Getting the Questionnaire To and From Everyone

Conducting An Effective Ministerial Search Survey
Prepared for the Unitarian Universalist Association
By Dr. Paul Riedesel

What Kind of Survey?
Professionals use a wide range of methods to actually collect survey data. However, you really only have one option: a self-administered, printed questionnaire that is distributed and returned by U.S. Mail. Remember that you must make it as easy as possible for 100% of those selected for the survey to complete it--and that it not be easier for some than others.

• A telephone survey is almost certainly out of the question. The cost for using a professional phone center is probably way beyond your means. Unless you have a professional to train and supervise volunteers, a do-it-yourself effort would have more pitfalls than you want to think about.
• Internet-based surveys are cool. But even assuming that you have access to appropriate survey software, can you guarantee that everyone has equal access? Setting up a PC at church for those who don't have access to the Internet does not overcome the systematic bias in terms of who is actually likely to respond.
• Pass out questionnaires in church and beg people to drop them off or mail them back? This is cheap, but biased in all directions.

Survey Process
Whatever content you decide on, the following procedure is recommended for almost any congregation:

1. Publicize the upcoming survey by all practical means: pulpit announcements, newsletter, e-mail, etc.
2. Send the printed questionnaire by first class mail to each person you wish to complete it--not to "Mary and John", but to Mary or John, or to each separately.
3. Include a cover letter either separately or as the first page of the questionnaire booklet that explains the importance of the survey, instructions for returning it, and the date by which it is to be returned. The letter should promise complete confidentiality of individual questionnaires (a promise which must be kept, of course).
4. Include a pre-addressed, postage-paid return envelope.
5. A week or so after the initial mailing, send everyone a reminder postcard. Volunteer time permitting, telephone reminders to non-respondents are usually productive. How you can do this and still protect confidentiality is complicated, but it can be done. Contact me directly for suggestions.

Sample surveys can be almost as good as or even better than a full "census" of your membership. Nevertheless, there are good "political" reasons for inviting everyone to participate in your survey. If you choose to survey only a sample, there are better and worse ways to draw that sample.  Contact me directly for suggestions.

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1. What tables and data do you wish to include in the congregational packet that is shown to potential ministerial candidates?
3. What questions are you going to pose to survey participants to arrive at the tables you want, and how will you pose them?
4. What must you do to tabulate the raw information on scores (or hundreds) of questionnaires into the tables you want?