BOARD02064

• Board Meeting Date: 3/21/2002
• Description: OWC Section - Drought and Water Supply Assessment
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Section 4
Project Approach (RFP Section 4.6)

and allowing responses to be consolidated for groups. On-going analysis and interpretation
over time is made easier by closed-ended questions, Open-ended questions do allow
respondents a greater amount of flexibility in their response, and we anticipate including a
small number of these t}JJes of questions in the final survey illstrument.

Once the survey instrument has undergone an appropriate amount of internal testing, the
instrument will undergo primary testing with a representative sample of the target population,
It is anticipated that the primary, testing will focus on contacting and major water users and
providers, in, part because of their small number, but also to help identify potentially troubled
and! or at risk users that should be included in the final target population.

lIVheri rating concepts, issues, and attitudes, theBouvette Consulting Team employs
the Five-Point Satisfaction Scale developed by R.A. Likert in 1932, This scale,
however, is not simply a five-point scale, it is a five-point scale with a perfect
midpoint. Here are three examples:

1. Very Poor
2. Poor
3. Neutral
4. Good
5. Excellent

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neutral
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

1. Not at all Satisfied
2. Not Satisfied
3. Neutral
4. Satisfied
5. Extremely Satisfied

A scille ,of this particular type ranging from extremely negative to extremely positive
needs a neutral midpoint. This neutrality avoids biasing the respondent's ratings and
helps create the high reliability of thescsles, making sure they measure the same
way every time, '

For example, a question might incorporate the ranges of meanings illustrated above
by asking: '

. "Using the 5-point scale, with 1 being very poor and 5 being excellent, ho
would you describe your state-of-preparedness for a severe drought simila
to the one experienced in Colorado in 1977?"

~ OR ~

. 'Using the 5-point scale, with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongl
agree, please tell me how much you agree with the following statement - '
know whom to contact with the State regarding obtaining available resource
for drought planning'?"

In order to optimize the questioning, to the extent possible, we try to group questions
according to type of rating scale used, The respondent is always introduced to the
scale's definition, which is only repeated when necessary.

Section 4, Page 13