Methodology
Discerning Choices for New Life: A Survey of Options
CONFIDENTIALITY
All identifying information provided by you about your community will remain completely confidential. No “identifying” information will be published or released. The content of your answers will be compiled along with those from other communities and this will be summarized, tallied and synthesized. Some quotes may be used for the purposes of clarification and example, but only in a manner that ensures that the source of the quote cannot be identified. If you have any reservations about the assurance of confidentiality, please talk with me directly. The success of this study will rely upon your candid responses to this survey and I wish to ensure that such candor will be honored and respected.
DATA COLLECTION
A random sampling of religious communities will be sought regarding their experience in each of the three areas of consideration: Reconfiguration, Refounding and Restructuring. Please ask both leaders and members of your community to complete the survey. Please ask those who were initially favorable toward, as well as those who were resistant to, the choices considered or made in order to obtain more robust appreciation of attitudes and experiences.
ANALYSIS
Once the information is collected it will be tallied, summarized and synthesized by Dr. Ted Dunn, Comprehensive Consulting Services. Every effort will be made to make this data user-friendly (i.e., clear, concise and concrete). The guiding principle in the analysis and write-up of results will be to help communities consider their options with understandable and pragmatic information.
DISTRIBUTION OF RESULTS
The results of the original survey are now published in Human Development, Ted Dunn, Ph.D. (2011) Discerning Choices for New Life: A survey of options. Human Development. 32 (2), 16 – 26. Results from the data that is accumulated from summer, 2011 forward will be summarized at a later date. Please check back or contact Dr. Ted Dunn.
What does your community think?
Perhaps a community-wide reflection would help you gather the learnings and wisdom for your own community. This might aid you in planning “next steps.” It might help you evaluate and potentially modify your efforts going forward. If this is of interest to you, please let me know and I would be happy to assist you in this effort, Dr. Ted Dunn.