Working Up A Sweat, Literally And Figuratively

During my training for the 2020 Census one of the first things that I found out was that group quarters are places where people live or stay in a group living arrangement. There are dozens of varieties, but around my house the most predominant ones would be skilled nursing facilities, group homes, residential treatment centers, and college student housing. Those are the types of places I will be Enumerating.

One of the goals of the Census is to make sure that every person living in the United States is counted. There are several ways that group quarters could do that--either by electronically sending in the information, having an Enumerator drop off individual packets and pick them up after they're completed, or having an Enumerator do in-person interviews of the residents. Today I went to a nursing home to prepare and drop off packets for the approximately 90 residents.

The first step was to get a list of everyone who lived there on April 1st (Census Day) from my contact person.  In the pre-COVID world I would ask the facility for a place to sit and do my work. But now doing the work onsite is impossible, as nursing homes are still (rightly) pretty locked down.

My first thought was to go sit in a nearby fast food restaurant, but that would require me carrying in my large box of paperwork and also wearing a mask for a couple of hours. I thought about going home and worked on my dining room table, but I was far enough away that I couldn't justify the commuting time.

The last option was to do the work in my car, which is the one I chose. I drove around until I found a nice-sized tree to park under. Even in the shade, and with the car windows rolled down to catch any stray breezes it wasn't exactly conducive for sitting outside (my phone app said it was 90 degrees, which didn't factor in the humidity). Every once in a while I felt a drop of sweat roll down my nose; fortunately it didn't fall on any of my paperwork. 

I took the list of nursing home residents, transferred the information to a listing sheet, and assigned each person a number. The next step was to take the listing sheet and prepare individual packets, each including a Census form and a personalized envelope containing the person's name, who they needed to return the form to, and the deadline for getting it in. For quality control purposes, the number I assigned to each person was written on each part of the packet, and I stuck a bar code sticker to the census form.

The car's steering wheel was in my way, so I adjusted it up and pushed my seat back as far as it would go. I had a stack of papers on my lap, another on the passenger seat, and a third on the passenger seat floor. During the two hours it took for me to complete everything the sun shifted directly overhead and I lost all the tree shade, so I drove back to the facility and found a shaded spot on their lot to finish up. I finally bundled up the packets, then stood at the facility front door until someone opened it. I handed the bundle over and explained who to give it to.

Next week I'll go back to pick up the packets. There's another detailed procedure for checking to make sure everything is returned and completed correctly. Once again I will be doing the job not in the facility, and probably in my car. I certainly hope it's cooler by then!

Five years ago today: Webbing