Engaging with Stakeholders

Surveys can be a less labor-intensive way to request feedback from a large number of people so that the committee can begin to identify priority areas to discuss further. Find someone on your committee, staff, or in your community with survey design experience to help you create a small set of meaningful questions that will yield useful data. What do you really want to know? Try to limit to your most important 15-20 questions so that people are more likely to complete the survey. 

You will need to be sure to announce your survey through any channels where community members will notice it. Online surveys are most convenient, but you can also keep paper copies on-hand for people without internet access, or if you are doing an outreach event in the community where internet is not available. 

One thing to be aware of when reviewing survey data is that the results may be skewed depending on users’ ability to access and complete the survey. Survey data should be considered as a useful addition to your community data set but should not be the only way you are asking your community for input.