Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: student surveys

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, at 05:40 PM, melinda sue merrick wrote:
>

> As someone who researches cohousing and other types of intentional
> communities, I think your idea for a perpetual survey that stays on 
> line
> is a good one.  However, my only worry is that the process may 
> backfire if
> it is not done in a comprehensive, well thought out manner.  What you 
> seem
> to have in mind is a central database of information for all cohousing
> members.  It is so important that something like this is not taken 
> lightly
> and completed halfway.  That way, you can avoid people having to 
> complete
> their information again and again as the on-line form keeps changing
> depending on everyone's input.  I suggest that you get all of the input
> first before even attempting such a vast project.  This may even be
> something that the cohousing network would be interested in being 
> involved
> with.

A database is a huge task and one that won't get done without funding 
and  lot of work on the part of several people. I was suggesting 
something far simpler. YahooGroups has a poll feature that allows all 
the members of a list to answer questions and to review and change 
their responses until the poll is completed. It allows each person to 
answer only one time. You can either have email addresses revealed or 
hidden on responses. Questions can be posed a number of ways and 
responders just click a button for their response -- multiple choice.

This would require that each respondent subscribe to the list and post 
their own responses--just as current surveys require that people figure 
out how to respond. I suggest that this list only be used for the 
polling purposes or discussing the poll -- not to become a replacement 
for this list or for a larger, comprehensive study. But using this 
format would get the polls done and posted in a place where they would 
be accessible or could be forwarded to whomever was interested by other 
members of the list.
> It may be impossible to predict what kind of information students will
> want to collect from cohousing folks.  Having an on-line database
> with census like information would greatly simplify any future
> questionnaires from students, but probably would not stop them 
> completely.

The problem is that the current surveys (I'm afraid) are not being 
responded to at all. I have stopped responding entirely -- it's just 
too repetitive and boring -- and  honestly many of the surveys are not 
well designed. Students have complained to the list about people not 
responding so I'm sure others feel the same way I do.

If the Cohousing Network were to take this on, and do it "properly" 
with all the right input and follow through and central posting, it 
would be wonderful but I haven't seen any evidence that they have the 
time or  money to do it. I was just suggesting a way to do something 
that might be helpful to the students interested in studying us and to 
which we could respond ONCE. Additional polls can be added when other 
questions come up.

I gave an orientation a few weeks ago to a group of graduate students 
whose eyes lit up like stars when I mentioned the list and my stomach 
dropped seeing the sparks of yet another questionnaire that I would not 
answer. It's heartrending.

Thanks,
Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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