Maria,
Thank you for working with the Hudson Valley group towards the goal of
inputting data in the next quarterly cycle. You really don't need to wait.
All that is necessary is for you to look at all the past quarter's cases
completed by today, check to see if anyone on the case is an IACP member,
and ask them to go online and submit the case. As long as the case has a
case completion date and is finally submitted, any data reported will be
counted, even if the data is incomplete because the person did not know all
the information. Since you feel you have not had enough time to be as
thorough as you might have been, don't hesitate to report on a case even
before you have all the data. You can always save and return before the end
of the reporting period, or simply report all that you know if you get to
the deadline and didn't collect all the information.
What will make it easier in the future is for the person assigned to do the
research reporting to go online when clients sign a participation agreement
and save most of the data (like demographics taken from your Client
Questionnaire), team members, etc. This is something I plan to do as part
of setting up the file. At the end of the case, the survey can be accessed,
its outcome inputted and then it can be finally submitted. If you do it all
at once, it still doesn't take much time (15 minutes Norma Trusch
estimates).
When someone in your group reports back how little effort the survey
actually takes (especially if you go online with your collaborative
counterpart during a case closing debrief) then the others who might be
deterred by the thoroughness of the information gathered will realize that
it is worth trying it and learning for themselves how easy it is.
The irony is that the effort being spent to develop regional research tools
(that some of your colleagues resist completing because they will not be
cloaked with the degree of anonymity the IACP survey offers) often leads to
even more frustration as you attempt to gather data on a local basis. IACP
has done the work for you and you will get results (especially those of you
in New York) as cases are reported with no effort on your part other than
the small amount of time it will take for you to contemplate your case as
you close the file. The effort you spend on your local research may be
duplicative and will likely yield the same results as the IACP sampling from
your area will reveal.
If you have special questions of interest to the general membership that you
would like to have answered, perhaps if you share them on the General
Comments about the Survey in Section II of the survey, we will include them
in a later version of the survey. We are evaluating the survey instrument
itself as we go from the point of view of the respondents. This is another
reason data is collected by quarters - the survey itself will evolve.
Completing the survey is a very good way to reflect on what kind of service
you have provided your clients. Thanks again for moving forward on this.
Peace,
Gay G. Cox
_____
From: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of mariaalbafisch@xxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 4:28 PM
To: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [CollabLaw] Re:FW: 19 Days to Complete the IACP Practice Survey
the 10/15...
We in the Hudson Valley are getting ourselves organized to collect data but
could not do it in time, given the thoroughness of the IACP form. I do not
think we can do as much as the form tries to do because we run into the
problem
every researcher runs into---people do not comply when it takes too much
effort.
So, we may be ready next round. Right now, we are trying to collect data
that is less comprehensive but is more accessible so that we can track our
own
work better and have some data with which to market.
Maria Alba-Fisch PhD
Collaborative Practice of the Hudson Valley
Fishkill, New York
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
