January 2025, Anyway…

The use of surveys to measure the feelings and concerns of a population is a widespread practice. It has the powerful capacity to garner the average opinions from large groups of people. It should be noted, however, as is the case with many tools, its improper use can lead to improper outcomes. Randomized selection crossing various demographics are important to getting a true representation of a whole population's general sway, and a larger sample size leads to greater accuracy.

Perhaps the most frustrating of issues is selection-bias. This is when the demographics most likely to respond to an optional survey also hold disproportionate opinions. The joke is that a vast majority of respondents to an optional survey reportedly show that the population overwhelmingly loves taking surveys. This is selection bias.

If a city is looking for indicators on what their residents are concerned about, there is perhaps no better way than a properly executed survey. But if the survey method results in less than 3% of a small town's population, comprised exclusively of those citizens who have the time and attention to seek out and take the survey, the results have to be taken with a grain of salt. The outcomes may not make the best basis for developing a four year ongoing strategic plan, just to give an example. This is not to say that the resulting strategic plan is doomed to be a flawed plan, just that its quality would not be aided by the potentially flawed survey results.

I bring this up for no reason in particular, and on an unrelated note would like to mention that the 2025-2029 Milton Strategic Plan has been approved, and you should all go become acquainted with it.

-Sero