In our research, we often ask patrons a series of grading questions. One question we ask that almost always receives low marks is related to “Involving citizens in the life of the district.” Why? Patrons often feel like they are not part of the conversation when the district is making decisions on new buildings, renovations, boundary changes, etc.
One of the problems is districts are still using 1950s practices when trying to get district patrons involved. If you haven’t figured it out yet, people don’t want to attend community meetings. These went out of style with bell-bottom jeans. People also don’t want to attend focus groups; we’ve pretty much abandoned that archaic tool. And “captured audience” methodologies, like cell phone apps, etc., only reach the people you would have heard from anyway. Just because phone apps are trendy and shiny doesn’t mean they work.
We’ve developed an approach that bridges the gap between people who want to be involved, yet who don’t have time to attend meetings. We call it a Virtual Citizens Advisory Committee (VCAC) and it basically consists of short, bimonthly online surveys to people who have indicated they would be interested in participating in such a program. Instead of getting a few people to attend a face-to-face meeting, we’re getting dozens of people answering surveys about mission critical district issues.
Here are some tips for starting a VCAC:
- Use social media and every other media to recruit members.
- Explain members fill out a brief survey every other month. That’s it!
- If you have vocal opponents to district happenings, make a special effort to invite them to join.
- Always report back to the group on what was learned.
This has proven to be a neat way to involve patrons without infringing on their time. And we encourage members of the VCAC to share questions and findings with their friends and neighbors, so even more people feel connected to what is happening in the district.
If you have question on how to start a VCAC, give us a call at (913) 484-0920 and we’d be happy to walk you through the process. If you don’t have the staffing capabilities to do this yourself, we can assist your district.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
