More on making corrections

It appears that when reviewing your check sheets, some of you are only looking at what is highlighted in yellow. You should be reading every single word on your check sheet. Sometimes the checker forgets to highlight something in yellow. Sometimes the checker has a question. Often it will say something like, "look at it and see what you think," OR "ask Sandy and decide."

These checks are for ongoing training not just to improve the quality of 10% of the work or to annoy inputters. Please read all of the information written on your check sheets. Make sure you understand what the checker said. If you don't understand, seek clarification. Maybe you disagree with a change the checker made. Discuss this with the checker and Sandy or me. We want to make sure we're all on the same page and that everyone is able to collect excellent data.

Making corrections

Each of you are checked at least twice a month. When you receive your check sheets, make sure you review them and make all necessary corrections. We have noticed that this does not always happen. It is important for your ongoing training and the quality of the data that these corrections be made. If you disagree with or don't understand something the checker said, please discuss it with the checker. You may also ask Sandy or me for clarification.

Additionally, sometimes an incorrect census decade must be deleted. I do this for many of you. After the deletion is made, sometimes a red X is left behind. I will not assume that this X needs to be changed to yellow. I'm happy to do that if you tell me, but I will not do it without your instruction. Therefore, if you ask me to delete a census decade, you need to make sure that it hasn't left a red X on your grid. It also doesn't hurt for you to double check that I correctly did what you asked me to do.

Progress report as of September 7

Here is our progress report as of September 7, 2016.

	Project 1	Project 2 - USCT
	n = 8,500	n = 4,500
Total soldiers complete	4017	1440
Soldiers completed during last week	82	23
Soldiers w/o children (to be removed from sample)	404	255
% of completed soldiers w/o children	10.1	17.7
Soldiers with children complete	3613	1185
% with children complete	42.5	26.3

Death ranges - CHANGE

We've decided that for death ranges you can go back to entering them in even if the range is greater than two decades. This information is not good data, but it will help you administratively. We are going to work on a change, so you'll be able to enter information that is both good data and an administrative help. We will fix the data problem during cleaning.

Any questions?

Checking reminder

I just want to remind you all that if the soldier does not have children, please DO NOT send him out as part of our monthly checking system. That soldier will be dropped from the sample, so why waste the time checking it, especially if most of the work was already completed by a previous inputter.

This rule does not apply to trainees who are on 100% checks. All of their work must be checked.

Death ranges

Often an exact death date is not found, so you are able to enter a death range based on other information. After speaking with Noelle, we've decided that death ranges larger than two decades should not be entered. At that point, the range is so large as to become meaningless. From now on, please don't enter a death range larger than two decades.

Progress report as of August 31

Here is our progress as of August 31, 2016. We are working toward a goal of completing 55% of Project 1 by January 1, 2017.

	Project 1	Project 2 - USCT
	n = 8,500	n = 4,500
Total soldiers complete	3935	1417
Soldiers completed during last week	58	40
Soldiers w/o children (to be removed from sample)	399	243
% of completed soldiers w/o children	10.1	17.1
Soldiers with children complete	3536	1174
% with children complete	41.6	26.1