Two weeks before the focus group interviews, assess the balance of paracross groups. If participation is not balanced, you may need to find aparticipants beyond the state and national association leads. The Virginia project team tapped into SAFECOM’s governing body, the Executive Committee, for additional suggestions and contacted a number of local first responder agencies directly.
Please see Appendix R for more information about the SAFECOM Executive Committee.
Lesson Learned: In Virginia, some potential focus group participants requested to participate in a focus group interview in a region other than where they worked. The project team discouraged participants from attending interviews outside their region to preserve the validity and authenticity of the data collected in each region.