Participants included administrators, managers, and line staff from the participating agencies; some participants served on interagency change teams while other participants performed agency tasks related to offender services.
Informed consent was obtained by research participants, including staff and managers of participating agencies, at varying points of time throughout the study, depending upon data collection requirements.
Survey respondents were also asked about the types of exercises conducted during the 2010 Statewide Exercise, characteristics of participating agencies, and factors influencing exercise participation.
During the survey administration, completion rates by health department were intermittently provided to pre-designated administrative points of contact at the participating agencies within the cluster to encourage agency-wide survey participation.
Six previously participating agencies, however, have withdrawn, including the Houston Police Department.
Initially, participating agencies were allowed to recruit only from Western Europe.
It hired Parsons Brinckerhoff to coordinate the cats-herd of participating agencies.
She said the three participating agencies seemed more intent on avoiding friction than coalescing behind a plan.
The Subprime Neediest Cases Fund was administered for all seven participating agencies by the Children's Aid Society.
The results are gathered in a centralised database for each city, which participating agencies can access and update.
(The participating agencies sign a contract guaranteeing that money raised through SmallCanBeBig.org will go directly toward paying that family's bill).
