Lesson 2.3 – Memo for Progress Report

To: Erika Paterson, ENGL 301 Instructor

From: Jobina Tamminga, ENGL 301 Student

Date: November 15, 2019

Subject: Progress Report for Formal Report

My report will be examining participation rates in the Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) and why they might be declining. The report will be directed to Julia Chai, who is the current president of the organization. The role of the president is to oversee the organization and make sure that the organization is running smoothly. Julia will be able to address the issues and implement solutions proposed by this report.

The purpose of this report is to address the issue of declining participation rates students in SUS. Undergraduate Societies are run by students and allow students to engage in campus life, but without enough participation, the organizations cannot function. This report will investigate reasons why participation may be declining and provide achievable suggestions to the SUS president as to how the Science Undergraduate Society can improve participation rates. Doing so will hopefully get more students involved and create a stronger community among science students. Getting more students involved will also allow the organization to allocate time and money according to what more students want.

This report will use the following research plan:

Identify the problem:

• Observe key areas of low participations rates such as voter turnout, event turnout, number of empty elected positions, and number of volunteers.

Conduct Survey:

• Use the survey attached below to ask science students about their current participation in SUS and why. The questions are design to be open ended to reduce bias. It is also short enough that students will be likely to participate.

Conduct Interviews:

• Use the interview questions attached below to ask current SUS members what they are currently doing to increase participation rates.

Primary data:

• Collecting data from the following sources AMS Election website, survey respondents, interviewees, and observations.

Secondary data:

• Review literature to see why students participate in extracurricular activities and whether the participation rates seen at SUS are common among other organizations as well.

My writing schedule will begin with conducting all background research by November 16th, and then starting the introduction of the report. The anonymous survey will be sent to science students on an online forum on November 17^th and will close on November 22^th. The interviews will be conducted during the week of November 18^th.  This will allow enough time for students to respond and will give me enough time to analyze the responses and create visuals based on survey data for the first draft. I aim to have the first draft done by November 30^th and the peer review done by December 5^th since this works best with my other classes. I aim to have the final copy finished by December 19^th since my last exam is on December 16^th.

Link to survey: https://forms.gle/UWSbbhgHwD2Cq6Ey8

Link to interview questions: 301 Jobina Tamminga Interview Questions