U.S. CENSUS COMING TO COUNT MACDILL PERSONNEL

Published March 25, 2010

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- MacDill personnel living on base will be asked to standup and be counted when the U.S. Census Bureau begins fulfilling its decennial mission of counting the noses of everyone in America later this month.

Every 10 years, on years ending in zero, for the last 21 decades this government agency has been tasked with gathering data about our nation's population. Our Constitution mandated we should do this for a number of important reasons. One being the population information obtained will determine how many seats in the U.S. House of Representative each state will have.

Not only that, census data is used to determine the electoral districts within the states and to allocate federal funds of around $400 billion yearly to local, state and tribal governments in addition to tracking changes and trends in the population.

Thomas Jefferson appointed by President George Washington as secretary of state got the first US census going in 1790. After data was collected, it was determined that the population of the new nation was approximately four million.

Counting the military is particularly challenging for the Census Bureau as most civilians will be counted at their usual residence-- the place where they live and sleep most of the time. This may not so apparent for people in the military and their families.

Take for example, the military population stationed overseas including personnel deployed for our wartime efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan in addition to U.S. military on ocean going vessels with a homeport outside the United States. All these personnel will have to be counted because, as mentioned, their numbers assist in determining the allocation of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Here at MacDill the problem is less complex. Our people who live in family housing on base will receive the standard census questionnaire beginning Mar 15 through the mail with instructions when completed to mail back to regional Census Bureau locations.

Those in base housing who do not return their census questionnaire for one reason or other (TDY, etc) within a reasonable amount of time will receive a visit at their quarters from a Census Enumerator sometime from May to July. Base residents who desire part time employment with the U.S. Census during this final collection phase are urged to contact the Airman & Family Services Center on base for more information.

Those personnel residing in MacDill dormitories as of April 1 will have their census questionnaires delivered to them by their dorm managers to be completed and returned for pick up later by outside census personnel. Chief Richard Lee, 6th Mission Support Group Superintendent, will be the point of contact during this phase of the enumeration process.

Col. Larry Martin, 6th Air Mobility Wing commander, has met with Tampa U.S. Census officials recently and has pledged base support for the data collection operation encouraging all personnel to fill out their census questionnaires and return them promptly to the agency.