On Thursday, you'll find something besides bills and advertisements in your P.O. Box. 


  It's a letter and survey from Brian Pompeii! 

Maybe you've heard Brian on WOVV, calling Dolphin basketball games, helping out with coverage after Irene, or on This Island Life every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.  Brian also volunteers his time to help the OPS library.  He has been transferring old audio tape interviews with island residents like Muzel Bryant, Nathaniel Jackson, Edgar Howard and Larry Williams to digital form, and airing segments on his weekly show. 

Brian has spent the last four summers on the island and this year decided to stay for the winter.  If you haven't met Brian, your children probably have, as he is a frequent substitute teacher at Ocracoke School.

Ocracoke Current:  What's in the envelope?

Pompeii:   The cover letter explains the research, and there are two pages of questions, which should take approximately ten minutes of your time to fill out.  The information is in both English and Spanish.

Ocracoke Current:  What's this going to cost me? 

Pompeii:  Nothing other than a little of your time.  There is a pre-paid postage envelope inside.  All you need to do is drop it back in the mail.  The surveys are completely anonymous.

Ocracoke Current:  What's the point of this survey?

Pompeii:  I've been interviewing people for the last 8 months to get an idea of the trends and issues on Ocracoke, but it's hard to reach every single person on the island with those interviews.  I want to give everyone an opportunity to participate.  Even if I interviewed you, please fill out a survey.

Ocracoke Current:  What are you researching?

Pompeii:  I'm interested in how people perceive environmental and social change, and the gaps between perception and physical changes in the landscape.  I'm also interested in how both perception and scientific data factor into decision making.

Ocracoke Current:  What's going to happen to the data from the surveys?

Pompeii:  Hopefully, this will lead to the successful completion of my doctoral dissertation.  I can say my sample size was the whole island!  Way off in the future I might publish a condensed version as a journal article.  

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