I am doing my part to get Americans counted. I believe so deeply that the 2010 is extremely important to our community that I went and took the test to become a Census representative the first week of January. Last month I was offered the job of Questionnaire Service Center Representative. Yesterday was my first of two days of training.
Day One of my US Census bureau training was uneventful. Oh, it was long, but all we did was fill out forms… together… as a group… very slowly. So slowly that two people actually fell asleep. No, I am serious, they fell asleep. 
One man was sleeping so deeply that he was snoring. No one really knew what to do about that. The entire training is carefully scripted. Page after page of detailed instructions about completing forms. Even pauses are built in. “Please look up when you are done”. Luckily I had my Steaz Organic Energy fuel to keep me going! Thank you Steaz!
The part of the day that took the longest though was the fingerprinting. There were about 20 of us in the room. It took two solid hours to fingerprint all of us, not once, but twice. (This is done to ensure that a solid set of prints is on file. Privacy and the protection of privacy is vital to the success of the Census and priority number one of the Bureau.) 
Finally we went to lunch at 2:20pm. When we returned thirty minutes later we were reminded, once again, (the fourth time by my count), that having our check directly deposited to our bank account was the safest way to get paid, because checks are often lost or stolen in the mail. Then it could take weeks to get a replacement. (That was actually in the script. I’m not making this up.)
The last 25 minutes of our time was spent filling out our time sheet for our hours completed this day. (And me looking longingly out my window at what kid of day I was missing.) 
Over the course of 7 and a half hours we ‘“trained” for 6.75 hours We will be paid $13.25 dollars and hour at the end of this pay period which ends on Sunday. But checks won’t arrive until 11 days after that. (Much later if you don’t have it directly deposited don’t ya know.)
Even though my brain felt numb from inactivity I am still convinced I am doing the right thing by participating in the Census taking. My only hope is that in today’s training we will get down to the nitty gritty of the job so I can help the people that really need it.
Please look up when you are done.
SMILE On!
ML
Miss Lori can be found Musing from her Minivan at MissLori.TV , Wearetherealdeal.com , YoungChicagonista , and ChicagoMomsBlog. She is also the new Chicago Family Entertainment Blogger for Examiner.com and a Discussion Leader for MomsLikeMeChicago. You can also see her Activating to Be Great at Miss Lori’s CAMPUS on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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