Voevodins' Library _ "Focus Groups" 3rd edition / Richard A. Krueger & Mary Anne Casey ... Interview, People, Discussion, Decision Making, Development, Single-Category Design, Multiple-Category Design, Double-Layer Design, Broad-Involvement Design, Audience, Written Plan, Questioning Route, Categories of Questions, Opening Questions, Introductory Questions, Transition Questions, Key Questions, Ending Questions, Campaign, Strategies for Selecting Participants, Sampling Procedures for Focus Groups, Moderating Skills, Moderator, Discussion, Head Nodding, Question, Analysis Strategies, Long-Table Approach, Using the Computer to Help Manage the Data, Rapid Approach, Sound Approach, Principles of Reporting, Written Reports, Narrative Report, Top-Line Report, Bulleted Report, Report Letter to Participants, Oral Reports, Styles of Focus Group Research, Telephone Focus Groups, Internet Focus Groups, Media Focus Groups

Voevodins' Library _ "Focus Groups" 3rd edition / Richard A. Krueger & Mary Anne Casey ... Interview, People, Discussion, Decision Making, Development, Single-Category Design, Multiple-Category Design, Double-Layer Design, Broad-Involvement Design, Audience, Written Plan, Questioning Route, Categories of Questions, Opening Questions, Introductory Questions, Transition Questions, Key Questions, Ending Questions, Campaign, Strategies for Selecting Participants, Sampling Procedures for Focus Groups, Moderating Skills, Moderator, Discussion, Head Nodding, Question, Analysis Strategies, Long-Table Approach, Using the Computer to Help Manage the Data, Rapid Approach, Sound Approach, Principles of Reporting, Written Reports, Narrative Report, Top-Line Report, Bulleted Report, Report Letter to Participants, Oral Reports, Styles of Focus Group Research, Telephone Focus Groups, Internet Focus Groups, Media Focus Groups Voevodin's Library: Interview, People, Discussion, Decision Making, Development, Single-Category Design, Multiple-Category Design, Double-Layer Design, Broad-Involvement Design, Audience, Written Plan, Questioning Route, Categories of Questions, Opening Questions, Introductory Questions, Transition Questions, Key Questions, Ending Questions, Campaign, Strategies for Selecting Participants, Sampling Procedures for Focus Groups, Moderating Skills, Moderator, Discussion, Head Nodding, Question, Analysis Strategies, Long-Table Approach, Using the Computer to Help Manage the Data, Rapid Approach, Sound Approach, Principles of Reporting, Written Reports, Narrative Report, Top-Line Report, Bulleted Report, Report Letter to Participants, Oral Reports, Styles of Focus Group Research, Telephone Focus Groups, Internet Focus Groups, Media Focus Groups

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	4 Participants in a Focus Group Who should be invited? How many people should participate? How should participants be identified? What does it take to get people to attend? How many groups should be conducted? Too often, public-sector organizations underestimate the importance of careful recruitment of participants. Market research firms place huge emphasis and spend huge amounts of money on recruiting. Public and nonprofit organizations operate within a different environment. Most can't spend huge amounts of money on recruiting. They operate under different traditions, constraints, rules, and procedures. Successful recruitment may not require huge sums of money, but it does require special effort. Sure, nonprofit employees are always inviting people to participate in meetings and events through conventional methods such as newsletters, form letter invitations, or announcements at meetings. These don't work well for focus groups. If the organization is truly interested in getting quality information, then these methods should be set aside because they will not be effective in getting the right number of the right people to attend. Instead, substitute a systematic and deliberate process. Also, employees in public organizations may feel that their traditions and values require them to conduct meetings open to the public. In some instances, decision makers may want to allow anyone and everyone to participate in the focus groups. These sessions resemble public hearings in which citizens come to ventilate or to watch others as they share their wrath. Focus groups are not open public meetings because this defeats critical characteristics that are essential for the focus group to work, such as having homogeneous participants, a permissive environment, and a limited number of people. To illustrate the difficulties that can occur, consider the story of a suburban community. The city council wanted to build a new fire station. The old station needed major improvements. It would cost more to repair the old building than to build a new station, but the city needed to pass a bond issue to build the new station, a tough task. Twice before, the city council had placed the bond issue on the ballot, and twice the referendum was defeated. To avoid an embarrassing third defeat, the officials commissioned a research firm to study the possibility of a favorable vote. The research firm conducted "focus groups" within the municipality. The public was invited to attend any or all of the discussions held in various places in the community. Announcements were made on cable TY posters were placed in public buildings and on bulletin boards in grocery stores and pharmacies, and special ads were placed in newspapers. Naturally, the attendance varied, and the discussions were more like town meetings. The research firm's findings indicated that the vote would now be favorable, and the city council decided to move ahead with the election. The election results were a huge disappointment to the elected officials. The bonding bill was resoundingly defeated. In hindsight, the city council discovered that the opponents to the fire stations were largely senior citizens who were quite concerned about increased property taxes. Seniors didn't attend the open meetings, but they did vote! Those who supported building a new fire station showed up at the focus groups. Residents who were against the new station just ignored the meetings but showed up for the election. In this situation, the lack of careful procedures for selecting respondents produced embarrassing and erroneous results. Also, generalizations or projections to a population based on limited focus group interviews are risky. CAUTION Nonprofit Organizations Often Have Difficulty Recruiting Nonprofit organizations that do their own focus group recruiting often have difficulty because they assume focus group participants are like volunteers. However, the motivation of volunteers may be quite different from that of focus group participants. Volunteers are already committed to the organization. They give their time and talents freely. Think about people who aren't committed to the organization, and think about what it would take to get them to participate. Think about what would keep them from participating.

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