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Danna L. Moore

Interim Director, SESRC

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