Isn’t it amazing how e-mail has changed our lives? When I reflect over just this past year, I’ve noticed an increase in how many of you are responding to our surveys as a result of receiving just your e-mail notification—before the US mail has had a chance to deliver your notification letter and voucher "the old-fashioned way."

I now receive more than 2,000 e-mails from you in an average week! (How does that compare to what you receive weekly?) Many of you have shared a story or two about your daily lives. I very much appreciate your interest and try to respond to you as soon as possible, returning most e-mails within 24 hours if you’ve asked me a question or you need some assistance with a problem that you’re experiencing.

E-mail also makes it possible for us to avoid sending surveys to your household that are inappropriate. We want to make the most of your experience with us and we try to select studies for you and your family that are relevant—based on your responses to short e-mails about the types of products you buy for your household, as well as the composition of your family. In short, we want to make sure the surveys you receive are relevant and that responding to our surveys is easy and convenient for you.

If you haven’t already noticed, you now have your own personal home page on pineconeresearch.com! Do you like that? It’s another advance for better communication in this wonderful world of technology. You can now log in on the home page of our Web site and make changes to your own household information on your own personal page. If you’ve moved or you have a new phone number or e-mail address, you can easily change outdated information by using your household ID and password to log in from the home page. Any studies that you have been assigned, but not yet completed, will also be shown on your personal home page. So now you can go to that study directly from your personal home page without having to go through the list of active study numbers. Check it out.

This month or next, you should be receiving an e-mail notification about completing UPDATE 2000 to refresh your household information on a number of topics. We will use your responses to update your file and to make sure that the surveys we send apply to you and your household. Thanks, in advance, for your participation in this annual update. The winners of the sweepstakes cash prizes will be notified by e-mail beginning in December or January as they are selected. So keep checking your e-mail—it may contain some good news!

In the meantime, I’ve found some good games for you to try this month in Treehouse Games and some fun reading in Treehouse Trivia. Enjoy and if you have a question, problem, or a comment of any kind to make—about the research you participate in or our newsletter, you can let us know what you think by e-mailing me at Scott@PineConeResearch.com or call us toll free at 1-888-572-2676. And thanks for your interest and CONFIDENTIAL participation in PineCone Research .....where we value you, your time, your privacy, and your opinions.