Justification non-substantive change - Audience Affected Survey Phase II

Justification for Non-Substantive Change

This change is being submitted through ROCIS to reflect additional information collection requests that will be submitted under this Generic ICR due to changes in NEA programming. These additional information collections include one participant survey (Blue Star Museum Participant Survey) and one survey associated with the second phase of a pilot test for the Audience Impact project. Neither of these additions was anticipated at the time of the original Generic ICR submission.

Note that all the surveys included in this non-substantive change are voluntary.

The Blue Star Museum Participant Survey that is included in this non-substantive change is conducted annually. Its purpose is to solicit opinions from individuals who participate in the Blue Star Museums program so that the NEA can identify the number of program attendees and improve future implementation of the program. The additional burden in this non-substantive change (2,000 responses; 15 minutes per response; total burden of 500 minutes) is based on the actual burden realized in previous years of the survey.

The second phase of the pilot test of the Audience Impact project involves testing a survey instrument with audience members of three grantees from each of our disciplines that put on live events (a total of approximately 30 grantees). Grantees who participate will be give materials to publicize a web-based survey to their audience members. The survey is very similar to a customer satisfaction survey. It is voluntary both for the grantees to participate and for the audience members to respond to the survey. We estimate that the survey will take approximately 5 minutes complete.

The publicity materials for the survey will be inserted in playbills and/or printed on posters that are displayed in the performance venues. This means that the potential respondent pool is every individual who attends the event. Again, the survey is very similar to a customer satisfaction survey. Our calculations about expected responses are based on the following calculation:

1. We calculate the average estimated number of projected audience members using data from grant applications;

2. We estimate a 10% response rate for live performances and a 3% response rate for museum attendees;

3. We calculate the number of responses based on our expectation of 30 participating organizations for the entire pilot test.

This method leads to an estimate of 65,000 responses and, at 4 minutes per response, a total burden of 4,333 hours.

If this approach to collecting audience impact data proves fruitful, NEA plans to implement the project on a more comprehensive basis in future years as part of our performance measurement activities under our strategic plan.