Commission backs resident survey to guide programming, debates question flow

Commissioners spent significant time reviewing a proposed resident survey and the Community Services work plan, with staff recommending a focus on resident participation and program awareness.

Staff said the department’s account mapping shows roughly 65% residents and 35% nonresidents among program participants and recommended a survey distributed at events and online to clarify program awareness and preferences. “I would recommend probably just focusing on, the resident survey,” staff told the Commission.

Commissioners proposed edits to the survey flow — notably moving a neighborhood question (currently Q11) to Q2 to improve logical progression — and suggested adding optional sub‑checkboxes that allow respondents to request follow‑up emails about senior or youth programs. Several commissioners warned that embedding links in the survey could ‘dilute’ pure awareness questions because respondents might click through and change their answers, while others said embedded links would be a convenience that would raise response quality for those seeking more information.

There was discussion about whether to include the Mission Playhouse in the same survey; staff said the Playhouse recently ran a separate 15‑minute strategic planning survey and recommended keeping Playhouse questions separate to avoid confusion.

Commissioner Dong summarized the approach as research oriented: use the survey to answer awareness questions and then refine programming. Commissioners agreed the draft aligns with the work plan and asked staff to remove or shorten questions that can already be answered from existing department data to keep the instrument concise.

Staff will proceed with the survey as discussed, collect results, and return to the Commission with analysis and suggested next steps for optimizing resident participation.