Woodlands Township OKs additional $6K for resident surveys

The Woodlands Township will spend an additional $6,000 to mail out more resident surveys to meet the targeted number of 1,500 responses.

The board approved the expenditure Dec. 7 in a 6-1 vote. Board member Bruce Rieser was the lone nay vote.

In September, the board selected National Research Center Inc. to conduct the survey, which includes questions about the quality of life in the community, local politics, demographics, rating of local government services and use of resident services. In October, the company mailed 5,000 surveys to random households giving residents the option to fill the survey and return via mail or online.

According to Nick Wolda, director of Community Relations, NRC received 1,200 survey responses, just shy of the targeted sample size of 1,500. He added very few in the 20-30 age demographic returned the surveys.

Wolda said NRC suggested the township use a statistical adjustment practice known as "weighting" to make the survey sample reflective of the larger population in the community. According to the unweighted data, the highest respondent age sector was 65 and over with 30 percent while the 25-34 demographic only had a response rate of 5 percent.

Wolda added the number of surveys received are statistically valid but said it just does not include the desired amount of responses in every age group.

Chairman Gordy Bunch supports the additional surveys.

"I think it is worth the extra effort to be closer to statistically accurate," said Bunch, noting he is in favor of sending more than the original 5,000, but the board did not support that stance.

Board member Ann Synder agrees.

"Why would we not spend a little more to get it accurate," she said.

However, Rieser was not in favor of spending the extra money and believes using the weighted data is sufficient.

"I wouldn't recommend sending out any more direct mail pieces," he said. "Direct mail responses are lousy at best."

Rieser said the township would spend the funds to make a very small difference in the results. Weighting surveys, he said, is "absolutely acceptable" and he didn't "have a problem with this."

Board member Laura Fillault supported the action but said she wants to see the weighted, unweighted and extended data to determine whether the expenditure made a difference in the results.

"I will add we should file this under lessons learned," she said.

NRC will present the findings to the board either in January or February.