Citizen Surveys....

I haven't reported on my internship for a couple of weeks, but I've been busy!  I just came from an interesting meeting related to one of my major interests, civic engagment.  Over the past couple of years, Gilbert has undergone some major transformations in terms of management.  Every two years they conduct citizen surveys, but the polling company that usually conducts the survey is not able to do it this year.  Because of this and in light of organizational changes and town development, they are in the process of developing a new survey.  The basic question was whether or not to have a canned survey, one that is generic and used throughout other municipalities, or create a customized survey that was tailored to Gilbert and areas of concern. 

It was a little disconcerning to me to hear about what usually happens to the surveys.  Surveying should be a method of civic engagment, a way for the citizens to voice their desires.  Unfortunately, the surveys usually end up being useless, in part because of the generic questions.  Those generic or canned survey are still useful by providing a way to compare the town to other municipalities.  What the group decided on was to propose to executive managment was to utilize both types of surveys, but on an alternating basis.  So one year there would be a canned survey and the next year there would be a customized survey.  Of course cost is an issue so it will be interesting to see what the final decision is over the next couple of weeks.