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The National Citizen SurveyTM <br /> Appendix C: Detailed Survey Methods <br /> The National Citizen Survey(The NCSTM),conducted by National Research Center,Inc.,was developed to provide <br /> communities an accurate,affordable and easy way to assess and interpret resident opinion about important local <br /> topics.Standardization of common questions and survey methods provide the rigor to assure valid results,and <br /> each community has enough flexibility to construct a customized version of The NCS. <br /> Results offer insight into residents'perspectives about the community as a whole,including local amenities, <br /> services,public trust,resident participation and other aspects of the community in order to support budgeting, <br /> land use and strategic planning and communication with residents. Resident demographic characteristics permit <br /> comparison to the Census as well as comparison of results for different subgroups of residents.The City of <br /> Ramsey funded this research.Please contact Patrick Brama with the City Administrative Services Department at <br /> pbrama@ci.ramsey.mn.us if you have any questions about the survey. <br /> Survey Validity <br /> The question of survey validity has two parts: i)how can a community be confident that the results from those <br /> who completed the questionnaire are representative of the results that would have been obtained had the survey <br /> been administered to the entire population?and 2)how closely do the perspectives recorded on the survey reflect <br /> what residents really believe or do? <br /> To answer the first question,the best survey research practices were used for the resources spent to ensure that <br /> the results from the survey respondents reflect the opinions of residents in the entire community.These practices <br /> include: <br /> Using a mail-out/mail-back methodology,which typically gets a higher response rate than phone for the same <br /> dollars spent.A higher response rate lessens the worry that those who did not respond are different than those <br /> who did respond. <br /> Selecting households at random within the community to receive the survey to ensure that the households <br /> selected to receive the survey are representative of the larger community. <br /> Over-sampling multi-family housing units to improve response from hard-to-reach,lower income or younger <br /> apartment dwellers. <br /> Selecting the respondent within the household using an unbiased sampling procedure;in this case,the <br /> "birthday method."The cover letter included an instruction requesting that the respondent in the household <br /> be the adult(18 years old or older)who most recently had a birthday,irrespective of year of birth. <br /> Contacting potential respondents three times to encourage response from people who may have different <br /> opinions or habits than those who would respond with only a single prompt. <br /> Inviting response in a compelling manner(using appropriate letterhead/logos and a signature of a visible <br /> leader)to appeal to recipients'sense of civic responsibility. <br /> Providing a pre-addressed,postage-paid return envelope. <br /> Offering the survey in Spanish or other language when requested by a given community. <br /> Weighting the results to reflect the demographics of the population. <br /> The answer to the second question about how closely the perspectives recorded on the survey reflect what <br /> residents really believe or do is more complex.Resident responses to surveys are influenced by a variety of factors. <br /> For questions about service quality,residents'expectations for service quality play a role as well as the"objective" <br /> quality of the service provided,the way the resident perceives the entire community(that is,the context in which <br /> the service is provided),the scale on which the resident is asked to record his or her opinion and,of course,the <br /> opinion,itself,that a resident holds about the service.Similarly a resident's report of certain behaviors is colored <br /> by what he or she believes is the socially desirable response(e.g.,reporting tolerant behaviors toward"oppressed <br /> groups,"likelihood of voting for a tax increase for services to poor people,use of alternative modes of travel to <br /> work besides the single occupancy vehicle),his or her memory of the actual behavior(if it is not a question <br /> speculating about future actions,like a vote),his or her confidence that he or she can be honest without suffering <br /> any negative consequences(thus the need for anonymity)as well as the actual behavior itself. <br /> How closely survey results come to recording the way a person really feels or behaves often is measured by the <br /> coincidence of reported behavior with observed current behavior(e.g.,driving habits),reported intentions to <br /> behave with observed future behavior(e.g.,voting choices)or reported opinions about current community quality <br /> 29 <br />