Get ready folks, Surveys will be a topic of discussion during the upcomming election for ARD Board members,. (and maybe they should)

Terms such as Will of the People sound great to me, and is a very important concept. But how do you determine the will of the people? I think there are many answers, but I do not think

it can ever be completely done to meet everyone's expectations.

Like it or not, we live in a "representative" system - People vote for representaves to speak their voice. Alas, every decision can not go out for a public vote, nor should it. Now comes the fun part - how do representatives know how we feel?

Here's when we get the great idea of a Survey - lets survey the people and find out what they want! Sure sounds like a good idea to me - but wait a second...

What questions do we ask? - How do we ask those questions? How do we deliver the questions? - Who do we ask those questions of? How to we evaluate responses? Who gets to write the questions?

I think you are getting the idea - I am sure if you gave any 5 board members of any board a blank piece of paper & asked them to come up with 5 key questions needed for a survey for their agency - you would quite possibly get 25 different questions!

The ARD spent thousands of dollars on a mail out survey - It was mailed to every home in the district - we got back about 10% and then the fun began, and the failures of the survey came to light - the realization that questions were not asked correctly - important questions to some were not asked - that the respondants did not necessarily represent a good sample of the community. Rather a portion that was lobbied to reply to support a personal agenda - then there is a certain demographic that will fill these out vs the vast majority that immediately toss them in the round file cabinet!

Now some want to do it all over again - and it is definetly a topic of discussion - We have experienced marketers & others working on figuring out a good way to get the most bang for our buck in determining how to get a pulse on our community & their recreational needs (and wants)!

The questions mentioned above are viewed differently by all - Who - What - How - When - then how do you quantify and qualify responses?

Here's a question -

Would you like more trails?

But here are a bunch more questions:

Should the ARD be focusing efforts on Building Trails or should that be a priority of County and State agencies?

Should ARD be building ADA accessible walking trails or natural trails?-

What facilities or projects should be reduced or sacrificed to build trails?

How much of ARD's mitigation funds should be spent on trails?

Where should trails be built?

I think you get the idea - Surveys are great, and we need to find a way to get public input when making decisions & I know all on the current board are working to get those opinions. But to shout out WE NEED TO SURVEY THE PEOPLE and make this a battle cry to support the Will of the People just is not right, & in reality is next to impossible to do satisfactorily to satisfy the goal. (I guess we could have a 20 page survey, knock on every door & make sure everyone in the family fills one out)

I would love to hear some suggestions on Polling / Surveying or otherwise getting some good well rounded input from ARD residents. We have a great community - we have a solid youth sport support group - we have a really strong trails advocacy voice - Seniors seem a little more quiet on getting their voice out - not to mention those that prefer "non-traditional" recreation - or those who just like to go for a picnic - Aquatic groups speak out a lot - & I tell you all these folks have viable opinions - but without a bunch of money - we certainly can't please all the people all the time!

Well there you go - my personal thoughts for the day, I would now like to survey you readers & get your opinions!

Gotta run - in the mean time: VOTE FOR SCOTT! & Keep Smilin'

Scott Holbrook