LDS Correlation Survey
I got an interesting letter in the mail today.
CORRELATION DEPARTMENT
Research Information Division
50 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150-0018April 16, 2010
Dear Brother McElroy:
As the Church grows, our membership is becoming more diverse. The Research Information Division of the Correlation Department at Church headquarters has been directed to conduct the LDS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP SURVEY 2010 to help Church leaders better understand the lives of members and the challenges they face. You have been randomly selected to participate in this study. The survey will include questions about your Church and family experiences.
Please complete this online survey within the first THREE DAYS of receiving it. To begin the survey on the Internet:
- Go to the website: http://www.lds.org/emailsurvey
- Click the link entitled: LDS Church Membership Survey 2010
- Your repondent key for this survey is: ________
The survey should take between 20 and 40 minutes to complete, depending on the size of your family or household. If you do not have access to the Internet or cannot complete the online survey, we will automatically send you a paper copy of the survey in about a week.
Your information is a=complete confidential and will be combined with responses from other members to create a general profile of Church members and their families. We need to hear back from YOU to make the results truly representative. Your prompt response is essential to the success of the study and will eliminate the need and cost of additional follow-up reminders.
Thank you for your help with this important study. If you have any questions or if you need help completing the survey, please call the Research Information Division at Church headquarters (1-800-453-3860, ext. _____). The telephone call is free. Thank you.
Sincerely,
(signed)
Bruce D. Porter
Executive Director
Correlation Department
The survey took me about 30 minutes to complete, and I saved all the questions they asked along the way, for your enjoyment.
Interesting Questions: How many people did this get sent to? What will the response rate be? What would you do with this data?
Without further ado, the questions.
April 25th, 2010 at 05:26:22 am
You got to love it when someone offers complete assurances of confidentiality, but makes you use a unique identifier that can be tied back to a name and then starts asking questions about income…
The questions asking for names/initials of other household members seems decidedly non demographic to me as well.
In circumstances where I am compelled to answer questions like this, I like to “load” answers with red flags that might show up if the database gets used for something other than promised. I’ve uncovered cases where companies have blatantly sold my data to 3rd parties, when I have received messages on dummy mail account, physical bulk mail delivered to fictitious people I’ve claimed live at my house, etc :)
April 25th, 2010 at 10:58:04 am
Is there any way to have the comments on your Facebook post show up here?That would be a nice feature… :)
April 25th, 2010 at 11:39:23 am
Looks like an interesting opportunity to take stock of where you’re at in life. :-)
April 26th, 2010 at 02:43:44 pm
I don’t much like this questionnaire at all. If it were sent to me I would not respond.
I am a member of the LDS church and believe it to be a “force for good” in the world, but it is run mostly by volunteer labor and from time to time silly things happen. I hope this is one of those.
Jim
May 13th, 2010 at 02:02:27 pm
I like the page to check your race/ethnicity. When I check African American I always get odd looks and comments like ‘that isn’t right, you are white’.
Of course I am white. Dutch settlers in South Africa and 6+ generations of us are white, born in South Africa and now I live in the USA. I am an African American as much as anyone is.
As for the information… none of their damn business.
July 26th, 2010 at 04:10:50 am
Generally Latter Day saints are good people,they are the ones who knows how to balance things they perfectly understood the things that really matters most and they are not not force to the so called blind obedience,they do thing in their free will because they wanted to serve.
February 24th, 2011 at 03:39:46 pm
I think it funny that a church ran by god, who knows all, needs a survey to know what its members are up to.