Anyone worked with Ward Research?

[Nords]

A couple years ago I spent a few hours in a photovoltaics focus group. At some point I must've indicated that I was willing to participate in other surveys.

So I've just been invited to Ward Research's (http://www.wardresearch.com/index.htm) "Hawaii Panel". They offer prize points for completing surveys, and after 3-4 surveys (about an hour's work) you're eligible for a $5 PayPal transfer... or other valuable prizes.

https://www.hawaiipanel.com/rewards.php?SES=1bdceb0aa13e89f3c6c1c55611377201

On one hand I'm lazy and $5/hour isn't much motivation. OTOH my demographic would get a chance to have an influence, however tiny, on local issues. On the third hand, our teen would leap on this offer like a starving mongoose and cajole all her high-school friends into it too. I also suspect their demographic is more interesting to Ward than that of Boomer surf geezers.

Before I unleash her on the website, has anyone else here done surveys with Ward? Any problems with excessive phone calls, junk mail, or other unwanted contact?

[Nords]

I passed on their surveys but I offered to attend more focus groups, so a few days later I sat in an "education" focus group. The company founder led the discussion while the client sat behind the one-way glass with the recording equipment. The day's gourmet was Quizno's and our 90 minutes of labor was worth $60. We were five men & five women, parents of students at public & private schools.

From the questions, it gradually developed that a group of "concerned citizens" wants to improve Hawaii's educational system by influencing the Board of Education. They want to educate voters on the issues and maybe run their own BOE candidates.

We all vote and we claimed to be involved in the educational process, but none of us (me included) knew anything about the BOE. Heck, I can't even tell you what powers they have or how many members there are, let alone who they are or how they're doing. And if I wanted to fix a problem with our kid's school then the BOE would be last people I talked with, after a long list of teachers, counselors, principals, and the state's Dept of Education bureaucracy. I can't tell that the BOE has any initiative or veto effect on the educational process, although they're been involved with DOE in setting the standard school-year calendar and having seniors do a graduation project. I suspect that high-school principals find it easy to take credit for the good ideas and blame the BOE for the bad ones.

The group leader asked if "The Learning Coalition" was a good name for the group. There's a Los Angeles educational non-profit of that name but I don't know if the client is part of that or if the client is just trying to figure out whether they should work with TLC. We agreed that it'd be helpful to have an election guide in a local newspaper and on various local websites. I'd probably spend about 10 minutes figuring out who I wanted to vote for, and maybe I'd be a little more informed on the BOE, but it'd hardly make a ripple on my consciousness. The focus group cost the "concerned citizens" at least $600 plus Quizno's & beverages, plus the fees of the research company.

Anyone heard anything about The Learning Coalition or a desire to change the BOE?

I don't know if I'll be invited back but I enjoyed myself... an interesting couple of social hours.

[Nords]

Ah, The Learning Coalition just ran an ad in Midweek and they're working on their website: http://www.thelearningcoalition.org/about-the-learning-coalition/

Anyone know Deborah Berger or William Reeves?
http://www.unboundphilanthropy.org/about_us.php