Norwood committee reviews targeted survey links, promotion plan to boost responses

Norwood’s Committee of the Whole discussed plans to expand outreach for a city master-plan survey, including five distinct web links and QR codes that will let staff track how respondents found the survey.

The survey will inform the city’s work on a master plan and related priorities, committee members said. Staff emphasized that the multiple web links are not separate surveys but are routed into a single dataset with an identifier for each “collector” link so the city can tell whether a respondent came from the Chamber of Commerce, a school distribution, parks outreach or another source.

Staff member (unnamed) said, “So since they do have unique web links, that is also identified in the survey results.” That collector ID will appear as a separate column when staff export the data, the presenter said, allowing the city to see whether a response came via a chamber email, a school communication or a parks posting.

Committee members discussed practical steps to increase participation. Proposed channels included: an emailed request to Chamber of Commerce members asking them to share the survey with employees; sending different printed flyers to businesses for display in public areas; distributing copies in schools with separate links for students, faculty and staff; and placing flyers at community boards and in grocery stores. Participants suggested handing physical copies to businesses and laminating 11x17 flyers for display.

Other promotion ideas included use of shortened links for easier manual typing (for example, bit.ly-style shorteners), asking volunteers to drop off printed materials, targeting large community events (Norwood Day, market days), and asking city departments with customer portals (tax, water) whether those offices can share the survey with their users. The presenter noted that some channels may have consent or legal limitations and recommended checking before broad email pushes.

On timing and progress, staff reported about 624 responses at the time of the meeting and said the target completion time for respondents was less than 10 minutes even though the survey platform currently reports an estimated 19 minutes for some response paths. “Our goal was less than 10 minutes,” a committee member said; staff confirmed most branching paths can be completed in about 10 minutes and that the welcome text on the survey can be edited to set expectations for respondents.

Next steps recorded in discussion: staff will finalize printable flyers and active PDF links, test shortened links for manual entry, and ask the safety/service director about using city email or social channels for distribution. Committee members volunteered to help drop off printed flyers and to flag upcoming events where the city can recruit respondents.

The committee did not take a formal vote on distribution tactics during the meeting.