President Katie Dukeshire opened our meeting. The Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance was led by Peter Barcus.
Announcements
- Welcome back Randy Perkins!
- Welcome visiting Rotarian, John Brooks, from the breakfast club.
- We have collected 135 cans of food for Allied Churches.
- Today was the first reading for Bob Bircham and second reading for Laura Brannock.
Happy Clams
- Dick O’Donnell thanked Susan Watson for her help in finding him a new virtual assistant. He also thanked Micah Fox and his dad for the recent newspaper article. Lastly, he encouraged us all to watch the CBS This Morning piece entitled “A Man and His Dog” focused on organ donation.
- Trip Durham shared Fred Kiger will be in Burlington on 2/16. Kiger is a Rotarian from Chapel Hill and served as Dean Smith’s first statistician. Kiger is also a Civil War lecturer.
- Master Lee shared the students from Gwacheon have arrived home safely. More students will be visiting next year so if anyone is interested in serving as a host family, please let Master Lee know.
- Carolyn Rhode brought available Girl Scout cookies and a few good “sales reps.”
Public Opinion Polling – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Charlie Combs introduced our speaker, Kenneth Fernandez, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies and Director of Elon University Polling.
Elon University polling was founded in 2000 and is an independent polling group. They conduct their polling through land lines, cell phones and now also the internet. Their average sample size is 1000 to ensure a 3% margin of error which is the industry average.
Polling is not easy because fewer and fewer people actually answer their phones. Not to worry though; Elon will attempt to contact you up to 5 times!
Some polling errors that may occur are as follows:
- Margin of Error
- Measurement Error – having bad questions (i.e. everyone claims to be “middle class”)
- Coverage Error – individuals without phone or internet access
- Non-response Error – refusing to take the survey
- Post Survey Error – the data is analyzed incorrectly
Polling during Presidential primaries is very difficult. 80% of individuals polled will likely not vote.
In summary, there are many aspects of the Elon University Poll that make it “good.” Live callers, multiple attempts to contact, use of cell phones/land lines/internet, large sample sizes and transparency are a few of the reasons why.
Card Drawing
Sam Powell did not select the winning Queen of Clubs card.
Upcoming Programs
February 2 – Penn Corbett/Micah Fox
February 9 – Mike Dunning
February 16 – Trip Durham
February 23 – Micah Fox
Closing
We all stood to recite the Rotary Four Way Test and the meeting was adjourned. Until next week…