Winnetka Caucus reports strong return rate on survey

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Updated: November 16, 2011 8:46AM

The Winnetka Caucus is compiling the results of its community survey which more than 1,300 residents completed last month. The 1,331 responses received equal 14 percent of registered voters and is the best return rate for the caucus’ survey in the past five years.

“While we are very pleased with the response rate, we plan to do better next year,” said Irma Villarreal, the chairwoman of the Winnetka Caucus. “Our response rate is tempered only by our lack of sufficient human and monetary resources to both send out paper copies and run a pervasive publicity campaign.”

The survey also was the longest in the past five years, but more than 80 percent of people answered the questions in all eight sections. Caucus officials expect some people to stop before they answer all 63 questions as they may be interrupted, their computer may lock up or they simply become tired. With this in mind, the Winnetka Caucus Council presents the questions it thought “needed the most attention and energy . . . towards the beginning of the survey,” John Mech, vice chairman of the caucus council, wrote in an email.

Thus, 97 percent and 92 percent of respondents answered the questions about affordable housing and stormwater management, respectively, the topics which followed the introductory section asking for the age, gender and years of residency of each person completing the survey. The questions on Winnetka School District 36 received the fewest responses, 82 percent of all those who completed a survey, but public schools was the last topic surveyed.

Only 22 people returned written surveys, caucus officials reported. The rest were submitted electronically.

“We have transitioned from 100 percent paper to 98 percent electronic in five years,” Mech stated. “It was not a popular decision, but it was a financial necessity. The cost of printing and postage has risen to a point where it exceeds our ability to fund a paper survey.”

“We plan to grow our e-mail address database and improve our electronic communications each year,” Mech said, with hopes of increasing the survey return rate by 20 percent over the next three to five years.

The survey findings will be released Oct. 24.