Request Submission Form for Hurricane Forecast Products Customer Poll

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the

Collection of Routine Customer Feedback”

(OMB Control Number 0690-0030) ___________________________________________________________________________

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Hurricane Forecast Products Customer Poll at the National Hurricane Conference

PURPOSE: To obtain opinions of potential users regarding proposed new maps and/or text for forecasting hurricane storm surge, track and wind.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The respondents will be emergency managers attending the National Hurricane Conference on March 26-29, 2012, in Orlando, Florida. The goal of the conference is to improve hurricane preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation in order to save lives and property in the United States and the tropical islands of the Caribbean and Pacific. In addition, the conference serves as a national forum for federal, state and local officials to exchange ideas and recommend new policies to improve emergency management.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: Polling at booth during a conference

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:_Jennifer Sprague, NOAA, National Weather Service, 301-713-0217, Jennifer.Sprague@noaa.gov

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the

Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice (SORN) been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Federal Government	25	10 min	4
State Local Tribal Government	200	10 min	33
Private Sector	25	10 min	4
Totals	250	10 min	41

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $3,140.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe?

[ ] Yes [x ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

Approximately 1,000 Emergency Managers and first responders will attend the conference. We anticipate 25% of these respondents will participate in the polling (250 individuals). The respondent breakdown displayed in the burden table represents a typical distribution of the Emergency Managers and first responders that will attend the conference, the majority of whom are with state/tribal/local government. For that reason, we assume that approximately 80 percent of respondents (200 of 250 respondents) will be these individuals, and the remainder will be federal employees (10 percent or 25 respondents) and private sector employees (10 percent or

25 respondents).

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[X] Other, Explain.

Participants will be asked to assess several pairs of hurricane forecast visuals (14 total, see attached PDF for visuals; text notes can be ignored) at a poster session at the National Hurricane Conference. They will text their preferences to Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com) using a PDA or smartphone. We will also have paper forms available if a respondent does not have a smartphone or PDA, and their choices will be entered into Poll Everywhere. Only the aggregate results will be sent to us.

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ X ] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

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