News
August 27, 2006 news article in Boulder's Daily Camera highlights NRC President Tom Miller 
Another Successful Philanthropy Day at NRC
NRC takes a day each year to thank the local community by selecting a non-profit or government organization for which to contribute a day’s activities. In the past, we have helped build a housing complex for Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, weeded and performed warehouse work for Boulder Community Food Share and cleared brush for Boulder County Open Space. This year we put on a car wash with the elementary school class of Family Learning Center in San Juan del Centro, which is a housing development just next door to NRC. We raised $500 for Family Learning Center from donors who couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a high quality car cleaning from enthusiastic kids and researchers who acted like kids. It was great to get to know the bright and hard working children in our neighborhood. They even showed their talent in the cool thank you cards they took the time to send to us. Thanks to all the kids at Family Learning Center for making our Philanthropy Day a success.
To India:
National Research Center Continues International Work in Asia
Following National Research Center, Inc’s training of elected officials from Thailand in 2005, NRC is working with ICMA in 2006 under sponsorship of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to conduct citizen surveys in two cities in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The surveys address issues of water use by residents who often choose not to connect to the municipal water supply and sometimes, once connected, choose not to pay. NRC staff designed the sampling plan and door-to-door survey that will be conducted among 600 residents in Cuddalore and 600 in Nagapattinam in partnership with a local firm. NRC staff will be on site in Tamil Nadu to train interviewers and supervisors and to assure proper sampling and pre-testing. Results will be analyzed and reported by NRC and used by ICMA staff to assist these local governments to improve water services and collect more revenue for water delivery.
After two days of interviewer training and two days of on-site pretesting, as well as observation of use of water pumps, the in home interviews began in the town of Cuddalore, located about 90 miles south of Chennai, India.
NRC Conducts Training in Thailand
NRC was selected to provide training in a two part contract under the auspices of the U.S. Asia Environmental Partnership (USAEP), a branch of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the International City/County Management Association and Kenan Institute of Thailand. The purpose of the program was to improve municipal management in Thailand through increased citizen participation. The training provided by NRC on citizen surveys was part of that program. In Bangkok, Thailand (January 2005), the president of National Research Center, Inc., Tom Miller, provided the first part of this program by giving a workshop about citizen surveys to a group of Thai local government officials (including representatives from Chaing Mai, Lampoon City, Yasothorn City, Phuket, Ubon Rachathani, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Rachasima, and officials of The Municipal League of Thailand) and researchers of The King Prajadhipok Institute (KPI). Part 2 of the program occurred in April, 2005 when a contingent of local elected and administrative officials from several Thai municipalities traveled to Boulder, Colorado for a week to visit the national headquarters of NRC for further training on citizen surveys and to explore how municipalities in the Denver area were using citizen surveys to deal with smart growth. NRC staff began the process of developing a national survey for Thailand that researchers at KPI hope to promulgate one municipality at a time throughout the country.
