PLS 595 JOURNAL ENTRY 14

Meeting with Center Staff 11/20

I met with Aly, Allison and April this afternoon. Kevin was unable to make it. We discussed progress toward completing the pilot and beginning to collect the first data of the evaluation. I presented to them copies of the newly revised MSW survey templates and the new SPSS databases. In particular, I stressed the importance of the new survey cover sheet. We went over this in detail to modify the questions according to the Center's needs.

April will be handling data entry of the completed surveys. This is ideal since she will not be involved in primary service delivery. She will however need to be adequately trained in using SPSS for data entry. I will probably need to sit down to give her a tutorial and enter the first data at the same time. I will have to schedule that with her. Today, April offered several outstanding suggestions and a few good catches of errors. She obviously has a keen eye which will make her an outstanding resource person when it comes to data entry and cleaning. Thanks to everyone's comments, several of the questions had to be altered. I will handle that tomorrow and upload everything to the Basecamp.

I briefly discussed plans for the future. In particular, I shared with them my intention to recruit another MPA Capstone student to complete the analysis next Spring. I will continue to volunteer for the Center in that effort as I am needed.

Once the data files are finished and uploaded, that just leaves five parts to complete my portion of this project that remain to be scheduled for next week:

1. Installation of SPSS v.14.0 on Kevin's and April's computers.
2. Training Kevin and April in its use (and anyone else who needs it.)
3. A set of written survey protocols based on our group discussions.
4. A written evaluation of my efforts by Kevin.
5. Final reevaluation of the pilot and presentation of my findings.

My final Capstone presentation of my findings will occur on Thursday, December 7 at 5 PM in Room 110 of Leutze Hall, UNCW. All project team members are welcome to attend. Thanks one and all for you help!