Census Director Groves is king of the world (of advertising)
MyTwoCensus.com hopes to learn how much $ Dr. Groves raked in for this keynote address…
Stay tuned for Dr. Groves’ exit from the federal government followed by his immediate decision to join a Fortune 500 company as the director of Market Research…
Tags: ads, advertising, Advertising Research FOundation, business, fortune 500, market research, marketing, Robert M. Groves
July 19th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Stephen – Were you hurt by Dr. Groves or something? You seem to focus a lot of attack energy on him.
July 19th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Stephen, you really need to apologize for this post. Federal employees may not receive compensation outside of their salary, including speaking fees and just a tiny bit of work on your part would have saved you the embarrassment. In future you might want to check the official website of the Office of Government Ethics:
http://www.usoge.gov/common_ethics_issues/supplementation.aspx
July 19th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
It’s Stephen’s sense of humor.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
There’s a punchline?
July 20th, 2010 at 12:35 am
Hey you guys out there. Yeah you! That’s right you with the posts about Stephen. He hit the “nail” right on the head about the farcical way that top management appears to believe that Census is just so plain wonderful! For someone to come right out and seemingly “brag” about Census 2010 is in fact truly amazing. Why? As head of the Census Robert Groves almost seems proud of what Census 2010 has allegedly accomplished. What in fact has this Census accomplished? Many people have become alienated either by unfortunately working for Census or been amazed at how the Census has been conducted. From the tons of people who have spoken out about how poorly the Census has been conducted if I were in charge I personally would have avoided any press. Yep I think I would have hid from everyone until the uproar faded away. We have seen everything from the Brooklyn scandal where staff was taken away in handcuffs to the humiliation and termination of many Census workers for no apparent reasons. The tactics promoted from upper management of going out to properties for up to six times repeating the same old song time after time for no reason whatsoever was just plain nuts. History will show in time that the questionnaire was “flawed” from the start and that the conduct of Census 2010 was a terrible waste of precious taxpayer dollars! Asking a 300 pound professional wrestler named Bubba what his sex is has to be one of biggest ironies I have ever seen. And after I ask Mr. Bubba what sex did you say your wife Mary is male or female? Yep I can see my hospital bill skyrocketing after I get out of my full body cast! And that is only one facet of that gem of a Census form! Mr. Groves may be proud of the Census but there are out there in America hundreds of thousands maybe millions who are not. Sorry Mr. Groves for Census 2010 performance a resounding “thumbs down!”
July 20th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
@Steve Jost – Thanks for your comment.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Sorry Steve J., but government and ethics just don’t go together.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
What Jost, the census PR guy, said. I’m glad this site exists, and I understand that Morse casually torches census management all the time, but posts like this destroy whatever professional goodwill the census executive/PR apparatus might have had toward the site. As Jost said, a phone call would have saved a lot of heartache.
With the right guidance Morse might have been able to parlay this into a good paying gig. As flawed as this site is, no one else is doing anything close to it. Think if this site were under the auspices of the Poynter Institute, for example, or a university that is a leader in demographic/urban studies research.
Maybe in 2020.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
And just because someone isn’t taking cash upfront now, doesn’t mean there’s not money in an escrow account in Switzerland or off-the-record promises of a position on a well-paid Board of Directors in 2012.
July 20th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
“And just because someone isn’t taking cash upfront now, doesn’t mean there’s not money in an escrow account in Switzerland or off-the-record promises of a position on a well-paid Board of Directors in 2012.”
@SRM: You are an idiot.
July 20th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Just The Facts: You are naive. If you don’t like it, don’t read the blog.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Steve J. – thank you for correcting SRM once again.
Just the Facts – I second the motion.
No Sense Census – “professional goodwill” I googled it. Not found on this site.
SRM – You were mentioned on NPR today…and yes, the “C” word was used again. Are you really seriously going to let that stand? PS – I thought you invited all people to post on your site? Why are you trying to get rid of us, you know, the people who actually worked for the Census?
George – I brag about it each and every day…yes, two fat thumbs up each and every day of the week. What you will never hear from SRM on this site is that we knocked the 2010 Census outta the park. I’m glad Mr. Groves has been out there telling our story and our accomplishments. The negative fringe element on this site do not speak for us.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:34 am
While it will take until the final numbers are released in December to definitively compare the 2010 census to say, the 2000 census, the major problems we have had with our computer system does not bode well for the overall count. If I were a census public relations person, I might argue that the only negative effect has been occasional times when the system was inaccessible.
As a field worker, I am concerned that the flaws in the system may be sending us out to certain properties repeatedly and unnecessarily. I have also seen bizarre addresses printed on census form labels using “housing meters” as part of the unit description. I am starting to wonder if all such mistakes are a product of incompetent enumeratoring, or whether the computer system is occasionally goes bonkers with almost comical results.
The true test would be a study by the GAO of what percentage of the population, the 2010 census missed as compared to the 2000 census.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:34 am
You know, the pleasant surprise here have been the number of reasonable, thoughtful decennial employees who post here. Sure, it’s only a temp job. But it’s been refreshing to come here and see that people are taking the job seriously and putting a lot of energy into how to do the job as best they can.
But the tone and tenor of this site — set by Morse, the editor — has been junior high school follies bullshit. Swiss bank accounts? Really? No, really?
All that said, I’m glad the site was here and I have come here daily during the census. And despite my disagreement with Morse over how he does things here, I’d like to buy him a beer and thank him for his work.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:36 am
@anon 8:26pm: “We knocked the 2010 census out of the park,” huh? Slurp. Guzzle. Slurp. I’ll wait for the GAO and IG assessments until I make any pronouncements. You might do the same.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Why does everything that is documented by an Enumerator, CL and ACL have to be in pencil?
This includes Questionaire responses and documentation proving acceptance and completion/return of AA Binders leaving only PayRoll Sheets to be written using pen.
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:04 am
“And just because someone isn’t taking cash upfront now, doesn’t mean there’s not money in an escrow account in Switzerland or off-the-record promises of a position on a well-paid Board of Directors in 2012.”
Do you have any evidence of this, or are you simply throwing out baseless accusations hoping to stir up some controversy? An “investigative reporter” should know better, but then I haven’t seen much evidence of investigative techniques being displayed by the author.
July 23rd, 2010 at 1:57 am
Jake in Texas (July 21st)
Regarding using pencil on EQs, I understand the reason for that-many times while interviewing, I would write rather quickly as to not take too much of the respondent’s time. Later I would erase and re-write the information.
Another reason could be if there were mistakes-in NRFU I was sent out to re-enumerate another worker’s EQs and I would correct mistakes she had made. I don’t know why the Census Bureau wants AA binders signed in pencil however-once we are done with them it makes more sense to use ink.
On another subject, isn’t it interesting how we have all learned this new language of the census? AA binders, EQ’s, D308s, NRFU, Proxies, Info-Coms, NVs, Continuation EQs, CLs, ClAs, FOS districts, LCO, and last but not least, Enumerators!!!
July 24th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Steve Jost,
Exactly what has Director Robert Groves said publicly since becoming Census Bureau Director
that would make people think he is qualified to be a top demographer?
Sure,
SRM has posted some silly, even juvenile comments here but by demanding an apology, you’ve added your own.
Census Guy,
I believe the Census Bureau has left the delicate subject of PBOCS to the Dept of Commerce Inspector General.
It’s way over the head of a public relations person.