Bellevue is offering an opportunity for community members to weigh in on how they feel about Bellevue and how they access information from city government. The survey will be open through October 5th for people who were not able to attend the meeting. What do you think of Bellevue and our city government? How do you seek information about Bellevue? What types of information are you likely to look for? How do you communicate to the city staff and leadership?
Some of the ideas I had for improving outreach:
Outreach planning:
Scope, level of effort, and projected participation rates defined at start and approved by council. This shouldn’t be something that council has to micromanage, but we should have a shared understanding about a lower threshold below which the lack of participation is flagged for further review.
Handbook (especially for new staff), so that results are consistent and it’s less work for them to find and use our established resources.
Outreach meetings:
Link provided on city calendar
Calendar items should also be included on project webpage
No cap on number of participant signups
Allow registration/ensure link is available until meeting has ended.
Comments and questions visible to other participants.
Participants able to message each other
Session recordings available via project webpage
Surveys:
Surveys should be featured on Engaging Bellevue if intended for a general audience
Surveys should have an info session at least two weeks before survey close, to clarify questions and increase participation
Free response that asks if any other questions or options should have been included
Free-responses and survey results shared via project webpage
Reports shared with participants, with option to comment on data interpretation.
These are not exactly what the survey was trying to ask, but I do hope we will be getting at least some of these. This is an issue that has gotten the attention of other city leaders as well. Please add any additional ideas in the comments!
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