The 2018 End-to-End Census Test continues as we tabulate the data in preparation for development of the Pilot data product that will be produced as scheduled next March. We are currently evaluating the lessons learned from each component of the test and making operational adjustments as necessary. The report on Address Canvassing is scheduled for release during the week of November 5.

Development of the field infrastructure proceeds apace. Lease awards occupancy agreements are now in place for our two planned data capture centers, one in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and the other in Phoenix, Arizona. Lease awards also have been granted for all 40 Wave-1 Area Census Offices (ACO), which are on schedule to open between January-March, 2019, and space has been identified for the 201 Wave-2 ACOs scheduled to open next Summer. Senior management continues to meet with the General Services Administration to ensure that we meet our schedule.

Our recruiting website is now live. Through October 29, 39,139 applicants have completed the online process, and we began selecting staff to fill positions as recruiting assistants, office operations supervisors and clerks. We also are on track to hire 1,501 partnership specialists by June 2019.

Work is ramping up on the communications campaign. We conducted a weeklong session with Young and Rubicam, and their team of subcontractors to develop the creative brief document, which includes objectives, challenges and potential action and is intended to guide Team Y&R in its goal of creating three possible creative platforms to test in November. The selected platform will guide the development of all campaign materials, including paid advertising. They were joined in this effort by experts from the Census Bureau. A second was conducted to review proposals for the creative, media, web and digital, partnerships, and Statistics in Schools orders. The order covering earned media, crisis management, and social media is still under review. The analytical team started final reviews of the Census Barriers, Attitudes, and Motivators Study’s (CBAMS) quantitative and qualitative reports. The reports are expected to be available before the end of the year.

The Census Bureau met the October 31 goal of closing out approximately 3,100 of the security assessment findings being tracked for the systems supporting self-response.