LauraGB Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 About a week and a half ago, the doorbell rang at around 6pm. I was in the middle of making dinner and it was something I needed to keep stirring, but I answered the door. A lady was there stating she was with the Census Bureau and she had some questions. I said, "Well, I'm in the middle of burning dinner right now, can you come back in about an hour?" She said, "No, it'll only take 5 minutes or so." I said, "I really don't have 5 minutes right now, can you come back tomorrow?" She kept crowding the door like she wanted to come in and said that she wouldn't be able to come back tomorrow. So, she took my name and phone number and gave me a half sheet of paper that really only said that the census bureau would be conducting a survey and we are required to participate by law. She said she would call and we would have to conduct the survey by phone, and I said "Sounds great." and closed the door. (Meanwhile, I could smell smoke coming from my kitchen, btw) No one has called. I looked up the Census Bureau's website and it says that in March of 2010 they will be mailing out the survey and everyone needs to fill it out and return it by April something. Is this wierd or did I do something wrong here?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeFe Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I haven't had anyone stop by this year but I have in past years. How rude that she didn't let you get back to your dinner right away. I'm pretty sure you didn't do anything wrong! ETA: I'm pretty sure they have started sending people out already for this Census. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Yes we've had a person stop by, they had an official badge and handed me a brochure. I don't remember what questions they asked, if any. They weren't intrusive otherwise I'd remember.:glare: Brain fog this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Wierd no, rude, yes. Just remember you don't need to fill out anything but who, where and how many. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paz Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I woke up ready to go to work one morning several months ago and a lady was standing in my driveway taking notes. I went out to the car and just stood there waiting for her to move. She continued to take notes for about 5 minutes without looking up. I finally asked her if I could help her. She told me she was taking notes for the census and was writing down to addresses to the newer homes in my area. Whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I woke up ready to go to work one morning several months ago and a lady was standing in my driveway taking notes. I went out to the car and just stood there waiting for her to move. She continued to take notes for about 5 minutes without looking up. I finally asked her if I could help her. She told me she was taking notes for the census and was writing down to addresses to the newer homes in my area. Whatever. I find that so intrusive. Just bugs me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 What you described would annoy me. We had someone stop by just to ask how many people lived in the house. They are trying to find out who has multiple families in one dwelling. It's pretty standard around here. We've seen a huge increase in multiple families living in the same house in this town because of the economic downturn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 I woke up ready to go to work one morning several months ago and a lady was standing in my driveway taking notes. I went out to the car and just stood there waiting for her to move. She continued to take notes for about 5 minutes without looking up. I finally asked her if I could help her. She told me she was taking notes for the census and was writing down to addresses to the newer homes in my area. Whatever. Intrusive, to say the very least. Maybe I'm overly sensitive about my little plot of land and my home, but couldn't she have stood on the sidewalk or the shoulder of the street instead of on private property? **** I would have stepped outside to talk with the lady who came to my door, but I *really* didn't have time just then. There was no way I was letting her inside; dh wasn't home, and there are too many vulnerable individuals in my home (including me!) to just let strangers who show up at my door unannounced inside my home. A while back there was a man dressed like a police officer (I think it was a police officer - it was someone "trustworthy", at any rate) who would go to homes and then a few days later the homes were robbed. No one is getting inside my house if they just show up, no matter what credentials they are carrying. I just hope, since we are "required by law to participate" that I didn't do something wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConnieB Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 According to the cenus website there should not be any door to door folks out right now. Fall of 2009 they are recruiting for cenus takers for the "peak workload of 2010". Spring 2009 they were sent out door to door to "update address lists nationwide". They shouldn't have to knock on your door for that, it's to be sure that they all the new homes built since the 2000 census are on their list and any homes that don't exist anymore are off the list. I would be careful about answering personal questions to someone at the front door, even next spring/summer when they will actually be Cenus folks out. It's really easy to forge credentials when the average person doesn't know what they look like! Yes, you are required by law to answer the Cenus. That is, how many people are living in your household as of April 1 of the Cenus year (i.e. April 1, 2010 for this upcoming cenus). That is ALL that the law requires. In past Cenus there have been many other personal questions (the long form had over 50 questions) that were on the form, but those were NOT required by law to be answered. Of course the Cenus door people fail to explain that part. The good news is that the 2010 Cenus is NOT going to be quite as intrusive.....the "long form" with the really personal questions no longer exists. They gather this information with another form mailed to select households on an annual basis. The 2010 form is supposed to only ask for name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship to those in the household, and how long you've lived in your home. However, you are still only required by law to provide how many people live in your household. Period. The rest of the questions are up to you. Supposedly the answers to the 2010 cenus aren't supposed to be as freely available as the 1990 and 2000 were, which caused so many people to object to answering the private questions (and why the more personal questions are handled separately now). I totally understand and agree that the government needs to know how many people currently live in my state, because with the influx of people I'm guessing we may be entitled to another representative.....and to a nice big share of the federal funding (and state funding for my particular city/neighborhood) based on the population. However, I don't see where my race/ethnicity nor my relationship to those in the household are important (and I say that knowing that my answers to those questions are pretty dull). That certainly won't change how many representatives or how much money my area is entitled to....nor should it change the state's planning on where to put services. I would hope that my race doesn't exclude me from services, nor entitle me to services that others don't get because of their race. And if the people in my household aren't blood relations or married relations.......how does that change the services offered? And since it won't change the number of reps or federal/state funding, why do they need it? I can only think of negative reasons to collect race and relationship. I do understand and agree that they need to know how many live here to provide and plan for services....and ok, maybe to some extent our ages (but why do they need both age and birthdate, seems a waste of data collecting efforts but pretty innocuous). Very young children and/or child bearing age woman might mean more schools are needed; coming up on retirement age might mean we need more elderly services. But so far, I've not seen a valid reason to know whether we are white, black, purple or polka dotted....five men living together in wild sin, or a boring husband/wife and wild kids household. And until I do, I won't be providing that information. Let them speculate, lol. I'll be providing the number of people, our ages, and that's all. If it's like the 2000 cenus, then after the April deadline they will send out Cenus workers to gather the information door-to-door. You don't have to provide that information to the door person, you can request another form to mail in (those not disclosing information to a phony, just be sure that the mailing address for the form matches the Cenus address, which will be in every newspaper and all over the news for weeks). If you still don't mail it in they'll come back again, and will ask again, but are then able to fill out the form based on their observations OR THEIR QUESTIONS TO YOUR NEIGHBORS if you don't answer the door. In other words, they can look at you and decide your approximate age, race. They can ask your neighbors how many live in the house, approximate ages, relationship, how long you've lived there, etc. Again, if it's like the 2000 cenus, so long as you answered the "how many in household" question, they won't come around looking for the other answers. Which means that if enough people refuse to answer the other questions, they won't have race and relationship statistics that are accurate, and hopefully will base their services on the things it should be.....how many people live in a neighborhood. Period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I haven't, but I don't usually answer the door if DH isn't home. I have 2, large dogs who will bowl me over to get out the door and get to whoever is ringing the bell, plus I feel vulnerable with 2 small kids when DH isn't here. I don't think you did anything unreasonable. I think she was unreasonable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilliant Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I'm glad to hear about the long form going away. We got one in 2000, and filled in only the basic information. We didn't care to answer the questions about how many working toilets were in our house, etc.! The Census Bureau sent 2 different workers out to try to persuade us to complete the long form. I don't know how persuasive they tried to be (hubby dealt with them) but we never completed the long form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QueenCat Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I woke up ready to go to work one morning several months ago and a lady was standing in my driveway taking notes. I went out to the car and just stood there waiting for her to move. She continued to take notes for about 5 minutes without looking up. I finally asked her if I could help her. She told me she was taking notes for the census and was writing down to addresses to the newer homes in my area. Whatever. I read in the paper that they would be doing this because not all new houses get recorded properly in deed offices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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