Prospect & Church

With liver intact I hope.

I received a visit on Friday, but wasn’t home. He left a form asking me to call to answer questions. I was puzzled, since I had turned in the census form before April 1. He wanted to know if I was going to be living at my address on May 1. Which isn’t part of the census questions. he kind of explained that this was in case a follow up is needed?

If they are going door to door asking everyone if they’ll be around May 1for a follow up, this seems like a bizarre use of staff. And not one of the ten legally authorized questions.

I worked for the census bureau in 1980, I can imagine the logic behind this, they have their own convoluted process that is better than nothing. But it still seems like an unfortunate use of resources. Perhaps someone else can make the case as to why this is a good thing that is being done?

I received a phone call and a visit last week. The workers wanted to know about a nearby vacant house. That seemed reasonable to me.

At one point, we saw more than a dozen census takers at one time in our immediate area after we had sent in our own form by mail, because in addition to receiving the mailed-in census form, apparently they also have to personally appear at residences to verify the number of inhabitants at each new construction (built since the last census in 2000). So they spread out and knock on doors everywhere or, if nobody answers, they leave forms with phone numbers to call. The ones we saw were all very serious and very pleasant individuals. None of them mentioned May 1st to us, but that may be the next deadline that they have to meet.

LD, a worker stopped by my place this morning and, among other questions, asked if I would be living here on May 1.