Some of you asked whether the deadline would be extended for the town’s resident survey, what with all the power outages and other disruptions earlier this month. Assistant Town Administrator Vanessa Hale said the deadline has been pushed to tomorrow, but only for those submitting their responses online.
Hale said the survey is being coordinated with the help of grad students from Clark University, and since the students are on a tight schedule for the semester, there isn’t the option of extending the deadline. But since they’re still waiting for hard copies to arrive by mail, they’ve decided to leave the online version up through Tuesday evening. Note that if you sent in a printed copy, it must have been postmarked by November 11 in order to count toward the results.
To fill out the online version of the survey, you’ll need the access code printed on the copy that was mailed to you. If you’ve lost your original survey and no longer have the access code, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Hale said there is no way to get a new one.
That’s great that there’s no way to get a new one – considering I never got an original one in the mail. I’m willing to bet that they didn’t mail any to residents with post office boxes, which to me is asinine. Either that or it unsurprisingly got lost. Regardless, the irony is not lost on me – although the humor certainly is.
C. Nicholas Ellis, The town made an effort to mail a survey to every household by using town records (voting records, assessor records, etc.). The thought was that such an effort was more of a “census” insofar as the data would be collected from a larger population and hopefully be more accurate and reliable. We obviously did not achieve 100% accuracy. The other option was to employ a sampling method of collecting information wherein the survey was just sent to a small percentage of households, which would then be multiplied, and thereafter used as an estimate for the entire population. The sampling method, although quicker and less costly, has a tendency to be less accurate and less reliable.
I called Clark University after I read your note, and was told that additional surveys cannot be sent out as it would impair the integrity of the data. They indicated that the “universe” of one survey per household would be compromised if they handed out additional surveys based upon complaints of non-receipt, as someone could receive a new survey after his/her household had already submitted one. It appears that some households in town (I am aware of at least two) may not have received a survey, and I asked if there was a way to check whether a particular household had already submitted a survey, and if not, could an additional survey be released. I was told that this was not possible.
The purpose of the census is to help town government with resource allocation and to understand and hopefully meet the needs of residents. While the town will always strive to achieve perfection, attaining it is difficult. I am sorry you did not get a survey. Please feel free to give me a call and we carve out a time to sit down to discuss any concerns you have. Thank you.
I threw out my survey because I forgot I needed the code to fill it out online. I wonder if next time there could be a way to take the survey online without the code. Maybe there could be a different way to verify a resident’s identity…
The form will let you fill the survey out if you enter a three letter code where it asks for an access code. I filled ours out late on Friday and put DNR for Did Not Receive. Now, of course, it may get thrown out before everything is tabulated, but what else can you do?
I would assume that the students are going to give a copy of all of the raw data to the town so if someone wants to take a look a responses that didn’t have a “correct” access code, it should be possible.
I also did not receive a survey at home. I did not attempt to call the town for one, because I planned on doing it online. Unfortunatley that was not allowed. I appreciate the town conducting a survey, it demonstrates that they are interested in feedback. However, I am very disappointed the process is such you are “out of luck” if you don’t have a code. We certainly didn’t do anything wrong, yet we are excluded. The work of the Clark students is well appreciated, they just need to enhance their survery programs for such a flaw. This situation should not be a surprise – people will not get one, will misplace one, etc.