Final Research of a Community Outreach Group

Matthew Bevers

Introduction

At the beginning of this semester I didn't even know this group existed so to be here now with so much knowledge about my group is a good feeling. The amount of information made available by this group was the biggest surprise to me because I thought it was going to be hard to make a whole project on this group. Below is my final research paper on my group with a detailed ethnography, interview section, and content analysis.  

I observed a community outreach program organized through a local fire department to study how they interact with each other and those around them. The event that I observed was a community outreach initiative that went around to local houses and senior living homes installing free smoke detectors. I hoped to see how my group interacts with the other organizations that they rely upon and to see how the community treats them. 

I interviewed three different members of a community outreach group. The first person I interviewed was my key informant and an important driving force of the group. The second person I interviewed was a high ranking public servant that was involved with overseeing the program. The third person I interviewed was a new member that had just joined so all three had different opinions and levels of enthusiasm. The interviews were conducted at a local fire station and at a respondent's home. I gathered a lot of valuable information into the inner workings of small town community program. I observed different levels of enthusiasm and knowledge about the group and that was very interesting. 

I collected and analyzed content from 30 different sources about a community outreach organization. At first, I was worried about collecting that many sources from my group, but the program is nationally organized and founded so information was abundant. I searched online and easily found many different kinds of forms and manuals with hundreds of pages of content specifically about my group. My group was started through FEMA so there are a lot of strict government guidelines that must be followed to ensure the continuation of the program. I learned that my group is a lot larger than I once thought and that this is a huge system that is broken up into community programs. I omitted certain information in my analysis in effort to keep the organizations name anonymous.  

Literature Review

In the reading, Nature and Significance of the Self, the article first delves into what the definition of the self actually is. It concludes that the nature of the self is extremely social and always adapting. Our social self adapts to each new unique social situation and changes to fit the person we are talking to. For example, if I was talking to my friends I might be using looser, less formal language while if I was getting job interviewed I would be using very formal language. This example goes deeper though even breaking down between individual people within those work or friend groups. I might talk to Bob differently than I talk to Tony for example. One thing I found very interesting about this article was about the self of a social structure. Language is a huge part about developing one's self and how one can understand other people. Once a person can understand someone they develop an increasingly sophisticated ability to assume the perspective of others and respond to ourselves in terms of this perspective.  Developing this ability is done at a young age through roleplaying like imagining your a firefighter, police officer, or doctor. Towards the beginning of the article I noticed a familiar theory that I've seen many times before. The looking-glass self by Charles Cooley states that we build a sense of self through others' perspective of us. The simplest explanation of this is that if people think highly of someone they will develop high self esteem, if people think negatively of someone they will develop low self esteem. One thing that definitely gave me hope though was that in the article it stated a lot of professors teach the looking-glass self incorrectly, saying that people's perspective affect our self esteem. The correct theory is that our perspective of their perspective is what shapes our real self. 

In the reading, Role Taking, Role Making, and the Coordination of Action, more emphasis is placed on defining situations. More detail is given to unstructured social situations and how people act while there. For example parties are tricky situations because parties can vary greatly in who puts them on, what the party is celebrating, and who's invited. The way a person act at a two year old's birthday party is much different than how someone at a college fraternity party would act. No one inherently knows how to act in a social situation so there are ways which we generally follow. When we are presented with a definition of a social situation that we don't know we either let the unfamiliarity and uncomfortableness pass and move on, we end the interaction, we try to force our own definition onto others, or accept the other people's definition. Role taking is another essential idea to symbolic interactionism that the reading covers. It's linked to the looking-glass self and how you use other people's perception of you to shape what role you should take. In the reading, the example they used was a pastor from Cincinnati who orchestrated non-violent protests and movements centered around police brutality in the area. Instead of shaming the youth who wanted to destroy property he extended his hand as an ally not as another authority figure, effectively channeling the youth's frustration into something non violent and productive. 

In the second reading, Introduction to Sociological Theory : Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century, the article starts by explaining once again Cooley's looking-glass self which lends validity to this theory because of how often it is in academic papers and books. Performance pressure was the first interesting idea that was covered to me in this article. This idea stated that people have multiple roles at any specific time and the performance of all these roles gives us stress because we want to make a good impression. When we try to control people's perception of us that is when the most pressure is applied. This is definitely an extremely viable theory especially in modern times because of how complicated and stressful the world is becoming. The best way to ease performance pressure is to make sure the definition of the social situation is shared. Correctly defining a social situation is the best way to avoid social embarrassment or even being ostracized. Correctly defining a social situation and trying to make a good impression are both fronts or front stage activities. There are two stages according to Goffman, the front stage and the backstage. The front stage is where we perform for other people and where we are socially interacting. The back stage is where we prepare our strategies that we use in social situations. Both are necessary to navigate in our social setting. 

Methods

Chapter 3 of Discovering Qualitative Methods,  is focused on the setting of an ethnography. One of the first topics that the chapter covers is how most students will not have the time to cover a whole business, school, or other area in only one semester of observing. In hindsight, this is solid advice because whenever I started my project I was intimidated by how much I had to cover. What actually happened was that I focused on my key informant who then unlocked the necessary doors to help me complete my project. Another great point from the book is to watch out for ethical dilemmas while conducting an ethnography. (Karner and Warren 58). This quote stuck out to me because I remember someone from my class doing his project on AA so I'm sure it was very difficult for him to keep his project ethical. I had my own tribulations with the amount of minors under 18 that I had to sift through till I found a young person over 18 that I could interview. My project would have been nothing without my key informant, who was my initial gatekeeper. She helped smooth my way into the organization and through different settings (Karner and Warren 71). My key informant helped me so much in talking to the right people and setting up my interviews. She wasn't the big boss of my group, but she knew everything about the program because she handled all of the organizational roles so she had the most knowledge. This chapter taught me about what I could expect from an ethnography, which jump started my whole project. 

Chapter 6 of Discovering Qualitative Methods, helps the reader understand qualitative interviews, which are much different from quantitative survey interviews, and tips on how to form an interview guide. This chapter helped me a lot because I had never done a qualitative interview project of this size before. For me what really set the interview apart from the other kinds of conversation that I have done was the formal structure. I had to make questions to ask respondents,  selection the correct respondents, and record audio of the interview. (Karner and Warren 122). While I knew the general idea behind interviewing, as the book points out, it's a very different type of conversation than any kind I had done before. There is pressure on you to perform more than a normal conversation (which is hard enough for some of us) and you have to keep track of so many things while also remaining attentive to your respondent. The only thing that kept me on track during my interviews was my interview questions that I had written before arriving and after careful consideration. I made sure to use easy to answer questions focused at the beginning of the interview (Karner and Warren 126). I listened to these words carefully in my paper and made sure to start out with easy questions to not only give the respondent a sense of ease and rhythm when answering the questions, but to also help myself to build confidence within the interview. This chapter imparted the importance of creating a solid outline of questions before you start the interview. If I had tried to naturally keep the questions rolling while in the interview, I would have failed and my interviews would be much worse. 

In Chapter 8 of Discovering Qualitative Methods, the book discusses documents, images and the use of the internet for qualitative methods. Documents of all kinds can be used for qualitative research, including public documents made by local and national governments.  Also newspapers and magazines are great pieces of media that you can analyze (Karner and Warren 170). This  advice helped me gather a lot of strong official documentation on my group for my content analysis. While my group is a government started organization, looking at government documents for sociological research is always useful because it lends credibility and a reliable document of data to your project. I also used newspaper clippings in my content analysis which are useful because they are short and informative most of the time. One form of media that I do wish we were able to analyze was an image. Images are powerful and the use of images has a long history with social research, The analysis of images goes back to premodern travelers like cave paintings, images from the past that can be analyzed for social context (Karner and Warren 179). The analysis of imagery is sometimes even more in depth than what a person is saying and while the use of an image was allowed in the project, I wish more emphasis was placed upon analyzing imagery related to my group. This chapter helped me find reliable and useful data for the longest part of my paper. Without the use of government websites and newspapers, my content analysis would have been lackluster. 

Methods: Ethnography

I observed a local community group during an event to help the community. It was one observation done on 10/27/18 from the hours of 7:30 to 10:45. I was a passive observer throughout my observation because I was more interested in fully observing the group dynamic without having to worry about participating myself. 

I focused on five different nodes and I spent time during my observation focusing on what would be interesting topics for my nodes based on what I was observing. For the first node I focused on the different roles that the people around me were occupying. The second node I decided to analyze was the status of the different observants I had. For my third node I used my thick description to analyze the whole event. This was especially helpful for me in analyzing every other node because my description helped me remember other facts about other nodes. The fourth node I analyzed was the diverse organizations that were at the event. The fifth and final node I used was to analyze the subject of race among the people I observed. I analyzed this data through NVivo which is a data analysis software. I ran word frequencies and organized my findings into the five nodes above. 

Methods: Interview

I interviewed three different members of a community outreach organization between the dates of 11/27-11/29. Two of the interviews were conducted at a fire station while the last was conducted at the respondent's home. I used an app on my phone to record the interviews and then used text to speech software to transcribe the recordings. I focused on five different nodes during my analysis with the first being the role of my respondent. I wanted to analyze roles because it seemed like the people in my group just did whatever they needed. The second node was status because I wanted to analyze the social position of each respondent. The third node is my emergent node and I used it as a way to analyze myself and the questions that I wished I asked. The fourth node is front stage/backstage and I included this because I had some great quotes about the preparation that goes into running a group like that. The fifth node is identity because I wanted to analyze how the respondent's identity was tied to the group. I analyzed this data through NVivo which is a data analysis software and organized my nodes into an NVivo file. I also ran a word frequency with one of the words of interest being "community".

Methods: Content Analysis

I analyzed data from 29 unique documents about my group. Luckily for me my group was started by FEMA so there was a lot of detailed logs and handbooks that I could look in. Lack of information to analyze was not my problem for this paper, as I could've only kept adding on to my analysis with the amount of literature my group has on the web. I also looked at some YouTube videos, but I mainly focused on the brochures and manuals that they provided. I did this because while it is important to know what others think about the program, I just completed an interview paper that accomplished that goal and I thought it was more interesting to read what the program thought about itself. 

I will analyze five different nodes in my analysis. The first node is Ruling Text and focuses on the most important and influential documents that I could find about my group. The second node is Controlling Images and I had to get creative for the controlling images of my group, but I feel like I made an adequate case in my analysis for my findings. The third node is Typification and is where I analyze the common emergency jargon that is included with many emergency handbooks. The fourth node is Framing, and I decided to analyze where my group wanted its participants to focus on. The fifth and final node is one of my own choosing named Diversity. I named it this because I wanted to analyze the organizational diversity of my program to see why this group is so popular. I collected and organized my nodes through a software called NVivo where I also ran a word frequency and saw words like community and emergency as the most stated.    

Analysis

Ethnography

Role

My first analysis  was the Role of my observants. This node is linked to theory and is tied to Dramaturgy by Goffman and the role that people fill in society. I felt like it was necessary to include this node into this paper because roles can tell us a lot about a person. 

"I arrived at 7:30 am and made sure to introduce myself to my key informant and leader of my group and sign in to the sign in sheet. The first thing I noticed after I signed in was the laid back atmosphere of all the people gathered."

This is an interesting quote from my fieldnotes and at first glance it might not reveal anything of actual value, but it says something about me and the people there. The start time for the event was 8:30 and I showed up way too early on purpose. I did this because I was nervous and I felt like it was my role as an observant to introduce myself to my key informant (whom I was meeting for the first time) and to make sure they were comfortable with me being there. I also think my nervousness affected my observation, especially at first.  I observed that the roles of the people shifted and changed the closer we got to the event starting. The people that were hanging out talking when I got there started to disperse and were instead walking around looking busy. This reminded me of the back stage and front stage to Goffman's Dramaturgy. Whenever no one was there people were relaxing and enjoying themselves, but closer to start time people started filling their responsibilities and roles. 

"To me, it seemed like everybody stuck to whatever group they came with except for the Red Cross representatives. This makes sense to me because Red Cross was headlining the event so they probably wanted to try to meet as many people as possible."

This is something I picked up early while observing. While other people were sticking with their group for the most part, the Red Cross people were everywhere. Talking and smiling with all the groups and moving between each one to introduce themselves. You could tell that this was a designed strategy and they were filling many different roles. They were there to organize these people, lend big credibility to their cause, and bring community members together to help better themselves. 

"The person that talked to the homeowner was the most senior person in the small group that I observed. They explained the dangers of old or faulty smoke detectors and would ask the individual if they would like to receive a free smoke detector with free installation." 

Another example of how important the Red Cross representatives were is that the speaker in the group trying to convince people to receive a free smoke alarm was usually left to them. This is mainly because they were comfortable with the verbage and script that they used with each person and they also knew the most about what they were doing. 

Status

My second analysis was of a person's Status in the group. I wanted to analyze the status of the people at this event because there was some interesting levels of prestige and a lot of difference between age. 

"If they were affiliated with a specific organization then they were wearing their specific t-shirt and nametag."

This jumped out to me as soon as I arrived at the event. I thought it was going to be more a casual event with community members and some volunteers helping, but it was organized well and people were displaying their status usually through clothing and nametag. This was probably used to make their event look more formal and competent and it worked. Collectively they came together above their singular statuses and they looked like a legitimate humanitarian effort. 

"I did notice that it seemed to be split up between CERT members, Police Explorers, off duty firefighters, Red Cross representatives, and high school students. To me, it seemed like everybody stuck to whatever group they came with except for the Red Cross representatives."

This is a listing of the recognized organizations that participated in the event. As analyzed above, they were easily identifiable by clothing and name tag. The second line of the quote is interesting to me because it shows an example of how cliques are perpetuated. Because people were so easily identifiable a lot of the people didn't mingle as much and it looked like a lot of the younger crowd was especially scared to branch out from their groups. It's interesting to see that while this was a community event, people were still quick to grab onto their achieved statuses and display them. 

"After standing around waiting for more and more volunteers to show up my key informant started a short powerpoint explaining what they would be doing that day and describing the roles and actions that the volunteers would take." 

My key informant is an important member in the group that I am observing and it was very interesting for me to watch her interact with everyone else. She was used as an attention getter and general educator in the beginning and it was her making the announcements, but I don't think she was in charge. She would look to the Red Cross representatives for guidance which makes me believe that this event was allowed to happen through them. This quote just provides more context into the power dynamics of this event and alludes to what's happening behind the scenes. 

Thick Description

Analyzing my thick description of this event is important and will help me understand my raw field notes better. My note taking is sporadic so being able to analyze this writing will help me to better understand the events at the time of me writing them. 

"The volunteers would be split up in 3 person teams, one would talk to the homeowners, one would record the information that a new detector had been installed, and the final person would physically install the smoke detector."

Looking back at this quote I wonder how they knew how to install the detectors so well. It didn't really seem that hard, but my team was really good at it. This makes me also think that I should have asked more questions to the people I was observing. I was a little nervous and I didn't know my place so next time I'll be sure to ask more questions. 

"The volunteers would be split up in 3 person teams, one would talk to the homeowners, one would record the information that a new detector had been installed, and the final person would physically install the smoke detector."

This part was interesting to me because when my key informant was talking it was clear that there was some level of seniority that was being showed. The more senior members of the congregation were standing at the back lightly talking until we were ready to break up. The dynamics of the group I'm observing are very interesting to me. They don't seem to be well respected when it comes to the more senior members of the police and firefighters groups. 

Organizations

The next area I want to analyze is the organizations and groups that I observed. There were many different organizations there with their own sets of quirks and characteristics and I want to break them down and try to understand them better. 

"I did notice that it seemed to be split up between CERT members, Police Explorers, off duty firefighters, Red Cross representatives, and high school students."

I will be analyzing this sentence multiple times because it is the most thorough description of the different groups. The first group that I want to analyze is the police explorers. There weren't a lot of them, maybe 10 and they stuck very close to each other. Two off duty police officers also arrived with them and it was clear that they knew the off duty firefighters because they immediately started shaking hands and talking excitedly. The explorers seemed respected and they were generally nice and helpful.

"I did notice that it seemed to be split up between CERT members, Police Explorers, off duty firefighters, Red Cross representatives, and high school students."

The next group I want to analyze is the off duty firefighters. They were in their element completely and were extremely comfortable with everyone there. The event took place in their hometown with some of their facilities being used. They didn't really do a lot, but you could tell that people were happy to see them. It seemed like they were well known and well liked and they gave off a positive energy. 

"I did notice that it seemed to be split up between CERT members, Police Explorers, off duty firefighters, Red Cross representatives, and high school students."

The last group I want to analyze is the Red Cross representatives. They were obviously running the event. The event was sponsored through them and they were always the most knowledgeable and seemed to be friendly. Everyone was always looking to them for guidance. The one thing that I was really impressed with was how positive everyone seemed. It was pretty early in the morning and about 45 degrees, but everyone seemed  happy to be there and I think the Red Cross people did a lot to help that. 

Race

The last topic I want to analyze is the race of the groups and people that they serviced. It was a very diverse group that was assembled even in such a small community.

"I did notice that it seemed to be split up between CERT members, Police Explorers, off duty firefighters, Red Cross representatives, and high school students."

The race of the groups were diverse and accurate with the surrounding areas. A lot of Whites and Hispanics were there with some people of Asian descent as well. I thought this was a great representation of the Fresno area and in a small town rural community it was of note that there were so many different races here. 

"The person that talked to the homeowner was the most senior person in the small group that I observed."

The one difference that I observed was that they people that we talked to in the community were all White. We walked to 7 houses and every single homeowner was white. I thought that was also a good representation of a small town rural community. The wealthier White community members that can afford houses moved out to the rural areas and bought land.

Interviews

Role

My first analysis is about the roles of the people I have interviewed. I interviewed three very different people with three very different roles. I made sure to ask them all about their roles in the group, but felt like I had varying levels in success with their answers. Some of their answers seemed practiced or reserved when talking about roles and I don't know why. It could have been the way I asked the question or the way the question was worded, but at the very least every respondent answered the question in their own way and that's what matters. 

"I think I had 20 interested and I had a different instructor. His availability was a lot different and I was just telling him things that I saw, not that I heard anything negative, that I wanted to keep our group kind of growing and I don't mind being a leader."

The first quote that I will analyze is from my first respondent. My first respondent was my key informant and she was very interesting. She loved to talk, most of our interview consisted of me going "Uh-huh" and "Right". She was also very erratic with her speaking pattern so by this time in the interview I was used to her completely changing subjects mid sentence. She began talking about a class and instructor, then starts talking about the instructor's performance and ends with her saying that she doesn't mind being a leader. My key informant was extremely involved with this program. She had started it (according to the 2nd respondent) and was running it while also working full time. I analyzed this quote because the way she brazenly declared that she didn't mind being a leader really made an impact on me. The program was placed on her shoulders, but she seemed happy to carry the load. Her role was whatever the group needed her role to be.

"I: What's your role if you have to say what your role is in this group? 

R: Probably a coordinator, supervisor or whatever.

I: And does that mean you're just sending people to certain areas or organizing people into groups?

R: It's more coordinating the program training."

This second quote is from the 2nd respondent that I interviewed. The one topic that I will keep coming back to is the diversity of the respondents. This respondent was a public servant that was tied to the group. His answers were practiced and you could tell that he was in charge of the situation. He didn't have nearly the enthusiasm to the project as the first respondent, but that doesn't mean he didn't think it was important. I could tell from the way that he talked about the program that he thought it was useful, but he had a lot of other more important divisions to manage. This quote demonstrates his emotional distance from the group especially when he says "whatever". He may be seen as the supervisor of this group, but his role seemed fairly hands off from what I gathered. My first respondent was much more involved in the day to day running of the organization. 

"Yeah it's pretty good, anyways we go help the fire department you know we give them water some cold neck towels that brings the body temperature down because they're fighting fires and there we bring them food and snacks these people are working hard all day and all night do try to keep us safe so we usually try to feed them."

This last quote is from my third respondent and he was also very interesting because he was so new he hadn't really done that much with the group yet. A lot of what we talked about was what he thought he would be doing, but one topic kept popping up in his interview. He wanted to be more hands on and all of his focus was getting out and helping personally. The other two respondents were about managing others and the program, but he was about doing the field work. He had the mentality of a base member that was just starting out and was full of hope for what he wanted to accomplish. He didn't have an established role per say, but it seemed like he would be starting from the bottom and working his way up to be given the responsibility of more roles.  

Status

I wanted to analyze the status of the three different respondents because as I keep saying the diversity, in experience, between the three people I interviewed was incredibly high. The first respondent was a city employee that managed and ran the program, the second was a public servant that was a high ranking member of a local emergency department, and the last respondent was a young man (he was definitely over 18, I saw his ID) who had just finished high school and was deciding on going to college. Three people at three very different stages of their life, with three very different statuses. 

"I: Alright so what's the reason you think personally you joined the program?

R: I joined because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to learn the skills. I wanted to use them for my own ability but I wanted to be of help to my family first and then my community. And I guess because I'm asked a lot of questions, the community sees me as the first point of contact for them because we have this program."

The first quote is by the first respondent. Her status within this group was that of the most important person. She kept detailed files of what classes people had taken in the group and seemed to be involved with everything done inside of it. She was a de facto leader, record keeper, active participant, and organizer. She was my key informant, but it seemed like she was everyone's key informant. I had to pause the recording multiple times because of the people coming in to her office needing help with something. Her last sentence of the quote was also interesting because it gives another layer to her status. She's the gatekeeper for this program and for many other important city functions for a small community. 

"I: So whenever I was interviewing your associate out there, she was saying that you started the group or?

R: No it's a national program we just adopted it here in this town it's a nationwide program she started it probably 2 or 3 years ago and then whenever I came into this position I inherited it as the supervisor, basically oversee the organization."

This second quote is from the 2nd respondent. This is a perfect quote to garnish what his status was. He was a supervisor in every way. He had a more laid back attitude compared to my first respondent and that was apparent throughout his professional position. He was a high ranking city employee who was there to manage and supervise departments and that's what he did with this group. He seemed to have a lot of control over the group (which I inferred from quotes from my first respondent), but seemed to be generally hands off. This program was a good way for him to engage with the community, but this wasn't a huge area of concern for him. 

"R: I joined, well I just graduated High School, trying to go to university now. I first joined the group in order to get extra like extra curricular activities that I can put down and it was also good for service hours and just to get some training on CPR. I have a little brother he's just a newborn baby and it's just me and my mom back at home and you know like it's just good to have certain skills like CPR."

This last quote is from the 3rd respondent. He was a young man that had just finished high school and was trying to decide what next steps he should take. This quote demonstrates a lot of his statuses. His first status was a recent high school student and prospective college student. That is a very important time in a person's life so it's exciting that I got to interview him during that time. He was also the older brother to a newborn baby and son to a single mother. Both of these statuses may not be unique today, but it doesn't make a situation like this any easier. In addition to both of those statuses, he was now the de facto "man of the house" by default. He seemed to be young and full of enthusiasm for his future so hopefully through this group he can elevate his status. 

Emergent 

I wanted to analyze the interesting observations I made in these observations while focusing on the theme of my missed opportunities as a new interviewer. I feel like I gathered a lot of valuable information about this group, but I also missed out on asking questions on topics that I found interesting. I think it was just nerves on my part, but all of the quotes I will analyze now are over topics that I should've asked more questions about. 

"It doesn't have to be school if we have to be there we have a vehicle, we have blankets, we have some pillows, we have a basic first aid kit in there if we needed to carry oxygen. We have another ambulance there for those types of things."

The first quote I want to analyze is from my key informant and first respondent. In this quote she was describing a vehicle that the program had purchased. It was the same make and model as a real ambulance except that it was painted white and green. Instead of the normal "Ambulance" or "Emergency Vehicle" it had the name of the program on the side of it. I was really impressed with this vehicle and it shocked me that a small program (even though it was funded by city money) could afford a vehicle like that. It demonstrated to me that while this program is only a few years old, these people took it very seriously. I wish I would've asked my respondent more about the vehicle like, where did the money come from?

"We invited the program to the Christmas party last year and I was like who's single? Mr., Mrs., so I started asking them, who do you contact in case of emergency and so that's how I found out. Our family matrix is what I call it, so here's my whole list of everybody. 

I: It's so detailed, so detailed, oh my gosh.

R: So now I know if she's single or if she lives at home by herself that's fine."

The second quote is also by my first respondent. This part of the interview really took me off guard. For no other reason than her stated curiosity, she wanted to find out the relationship status of everyone in the group. I found that to be strange. Whenever, in the quote, I say "It's so detailed, so detailed, oh my gosh." it's because she handed me a very thick binder on information about the group. All of the classes that everyone had completed were recorded with the names, relationship status, addresses, and phone numbers of everyone in the group. While contact information is standard, I thought it was interesting that she recorded the relationship status as well, but the mood of the group was a very "small town" attitude so I guess for them it wasn't that strange. I was taken aback whenever she showed me so I wish I could've looked at that binder a little more because it would have given me a lot of interesting information. 

"R: Right right, I only joined the group about 2 or 3 weeks ago I haven't really done anything that might directly impact my community. I haven't like gone out to a rescue or anything like that. However I did just finish my CPR training because I'm trying to get first aid certified.

I: And you did that through the program? 

R: Yeah I did."

  This quote is from my 3rd respondent. This quote started the conversation about his extensive CPR training that he took through his group. I thought this was an interesting time in the interview because he really came alive and his enthusiasm for the training and the hands on aspect of it really showed through. He gave me a great description of the training he received and I feel like this part of the interview was extremely helpful in helping him to relax a little and let him get some conversational rhythm within the interview. His enthusiasm was interesting to observe because his focus wasn't about growing the group, unlike like the other two. He was interested in using this group to better himself and his family. I should have asked more blunt questions about what he was hoping to get out of this group or, more importantly, what my respondent heard he could get out of this group.

Front Stage/Back Stage

The preparation and performance of this group was handled in large amounts by my key informant. She gave me a lot of insight into what the preparation was for the group and how much she did for them. A lot of the back stage was handled directly by her so her quotes are very interesting. 

"It started 3 years ago and the chief was talking to me about goals and things that we want to do in our department. And so we talked about this program that he had been introduced to, it's part of FEMA, we talked about getting a group together here, we start talking about it, and we found an instructor here from the area that was be willing to be certified to teach us."

The first quote is from my first respondent. This is the first quote of my first interview and it gives me a lot of information about the backstage of the group. This quote let me know that a high ranking person that controls the department that this group operates under and my key informant are comfortable enough to talk to each other about the goals of a department. This shows a lot of trust in my key informant because talks of deciding what groups of people will do for the future usually involve important people. This quote sets the context of how important my key informant was in the backstage of not just this group, but the larger entity behind it.

"We were very busy because we had a lot of phone calls. We had ammonia spills, and ammonia leaks, we had small fires so we were still trying to figure out how to dispatch. What do we need? So we started learning from those trials and errors by the second year we had a better understanding, a new foundation of what was going to happen, where should we meet, who was available."

This quote is from my first respondent. I really like this quote because it demonstrates the front stage and the backstage of the group. The front stage is that they were very busy with a myriad of different problems, while the backstage is them learning from their mistakes. Sometimes the front stage and backstage can intermingle and preparing and planning must come on the fly. 

"I don't know this might be because I'm a young guy. I just want to, whenever I signed up for it, I thought it was going to be in the field helping more. And I understand that I'm helping out by just doing the paperwork because it needs to be done, I thought I would be out there helping people."

This last quote is from my 3rd respondent. This quote is an excellent example of someone not knowing what the backstage is before they take on certain roles and statuses. This respondent wanted to be in the program and wanted to take on the hands-on roles, but he didn't know that the backstage to helping people is doing a lot of paperwork. I'm sure the more involved he gets with the program the more of the backstage he will have to do. The vehicle that they have doesn't maintain itself and to advance throughout any program, preparation is always key. 

Identity

I want to analyze the identity of my respondents in relation to their group. They were each unique in their positions in the group, with the first respondent being fully immersed into the program and building a lot of her identity through the program. The second respondent had been involved with public service for so long that this group wasn't a part of his identity at all. The third respondent was very new to the group, but his identity was already tied to the program and what opportunities it could give him. 

"R: My career choice is to be a firefighter whenever I grow up that just goes hand-in-hand with that yeah that would be helpful.

I: So next question is what do you feel like you get out of being in this group?

R: Well I get a sense of community. Like I said, I get a set of skills that I can use in my day-to-day life, some volunteer hours to be able to get into school, but I want and I do want to be a fireman so that just goes with the training that I have to get."

This quote is from my third respondent. His identity within the group was still forming because of how new he was. He didn't have that much interaction with anyone in the group except for one large class he took so for the present his identity was relatively unknown. He was in this group for the potential of growing his status, but his identity was already tied to being a firefighter and using this program to become one. "Camradie" and "family" were some words used by the other respondents whenever they mentioned the people in this group and this respondent will be joining that family. 

"We were the test group it went really well, there were times when we learned a lot from that class because our firefighter was teaching the class, but he was also on shift sometimes and so the challenge for the first class was a little longer. I had a lot of feedback in it, I was a participant and I also work here so I was kind of organizing the class."

This quote is from my first respondent. Her identity was completely tied to the group and it was obvious from her interview. From this quote we can see she was in a class while she organized it and actively provided feedback to make it better. She enjoyed being the most involved and most dedicated person to the group. She was comfortable that her identity was tied into this program and into her work. Her identity was formed through how helpful she could be to her family and community. Whenever I contacted her about using her program she invited me in with open arms and set everything up for me because that's what she does. 

"I: What do you feel like personally you get out of being in this group?

R: I've been in public public service my whole life pretty much so it's just... 

I: is it just another thing for you?

R: it's another thing for me, but it's also like the community does care."

This quote is from my second respondent. His identity was unique from the other two respondents because it was not influenced through this group. As you can see from the quote, this program was just another program in the long line of programs that a long time public servant is involved with. He gave me all the right answers about family, community, and diversity, but his responses seemed practiced. He believed in the group, but his identity wasn't tied to it like the first respondent or reliant on it like the third respondent. 

Content Analysis

Ruling Text

The first concept I wanted to analyze was the ruling texts of my group. A ruling text is a document that shapes or guides people's behavior. A common example would be the laws that we abide by, or the Bible. I wanted to start by analyzing this because I feel like it is important to know what the most important documents are trying to convey in every group at the beginning. 

"The purpose of the "Name of Group" Basic Training is to provide the individuals who complete this course with the basic skills that they will need to respond to their community's immediate needs in the aftermath of a disaster, when emergency services are not immediately available. By working together, "group" members can assist in saving lives and protecting property using the basic techniques

in this course."

This quote is pulled from the "Group" Basic Training Participant Manual. There are many specialized forms and trainings that I found for my program, but this was the basic conduct guide for the group. This quote gives an accurate summary of what a participant of this group can be expected to be able to accomplish when completing the training. This program is hyper-focused on helping communities so it's not surprising to see a reference to responding to a community's needs and protecting property. This quote comes from the most official manual I have of the group and it's interesting how in my former interviews with respondents from this group, they usually say something very similar to this quote on why they joined this program so that's an encouraging sign for this organization. 

"Provide clear leadership and organizational structure by developing a chain of  command and roles that are known by all team members. Each "group" member has only one person that he or she takes direction from and responds to."

This quote is also from the "Group" Basic Training Participant Manual. Unit 6 of this group's manual is dedicated to the leadership structure and organizational skills that management will use. I thought this quote is interesting because the leaders of this group want the members to know that there is a strict chain of command. You can tell that this group was started by the a government organization because of how many details and titles are provided to the leaders of the group. Some of my favorite bureaucratic titles that I saw were Operations Section Chief, Logistics Section Chief, Planning Section Chief, and Finance/Administration Section Chief. All 

titles were under an elaborate system that was designed for peak efficiency within the group.

"Tell the group that the Incident Command System (ICS) is the system used by emergency response agencies to manage emergency operations. When "group members" activate, they become part of that system. Explain that the basic ICS structure for "the group" is established by the person who arrives first on the scene. Point out that the "group" organization is based on the Incident Command System (ICS), which is a proven management system used by emergency responders."

This quote is from the "Group" Basic Training Instructor Guide. This document is the ruling text of the instructors of the group which is accessible by the public. I thought it was interesting when I discovered that there were two handbooks that were so similar, except one was made for the management of the group. This quote shows that the body who wrote this manual think that the ICS system is the correct way they should organize when at a first responder situation. Some of the wording for the instructor's manual is strange especially when it uses language like "point out" and in other places it uses the phrase "stress to them". These sound like cues for the management, who are teaching the group, to use emphasis when talking about certain topics which is another way to analyze what the ruling body of this group finds important. 

Controlling Images

I wanted to analyze the controlling images of this group. Controlling images are certain images or symbols that shape how we act and are usually analyzed through a more pessimistic lens. At first, I found it difficult because nothing about this group is inherently bad or negative, so I had to think about the organizations behind this group. Once I broadened my horizons a little, I started to find more examples of controlling images to analyze. 

"There are over 2,700 local "group" programs nationwide, with more than 600,000 individuals trained since "group" became a national program. FEMA's Community Emergency Response Team Program trains volunteers to prepare for the types of disasters that their community may face."

Whenever I first started to think about the controlling images of this group, I didn't know what I would say. Eventually through analyzing deeper into the literature of the program and through mentions in my previous interviews, I learned that this program was actually founded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA and that the group receives all of their training materials through them. FEMA is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security which means that it is attached to a very large controlling image, the U.S. government. While the government might not be a single image, government facilities and government workers have a similar feel or picture in people's minds. This group's literature preaches community first, but I think it's important to note that this was a national program founded on big government money. Not everyone in today's America trusts the government so it would be interesting to see the demographics of what kinds of people are in this program. 

"The "Name of City" Citizen Corps, in partnership with the City of "Name of City" and the "Name of City" Fire Department, is pleased to announce that "Group" training will be offered in a Tuesday and Thursday series from January 17-February 9, 2017. The free 20-hour course is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security—Office of Individual and Community Preparedness, CaliforniaVolunteers and developed by FEMA in cooperation with the Los Angeles Fire Department."

This quote is from a local listing on a private neighborhood social network. In this quote, one can see the use of multiple controlling images under the guise of different government organizations. I already mentioned in my analysis the ties to the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, but I wanted to talk about the mention of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Not specifically the Los Angeles Fire Department, but the numerous fire departments that the program is tied to. The group training is usually taught by firefighters so that is another example of one of this group's controlling images. Firefighters are revered in American society as heroes and are not usually mired with the controversies of the police. The firefighters who teach these classes are representatives of a positive controlling image that are used to convey positive feelings to communities. 

"Providing Equipment:

As you put together resources for your training keep in mind that there are certain

pieces of equipment that are must-haves for teen volunteers, including kits, safety

helmets, and safety vests. Photo ID badges would also be good to offer teen volunteers,

but are not mandatory."

This quote was pulled from the instruction manual, Teen "Group": Launching and Maintaining the Training. I wanted to find some literature about what controlling images members wear on their person from this group, but I didn't find anything specific like I wanted. Instead I found this quote out of a manual specifically designed for teens that had received the training on how to maintain their skills with a quote that lists "must-haves" for teen volunteers. I found this line to be interesting because nowhere in the normal manual did I see instructions for items that someone was required to wear. I'm sure the safety equipment will help to keep the teens safe, but I wonder why the teens are forced to wear large identifying clothing. Analyzing this through the concept of controlling images, I wonder if it is to remind the teens that they are in a serious group and to act accordingly. While this group is community based, the members deal with serious situations, so I question if the attire that the teens are forced to wear is supposed to act as a controlling image, as to remind them that this is a serious situation and to treat it as such. I didn't find the answer in the content I analyzed, but it's a question worth asking. 

Typification

I want to analyze the typifications that my group has. There is a lot of language in the literature for this group that uses the same sort of terminology that we have always heard. A typification is the standard way we go about solving problems. For example, republicans usually try to stick to small government and a big military while democrats usually do the opposite.  

"Be prepared to adapt this information to your personal circumstances and make every effort to follow instructions received from authorities on the scene. Above all, stay calm, be patient and think before you act. With these simple preparations, you can be ready for the unexpected."

This quote is from a brochure labeled, Prepare For Emergencies Now: Information For Older Americans. It is a brochure for older Americans that gives general safety advice for seniors. I picked it to analyze because the language being used is generic emergency lingo, and something that most people have heard before. Stay calm and think before you act can be slotted into any advice in the world, so I wonder if the seniors reading this really need that advice. The brochure itself gives a lot of great information about making sure your medical situation is taken care of, but it's strange to see overused, generic advice like "stay calm" printed on a brochure for the most experienced people in our society. This brochure could say more about how simple the people who made this brochure think seniors are, but I don't know that for sure. 

"A "Group" program must have rules for how it operates. Policies and procedures provide

details about those rules. This unit looks at:

 The importance of policies and procedures

 The most important policies and procedures for a "Group" program

 Some resources for developing policies and procedures"

This quote is from an upper management's handbook, "Group" Program Manager Course G427 Participant Manual Unit 8: Policies and Procedures. I wanted to find text that stated how important policies were and it was actually very easy. This is a government program so it's no wonder why they provide specific details on how to manage not only the members in the group, but also the instructors. Bureaucracy loves systems and policies so it's no wonder that an organization created by the U.S. government has intricate management instruction. The obvious typification here is a government body telling the people how important their system is for running a group. People are more easily controlled and managed when put into an intricate chain of command system. 

"Reduced expenses:

Successful risk management helps avoid costs that include: Defense costs (the costs of attorneys and court fees) ,Claims administration costs (the costs of managing claims, including

claims administrator fees and the lost productivity of workers involved in

claims administration), Settlements (agreed sums paid to claimants to resolve claims or litigation), Judgments and awards (sums paid under an order of a court or

administrative agency), Medical and income replacement benefits (sums paid to injured workers

who are covered by workers' compensation or a similar program), Fines and penalties (sums required to be paid as a penalty for a legal

offense)"

This last quote is from the instruction manual, Managing Liability in "Group" Programs. This booklet is 54 pages about how to avoid liability while performing functions as a group member. Originally, this quote was in a long list format, but I wanted to include it because of what it symbolizes through the concept of typification. This booklet is filled with lots of information about how to manage risk and avoid liability, but never does it provide so much information about punishments until it talks about the fines that you can accrue. To me, this is reflected in how important money is to our society that the financial repercussions of something happening are explained in much more detail than any other liability. People understand fines because that is the standard way we go about solving problems. If you do something wrong in society, you will lose money for it. The language of money, and promise of financial retribution, are two forms of typification. 

Framing

I wanted to analyze the concept of framing and the examples of framing in my group. Framing is when a group tries to get a person to see a certain way. Another example is what issues a group focuses on. While there may be problems within a group, sometimes the group is more focused on completing a goal then solving its problems.

"Discuss the types of things that you should include in your pet's emergency first aid kit. Get the names of vets or veterinary hospitals in other cities where you might need to seek temporary shelter. You should also consider talking with your veterinarian about permanent identification such as microchipping, and enrolling your pet in a recovery database."   

This first quote is from a brochure called, Prepare for Emergencies Now: Information for Pet Owners, which was pulled off the main group website. This brochure is a perfect example of framing. While there are other brochures that carry more pertinent information, I think it's interesting how FEMA is focused on your pet. Because this group is so hyper focused on family and community, FEMA realized that pets are a part of some people's families so they created a brochure for people that wanted one. There are more pressing matters in an emergency situation than someone's pets (which hurts for me to say because I love my pets), but through the concept of framing we can see that FEMA is appealing to the family. This way of framing makes people believe that the government cares about the things you care about. 

"Finances: Arrange electronic payments for your paycheck and medical benefits. The Direct Express prepaid debit card is designed as a safe and easy alternative to paper checks for people who don't have a bank account."

This quote is from a brochure called, Preparing Makes Sense For People With Disabilities, Others with Access and Functional Needs and the Whole Community. This is another example of this group using framing to focus on money. This brochure is to give disabled people help in what they may need in case of an emergency, but even if you're running for your life from a natural disaster, this brochure tells you, you should never forget about your financial situation. I also find it really strange how this emergency booklet is trying to sell people a prepaid debit card. This makes me wonder about what financial compensation this group gets for putting an advertisement on their brochure. This group is using it's framing to always remind you of how important money is. 

"Position descriptions:

Position or job descriptions are important risk management tools for most

organizations. They help the organization identify risk and ensure the best fit

between applicants and jobs.

A "group" program's need for position descriptions with regard to operational

activities is satisfied by the "group" Basic Training course."

This quote is from the "Group" Liability Guide. This quote is an example of framing because the group is trying to draw the attention away from risking their lower level members. This is a good idea because in a small community organization, people don't want to worry about if they're liable for legal action or not when they're trying to help in an emergency situation. They are using position descriptions to signify which members of the group are liable in the event of legal recourse because it's a lot easier to defend one high ranking manager than it is to defend ten people who might have done the wrong thing. All of the examples of framing that I analyzed were not necessarily negative examples of framing. I learned from this analyzing that my group is focused on many different things, not just what's immediately in danger in an emergency situation.

Diversity

I would like to analyze the diversity of this group. Not in terms of racial diversity, but this group is much larger than I once thought so I would like to analyze the different reaches of the group. There are many different types of brochures for different kinds of people, so I am going to analyze them and see, hopefully, why a brochure was created especially for that group. 

"The Teen "group" concept was created to address preparedness and response

capabilities from within high schools. While many schools have taken measures to

provide for site security analysis and equipment, more effort is needed to train staff and

students in school security and emergency response procedures, and to involve youth

in the country's overall emergency preparedness and response plans."

This quote is from the booklet, Teen "Group", Launching and Maintaining the Training. This quote gives a perfect example of why FEMA wanted to start a group for teenagers in their own words. While educating our nation's youth on much needed emergency response information is important, I also think about all of the school shootings and how this training is even more relevant now. With school shootings happening more and more it's important for our youth to at least know basic information on how to keep themselves and others safe. Obviously, FEMA isn't going to say that including teens in this group is a response to the amount of school shootings, but it is an effective way to educate people in the face of a real threat that could affect any young person.

"You should also coordinate with local community law enforcement or emergency

management officials, and consult with other appropriate parties on campus, including

campus leadership and legal counsel. Federal, state, and local government officials

generally expect Campus "Group" programs to limit their activities, especially response

activities, to campus property."

This quote is from a booklet, Campus "Group", Starter Guide. This quote is describing the general steps that should be taken if you're a member of the group and an emergency happens at your college campus. A lot of the points I just analyzed about the teen group can be said about the college version of this program. The rising prevalence of school shooters has made people feel like they need to be able to respond in an emergency situation and this group provides that training. I think receiving training for college students is possibly even more important. My high school campus was pretty large, but Fresno State dwarfs it in comparison and I've been to other college campuses that make Fresno State look like a community college. The response time in an university could be much higher just because of the large area it covers so it's interesting to see how many different types of people this group reaches.

"A Workplace "group" program can support and enhance existing capabilities, and "group"

volunteers can participate in efforts to increase the preparedness and resilience of the

workplace and community. A Workplace "group" program equips employees with skills

that enable them to perform basic disaster response operations in an emergency.

The last quote I want to analyze is from a booklet, Workplace "Group", Starter Guide. This quote describes what having this group in your workplace should look like and what the group wants to do. I am analyzing this quote because it shows another area where this training can be applicable to your life. I am impressed with the inclusiveness of this training as well. Whenever I first started with this group, I didn't really know anything about them, but now I can see how large the program is. This program can be used by everyone and it is useful to every age group. The more research that I have done on this group the more I can see why FEMA would be so interested in having a program like this. In a previous interview, a respondent told me that she believed in the program and that her home needed it. At the time I didn't fully understand what she meant, but now through my analysis I can see that this program is a far-reaching way for the government to teach its citizens on how to respond to emergency situations.

Conclusion

I started out not knowing anything about my group and now feel like I'm an expert. I've probably done more research than a lot of people who are in the group and I feel like I  learned more about government organizations. My ethnography, interviews, and content analysis were three very different processes that needed a full conclusion.  

In summary, my observation was very successful and I can't wait to learn even more about my group. I feel like I collected some valuable data especially for my first time doing an observation like this. With more time I'm sure I will get better and deliver more consistent information. The group I'm observing is tied closely to the community that they are in so I'm excited to learn more in the upcoming interviews. 

I think this interview process and subsequent paper was a success. Regardless of grade or if I actually completed the assignment correctly, I did learn a lot about my group. I learned that even in a small town community group environment there are very unique people that are in different stages of their life. My first respondent was the lifeblood of the group and without her the program would most likely fade away. My second respondent was an important member of the group, but he's not integral to running it and he would be just as happy if some other program replaced the current one. The third respondent was using this program to raise his status and to jumpstart his career as a firefighter. Regardless of their differences, one of the most common terms that popped up for my group was family. That's how the people of that group think about each other and that mentality will hopefully see their group grow. 

Overall, I think I learned the most about my group on this analysis. There was so much data to analyze that I never had a problem searching for too long to find a quote. Some of my analysis was reaching, like in my analysis of controlling images, but my group was fairly wholesome and applying feminist sociological concepts to a community outreach group can sometimes require an imagination. I was impressed with this group and the documentation that they had. I knew that this group was a local iteration of a larger national identity, but I didn't know they were going to be so organized with their paperwork. This program is growing, and it does mean something to the people in it. I hope my analysis provided better understanding into the world of a local community outreach group.  

References

Dillon, Michele. "Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century, ETextbook." Wiley.com, 30 June 2011, www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-144432604X.html.

Warren, Carol A. B., and Tracy X. Karner. Discovering Qualitative Methods: Ethnography, Interviews, Documents, and Images. 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2015.