Purpose: To establish the data collection process for the map

 

Materials: Cover Letter, Survey Form

 

Paradigm: Your map will be based on data that is collected from the participating organizations, entered into a spreadsheet, and utilized by one of many mapping software programs to produce a map. Coordination through all of these processes is crucial if the final product is going to be as useful as possible.

 

Context and Preparation: This workshop takes us into collecting information you want to put on your map. There are many ways to collect data. We initially decided to do it through a personal interviewing process, because we wanted our Economy for the Common Good to be built on relationships and personal interviews seemed to be the best way to begin those relationships. But when that proved cumbersome, we moved on to a research and online data collection approach.

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To facilitate both processes we developed a cover letter to introduce ourselves. This is the letter we used for the interviewing process. We will talk about the online research data collection method and the letter we used for that at the end of the study guide. The incomplete letter we have included here allows the facilitator to enter specific information about their mapping project, i.e. names of your workshop participants in the left column of the page; information about the presenting organization, when and where workshops are happening, and names of the facilitators at the top of the letter.  In the body of the letter, fill in the region the map is going to cover. It can be a little squirrely doing this in Word, but it seems to be the best, widely-used, flexible format for this letter. Once this is all done, the letter will be ready to present to the workshop participants.

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The participants who are setting up the interview will fill out the rest of the letter with the name of the person they want to interview, and the name of the organization they are interviewing. They should also put their names at the bottom of the letter. We have found it is best to do these interviews with two people, so that one person can ask the questions and one person can take notes. People can also audio record or video tape the interviews, and take photos, which will be useful later.

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The survey form is sent along with the letter. It is designed to collect the information you want to go on the map. Before the next workshop the facilitators should get together to discuss what information you want on your map and how the survey form can collect that data. One of the important things to be aware of is to use consistent vocabulary. All of these data will end up in a database. Depending on what sort of mapping software you use, people may want to search the database by:

• The problems organizations are addressing;

• The causes of the problems that organizations are working on

• Or the specific actions that organizations are taking to resolve problems.
   

To make searches work they all have to be keyed to the same wording. You can change the survey form for your own needs, but it should be logical and stimulating while also be functional for the process of recording the information.

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The pivotal question is on the economic, environmental, social and political actions the organization is taking to build the Economy for the Common Good. We have included prompts for the interviewer to elicit the information they are looking for. Facilitators should discuss what prompt language they want to use to make the most important information available to users of the map, and change the survey form accordingly.

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Finally, compile a list all of the organizations people have nominated for the map so that you can share it in this workshop.

 

Activities: The heart of this workshop is the discussion around what people want the cover letter to say and what they want the survey form to include. Start out by discussing the cover letter. Do they want all of their names on it? Are the central concerns of the community included in the letter? Have someone take notes using the flipcharts.

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Move on from there to discuss the survey form. Tell them about the importance of using consistent vocabulary. Have them discuss if the information at the beginning of the form is the information that needs to be collected. Ask them if the questions will elicit the important information they want to be on the map. Is it easy for them to use? Are the prompts the right prompts? Do they want to have other prompts used?

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Depending on how long this process takes; you may have extra time before the workshop is over. If you do have extra time all the participants could watch Laura Flanders interview David Bollier on what it means to Think Like A Commoner. At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsRFdBBOyzU Start at 2:35 and end at 18:01.

 

Before the end of the workshop make sure you leave time for announcements and let people know that in the next workshop you will all be talking about how to do the interviews.

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The day after the workshop, email everyone an overview of what happened in this workshop. Then the day before the next workshop, send a reminder email that the workshop is coming up. Then attach a revised cover letter and the survey form that reflects the edits everyone came up with in this workshop.