The US Census Bureau Director’s Voice of America interview: How it occurred

Jamal Hasan : It is almost a year ago, one library patron introduced me with Mr. William P. Peil of the Bureau’s Economic Census Data Collection and Management Division. His division was looking for a native Bengali speaker who would help them constructing a set of questionnaires in Bengali for the population census in Bangladesh. I volunteered for this important project. We worked a few weeks to finish this arduous task. Later on the forms in Bengali were used in Bangladesh census.

I came across with Mr. Peil last July. He told me he and a few other US Census Bureau staff were in Bangladesh to help Bangladesh government in their census. He also told me Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics was their temporary work station. They installed computers and stored millions of forms in their work place. Mr. Peil said conducting a population count of a country of more than 150 million people in five days was not at all an easy task.

I thought the US Census Bureau’s contribution to Bangladesh census needed greater media exposure. I asked Mr. William Peil if he could coordinate for an interview for the Bengali speaking radio listeners of the world. In this context, I told him my contact with the Voice of America Bengali service. Mr. Peil introduced me with his supervisor Mr. Samuel Rozenel. They called me for a special meeting. I notified our library’s project manager Ms. Catherine Earles about the meeting plan. On August 4^th, we had an hour long meeting at Mr. Rozenel’s office. Our conclusion in the meeting was the US Census Bureau’s Director Robert Groves would be the best person to talk about US Census Bureau’s contribution in the national census of another country.

I contacted Mr. Anis Ahmed, the Bengali broadcaster of the Voice of America regarding our interview plan. Mr. Ahmed was quite excited to hear the proposal and accepted it immediately. I linked Mr. Anis Ahmed with Mr. William Peil and Mr. Samuel Rozenel. There were a number of email exchanges and telephonic conversation between us all. Ms. Megan Ruhnke of the Mailout and Data Capture Branch joined our ongoing conversation. As we found she was ultimately the main coordinator who would  set up the time and suggest the questionnaire for the Director’s telephonic interview, which was set on September 13, 2011.

It was yesterday, Tuesday, September 13^th. I called Ms. Megan Ruhnke of the US Census Bureau and Mr. Anis Ahmed of the Voice of America a few hours prior to the interview. I gave both parties their alternate phone numbers. The interview went on smoothly as scheduled. Mr. Anis Ahmed called me to give me the great news. He said, the VOA would be broadcasting the interview within a week.

Finally, the Bengali version of the interview was broadcast to the Bengali speaking listeners of the world on September 20^th, 2011.

This is how an important project was completed.

[Mr. Jamal Hasan works at the US Census Bureau Library. He is a part time broadcaster for the Voice of America Bangla Service as well.]