As you may know, the town has signed on to participate in the National Citizens Survey administered by the International City/County Municipal Association (ICMA). As the first step, ICMA prepared a random sample of households that will receive the three survey mailings. They have completed household selection, and the attached map shows the individual dots of those 1,100 households, which is roughly one third of the households in town.
In general, the displayed sampling density closely mirrors the overall housing unit density. While the theory of probability assumes no bias in selection, there certainly may be some minor variations in practice (meaning, an area with just 15% of the housing units might be sampled at an actual rate that’s slightly above or below that).
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Any “empty” spaces on the map appear because there is little or no housing there. Examples of reasons for these zones include:
-Business/commercial areas, including schools or other large campuses
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-Other group quarters (e.g., nursing homes, dormitories)
-Area which receives only post office box mail delivery
-Body of water
-Designated open space, park or golf course
-Undeveloped public or private land
-Utility easement
Most of the questions are standardized questions to permit comparison with other municipalities. We were able to add two localized questions and chose to use those to ask question pertaining to the Josiah Smith Tavern and Old Library.
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UPDATE: A resident has asked me why the survey was not sent to all residents. The survey is a quantitive survey, rather than qualitative. There are no open-ended questions. So, having a representative, random sampling is sufficient, and less expensive.
For the two added, local questions, the purpose is to quantify how residents value the various priorities relating to the Josiah Smith Tavern and Old Library. The only ranking of priorities that had been done previously was the priorities of the small group that participated in the charrettes organized by The Cecil Group (less than two hundred in total I believe). The questions on the National Citizen Survey will provide data on how the town as a whole feels. We will have that data at the end of January 2014.
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ADDENDUM: Today I received some questions about the survey and wanted to share those, along with my responses below:
How much will the ICMA survey cost the town?ED: The budget approved at Town Meeting in May included $10,000 for the ICMA survey which we expect to fully expend.
Why are less than a third of the Weston households (1,100 out of 3,600+) being asked or allowed to participate?
ED: A sample size of 1,100 is more than sufficient to get a read on the town. These are not open-ended survey questions so there is not the opportunity for qualitative feedback. Of course ALL residents are welcome, at any time, to share qualitative feedback with the Selectmen, on whatever they choose.
If a preliminary mailing went out on November 7th, it sounds like I did not make the cut.
ED: Yes, the first postcards were sent on the 7th. The surveys are being mailed today, and will be remailed again in one week. I was also not selected. That selection process was conducted completely randomly by the ICMA. We were not involved in it, in any way.
When do you expect results?
ED: We expect the final report on January 30, 2014. I am attaching a PDF with the survey timeline.
When were the two OL/JST related customized questions approved by the BoS? This was not widely publicized and comes across as an "inside job" with no mention of any costs to anything.
ED: This was an item we discussed at our September 24, October 9, and October 21 meetings. (These agenda are posted on the town website.) It was posted as always, and I had made a point of mentioning that we were working on this in a number of ways, including in emails to this group. If this comes across as an inside job to you, I'm sorry. That was not the intent, and I believe we went above and beyond the minimum effort to let people know we were working on this. I know one can always do more.
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Have questions or comme
nts? You can post below or contact me directly at coburn.e@westonmass.org.
