The Conference likewise emphasizes that there is an obligation on the part of every resident to be enumerated.

The Conference commends the Bureau of the Census for the innovative use of the Post Office for the purpose of insuring a more complete enumeration. The Conference believes that the Post Office will contribute to the improvement of the coverage of the census not only in general, but particularly, in the central cities.

The Conference wishes to encourage the Bureau of the Census to explore more flexible personnel procedures from the standpoint first, of enlarging the number of people who can be located to serve usefully as regular enumerators and, second, to employ people in various auxiliary roles to help insure completeness of count.

The Bureau of the Census, working in concert with other groups, public and private, should work to develop enumerator skills, particularly for conditions in the central cities, and to instill a professional spirit among enumerators.

The Conference suggests consideration of the appointment of enumerators or supervisors by Presidential commission as a step to impress them with the seriousness of the task.

The Conference wishes to encourage the Bureau of the Census to take an experimental approach toward the use of various incentives for respondents.

The Conference is impressed with the extent to which improvements in close-out procedures (Close-out procedures determine the number of calls an enumerator must make at a particular household in an attempt to gather information. If no information can be gathered after the specified number of calls, characteristics of the household are allocated by a computer) and procedures for following back to apparently vacant housing units may contribute to the reduction of under-enumeration. We put high priority, therefore, on changes in procedures and in allocation of resources that promise an improvement in this area.

The Conference would like to urge financial support for further studies of under-enumeration in the 1970. Census such as the study of 1960 under-enumeration by Jacob Siegel, extended to specific estimates of under-enumeration by age, sex, race, ethnic group, and residence.

Improving Vital Statistics for Negroes, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans

We recommend that the Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics study methods for improving the completeness and quality of Census data to enable the computation of vital rates for minority groups, particularly those groups which have been included with the white population in the past.

We recommend that the National Center for Health Statistics through the mechanisms of the Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics and the American Association of Vital Registrars and Public Health Statisticians ask state and local health departments to make more tabulations and classifications of vital records for minority groups.

We recommend that the National Center for Health Statistics make known material state and local health agencies collect, tabulate, and publish concerning vital rates for minority groups.

We recommend that the Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Health Statistics conduct a birth registration and enumeration matching test in conjunction with the Census of 1970. The aims of this test should be: test completeness of birth registration; ascertain census under-enumeration of the young; determine quality of both birth registration and census data; study differentials in infant mortality by characteristics in family or household.

We encourage the National Center for Health Statistics to work through the Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics and the American Association of Vital Registrars and Public Health Statisticians to assure that a question concerning legitimacy will appear on the birth certificate and certificate of fetal death. This can be accomplished by having this item in the confidential section as recommended for the standard certificates for 1968.

We recommend that the National Center for Health Statistics encourage record linkage studies utilizing birth, fetal death, death, marriage and divorce records. We recommend that the Bureau of the Census encourage record linkage studies based on the 1970 Census of Population and Housing.