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City Manager
Frequently
Asked Questions - National Citizen Survey
City Mailing
Survey to 1,200 Midland Households
Answers
1.
How did you get my address for the National Citizen Survey?
Your address
was sampled at random from a list of all city of Midland addresses from the
post office. This is a standard service offered by the post office. It is
not a city government file, and no household member is named in the file.
(Return to Questions)
2.
I live outside of the city of Midland but received a survey. What should I
do?
Please
discard the survey. Unfortunately, the mailing lists provided by the post
office do not exactly match municipal boundaries, and some addresses
outside our boundaries were included.
You may receive one or two other mailings associated with this
project. Please discard those as well. After that, you will not receive any
other City of Midland mailings related to this project.
(Return to Questions)
3.
I received your survey, and while I own the property that it was sent to, I
don't live there. What should I do?
The resident of
the property should complete the survey.
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4. Why did you
request that the person who most recently had a birthday complete the
survey?
We have
randomly selected households within our jurisdiction to receive the survey.
We would also like to choose - in an unbiased way - a person within each
household to complete the survey. This way, we ensure the results are
representative of our community as a whole.
While it
may seem a bit strange, using the "birthday method" is a simple
way to select an adult from within each household without permitting bias
in our results.
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5.
I'm the person in my household who most recently had a birthday, but I'm
not very informed about the issues covered in this survey. Can I give the
survey to someone else in my household who is more informed?
We prefer that
you complete the survey. The "birthday method" described in the
survey letter creates the most representative sample of our jurisdiction.
Besides, you'll be surprised at how much you can contribute!
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6.
You may not be interested in my opinion, as I rarely leave my home. Should
I still complete the survey?
Yes, the City
of Midland is here to serve all residents, and it is important to us that
we get feedback from a complete cross-section of our residents.
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7.
If I've already filled out the survey but received a second copy, should I
fill that one out, too?
No, filling out
one survey is enough.
Because
responses are anonymous, we don't know who already completed a survey.
Since we only want one response from each person, those who already sent in
a survey should not complete another one. The second copy is distributed
merely as a reminder to all of those who have received the first survey.
Thank you
for completing the first survey.
(Return to Questions)
8.
I was not sent a survey, but would like to complete one. How do I go about
getting a survey?
The sample was
designed to be as representative of Midland's population as possible, so by
sending copies of the survey to people who request it, we would skew the
sample and make the results less meaningful. Therefore, surveys will not be
sent based on citizen requests.
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to Questions)
9.
What will be done with the results?
The results will be included in a final report that City of Midland officials can use to benchmark the quality of services provided to residents and help the City Council make decisions that affect our community.
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10.
Why is "Hispanic" separate from "Race"?
We want to
compare the demographic profile of those responding to the demographic
profile of our city as presented by the U.S. Census. In order to be able to
do this, we asked about race and ethnicity in the same way the Census
does: the Census designates hispanic
as an ethnicity, not as a race.
(Return to Questions)
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