The 10-year national nose count of all America’s people is still a year away, but state agencies are already thinking about how to help the Census find y’all. 

A roomful of agency representatives gathered near the Capitol to get details of the massive undertaking, and to brainstorm ways to help Uncle Sam make sure every one counts, literally.

Regional Census offices have already opened in Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane and will eventually hire thousands of people to help reach their fellow Washington residents for the head-count. The biggest batch, about 15,000 will be hired next year, probably in April, to follow up the thousands who don’t return their Census questionnaires that are mailed out next March. 

Jan McStay, Fracesca Ty Abellera Esperanza and other Census outreach experts said some pockets of the population are pretty hard to track down, typically the poor, uneducated, those with language barriers and those who lived in highly crowded housing.  There was no discussion of the political implications of who’s counted and who’s not  just a promise to try mightily for an accurate, complete, unduplicated count…

Among the ideas proposed Thursday were doing outreach to families with kids in school, via Voters’ Pamphlets, and through widespread use of envelope stuffers and other reminder materials and brochures mailed out or placed on office counters in the normal course of doing business.  The project’s goal is “low or no cost” to state taxpayers, the managers were told repeatedly. 

It’s not an idle exercise. According to a proclamation signed last month by Governor Gregoire urging full participation in the Census, the numbers help direct the fair distribution of over $300 billion in federal funding to the states and communities every year.

The state also needs good numbers as part of redrawing congressional and legislative district boundaries. This program is currently housed in the Secretary of State’s Office and will be turned over to a bipartisan citizen redistricting panel after the Census is complete.

So sharpen those pencils. Get ready. Then wait a year! You read it here first.

For info, visit www.census.gov.