App. 6 Focus Group Consent Form

APPENDIX 6 – Focus Group Consent Form

This study has been reviewed and approved by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB); without OMB’s approval, the session could not be conducted.

OMB control number:

Expiration date:

Data collected on behalf of the National Women’s Business Council under contract number SBAHQ-14-M-0124.

I acknowledge that I am volunteering to participate in this focus group and that I understand the following:

Research Purpose and Use of Information Collected

• This research is being conducted on behalf of the National Women’s Business Council, an advisory group to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

• The research could not go forward without approval from the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The control number indicating approval is [Insert OMB control number].

• This focus group is being conducted as part of a research project that also includes a national survey of women business owners and interviews with corporate supplier diversity managers. NWBC will use information gathered from this research project to produce recommendations to the President, Congress, and the SBA on policy and program initiatives to facilitate the growth of women-owned businesses. The information will also be used to provide practical guidance to women business owners on how corporate supplier diversity programs can be leveraged to increase opportunities for their companies to gain access to corporate markets.

Voluntary Participation

• Your participation in this focus group is completely voluntary, and you may withdraw your consent to participate at any time during the process. If you choose to withdraw, any information derived from your participation will be deleted from the focus group findings. You will receive $40.00 for participating in this focus group at the close of the session.

• During the focus group, you will be asked to share your perspectives on issues that affect the participation of women business owners like yourself in corporate supplier diversity programs. The information you share will not be attached to your name; all reports will use aggregated data. We will only use first names here. This session will be audio-recorded so we have a full and accurate record of what was said for our analysis. Your name will not be connected to the tape in any way and after the tape is transcribed, the tape itself will be destroyed.

• The session will take 2 hours.

Privacy

• All responses you give will be held private by NewPoint Strategies to the extent permitted by law. Your name and contact information will not be shared beyond the NewPoint Strategies research team, whether in reports, transcripts, or data sets, unless you give written permission. The data from the focus group research will only be reported in aggregate. It is, however, useful to use direct quotations to more clearly capture meaning in reporting the findings from this form of evaluation. You will be asked at the end of the focus group if there is anything you said that you do not want included as a quotation, and we will ensure that it is not used. However, quotations will not actually use your name and will be reported as “a participant indicated.”

• We ask you as a volunteer to not share any information discussed in the focus group outside of this group, or to share potential identities of volunteers in this focus group to those outside the group.

Potential Benefits and Risks

• There are no anticipated physical risks to participants. Focus group members will be asked to keep the information provided in the groups confidential; however, a potential risk that might exist for some would be that information about your business might be discussed outside the group by other participants and be traced back to you.

• A potential benefit of participating in this research for you could be having an opportunity to describe your experience as an entrepreneur with others who have shared the same experience. Additionally, the opportunity to connect with other allies and share similar and divergent experiences may help clarify and validate your experiences as an entrepreneur. The benefits to society would be based on establishing a clearer understanding of the experiences faced by entrepreneurs and some of the obstacles and benefits of being an entrepreneur. This information can help the NWBC be more effective, and may provide guidance through lessons learned for future entrepreneur programs.

Questions

• If you have any questions about this research or focus group at any time, you may contact Ms. Erin Kelley at the NWBC by telephone at 202-205-6826 or e-mail her at erin.kelley@nwbc.gov and she will be pleased to answer any of your questions.

Consent

• I freely and voluntarily agree to participate in this focus group. I have read the consent form, and I understand the consent form. I have been given a chance to ask questions about the consent form prior to signing the form.

Participant name: _______________________________________________

Participant signature: _____________________________________________

Date: _____________________

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