Over the course of the last seven months, Kathleen Murphy and Michael Keeler have learned quite a bit about their community. They have gathered facts and detailed statistical and sociological data on every facet of Great Falls imaginable — from the demographic details of its diverse population, to the ins and outs of the complex Fairfax County regulations that govern its semi-rural expanse of land. This week, the two co-chairs of the Great Falls Citizens Association 2020 Vision Project launched the final, most comprehensive stage of their multi-month research project.
"The survey was dropped Tuesday and delivered to the Post Office," said Keeler.
The long-awaited Great Falls 2020 Vision survey is a nine-page, 36-question comprehensive community issues questionnaire that was mailed this week to every residential household in the 22066 zip code. The survey was assembled over the last several weeks with the input and guidance of many different people and organizations. In January and February, Murphy and Wheeler hosted several informal "jam" sessions at the Great Falls Library which gave residents the opportunity to provide their input, help formulate potential questions, and participate in the creation of the survey to any magnitude and in any capacity they wished.
"We probably had on average about 20 people at each session," said Keeler. "The document is very refined. It's been reviewed by every stakeholder group in the community that we engaged — so it's all there."
The survey comes with an accompanying cover letter and community fact sheet, and of the 36 questions, 24 of them are substantive in nature. In order to ensure that the survey be free from bias, the GFCA 2020 Vision Project committee submitted the final draft to an independent third-party research firm IQ Research of Quorvis Communications. The firm volunteered its services in exchange for the Great Falls Citizens Association's promise to make a donation to the Northern Virginia Technology Council in Quorvis' name.
"They reviewed it for bias and structure, and they made a lot of changes to it from that perspective," said Keeler. "So the content is ours, but the structure and product and science is theirs — they actually added some questions that we hadn't thought of because they do this all the time."
THE COMMUNITY SURVEY is the last phase of the multi-month process that has constituted the Great Falls Citizens Association 2020 Vision Project. The 2020 project was launched in September 2006 after Dranesville District Supervisor Joan DuBois requested that the GFCA find a way to come up with a definitive outline of what the residents of Great Falls want to see in their community in the future. DuBois' suggestion was rooted in the ever-growing dilemma that has confronted the residents of Great Falls for many years — how to best preserve its semi-rural character while still providing the conveniences and amenities that make it a desirable community in which to live.
Thus, the GFCA 2020 Vision Project committee was born, and a series of community outreach efforts began. In the fall of 2006, the 2020 Vision Project committee mailed out a "Values Survey" to every household in Great Falls. Less than 200 surveys were completed and returned, but the results were evaluated nonetheless. The survey used a number of sociological evaluations to assess what values are important to the residents of Great Falls, and what values are missing.
Throughout November and December of 2006, the 2020 Vision Project committee hosted a series of focus groups designed to collect detailed perspectives from specific community demographics. The committee collected input from seniors, business professionals, artists, teens and working mothers to name a few.
DATA COLLECTED over the fall was used to help craft the final 2020 Vision survey that was mailed out to residents on Tuesday. According to Keeler, the theme that continually surfaces in the survey is "the big debate that surrounds this whole notion of change." Keeler said that both he and Murphy have been accused of being advocates of change, simply because of the questions that are posed in the survey. However, he finds such labels to be meaningless.
"The reality is that we're asking the questions that are on people's minds," said Keeler. "We are just trying to be open and listening and honest, and respond to the community with a mirror. We're not really advocates for anything — we just want to ask the questions that are on people's minds and find out what the community wants."
Keeler added that he personally thinks that there is no such thing as a person who does not want change.
"From my perspective, people who say they don't want change don't really mean that because they may want preservation, and that's a type of change," said Keeler. "It's not really useful to the community learning about itself to be talking about being 'for change' or 'against change.' Everybody wants change, they just want their flavor of it."
The 2020 Vision Project committee would prefer that the surveys be completed online at www.gf2020.org, but completed hard copies are also welcome and can be returned via regular mail. All surveys must be completed and submitted no later than March 21 to be included in the Quorvis analysis. The results of the survey will be posted on the 2020 Vision Project website, and will also be used to generate a formal 2020 Vision outline for presentation to Dranesville District Supervisor Joan DuBois.