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Survey Says…

 



The Howard County Board of Education is running a survey to learn what the public wants in a new Superintendent of Schools. 

Howard County Government is running a survey about the new Downtown Library.

The theatre group in residence at DoodleHATCH, Stand Up for Theatre, would like to know what shows you’re interested in seeing. Here’s their survey. 

Howard County Government has formed the West Friendship Park Agricultural Programming Focus Group to generate ideas for, well, just what the title says. Can a survey be far behind? Won’t they want to know what the public thinks about the ideas they come up with?

It feels as though we are awash in surveys at the moment. (Almost as much as we used to be awash in Task Forces back in the day.) I have mixed feelings. I think it’s great to solicit input. I do believe that the information gathered will be looked at and considered. That doesn’t mean the decisions made will reflect my point of view one hundred per cent.

Some folks think that, if things don’t go their particular way, that it’s an indication that the survey wasn’t put forward and/or analyzed in good faith. This is especially so when politics are involved. That feels somewhat self-defeating to me.

My problem with surveys is length. If they are too long I experience a sort of panic and my brain shuts down. I now know that this is due to ADHD. Too many choices. Too many questions. That leads to too much overthinking on my part. Under those circumstances I throw my hands in the air. And then I quit.

That happened to me with the library survey. I will need to go back and try again. I really care about the library project and I’d be disappointed in myself if I bailed on that one.

How do you feel about HoCoLocal surveys? Do you take them? Do you have an internal limit on how long is too long?

That’s only three questions and I’m not going to call it a survey.


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