Phase 1 of the Family Activity Study winds down

Phase 1 of the Family Activity Study that I am a research assistant for is drawing to a close. The last day of data collection is November 7, and the last day for people to go out and pick up equipment from the families is November 8. I have been trying hard the past few days to squeeze some more families in, but it's been difficult since we are down to only 20 prospective families for the 3-4 remaining slots. This may sound like a lot, but most of the remaining families have been lingering in our prospects list for a couple of months and haven't called back after as many as the eight or nine messages I have left.

With the end of this phase means that what I do as an assistant will markedly change. Tomorrow will probably be the last day that I work the phones and try to recruit families. What will probably happen next is that I will help input information from the completed surveys into a database. That task is going to be extremely tedious, although it sounds like they will try to pay some hourly undergraduates to do it. They may have me be part of the crew that audits street segments to quantify how walkable and bikeable they are, or I may get shifted over to a new project and a new study. I would like to stay on with the study, but would be happy with a change too.