Stanwood and Camano Island Community Survey

The City of Stanwood approached the Metro Center with a request to help them plan and implement a community feedback survey to assist with the city’s strategic planning efforts. The survey distributed to residents of both Stanwood, and residents of Camano Island who pass through Stanwood on their way on and off the island, will gather input about residents’ perceptions of city services and their opinions of future community needs.

To implement the project, the Metro Center assembled a project team which included colleagues with the needed expertise at WSU’s Division of Governmental Studies and Services (DGSS). After listening to the city’s needs, the project team developed a ‘menu’ of different approaches for conducting the survey with the strengths, weaknesses and cost of each approach noted, plus additional options for visualizing the results of the survey. The options were discussed with city officials, who made the final decision.

The City of Stanwood will implement two types of surveys:

• A random sample of 1,500 Stanwood households will receive a mailed, postcard invitation to participate in an online survey.
• An opportunity survey, which will be widely available to both Stanwood and Camano Island residents via weblink and distributed through local advertising and event channels.

Survey respondents from Stanwood will be asked questions about attitudes toward city government, services, programs and activities. Additional socio-demographic data will permit the project team to make statistical comparisons of responses from population subgroups (e.g. age, sex, race).

Survey respondents from Camano Island will take a shorter version of the Stanwood survey, focused on garnering input on businesses and city services in Stanwood used by Camano Island residents.

When this project concludes in October 2019, the City of Stanwood will be poised to promote and incorporate community input into their strategic planning process.

• Metropolitan Center for Applied Research and Extension: Martha Aitken, Brad Gaolach, and Patricia Townsend
• WSU Division of Governmental Studies and Services: Season Hoard, Christina Sanders, and Brian Anderson