I watched the FARGODOME Authority meeting of a few days ago. Okay, I am appalled, they are paying $25,000 to survey 400 people. Why not put questionnaires into water bills and get thousands of comments. Get volunteers to sort through them. Typical bureaucratic. Having to hire a company to come to a conclusion on this for $25,000. It is OBVIOUS that the general sentiment was always that combining the December 5th convention center vote with the general FARGODOME upgrade was a problem and probably a good reason why the vote did not reach 60%. It reminds me of when NDSU paid $10,000 to an outside company decades ago to design a new logo and people were pissed. The general feeling back then was why not just get a graphic design class out at NDSU do it?
The FARGODOME needs to put their ears to the railroad tracks and could easily get a feel for what citizens want.
I think a lot of the FARGODOME Authority, especially Rob S. but the way they are doing this survey is very bureaucratic and corporate. Lazy survey.
It's also probably the correct way to do a survey. I worked a little with a market research firm and there is a lot to making sure a survey is statistically valid. Putting something in a water bill probably doesn't meet that requirement. Hiring a college class to do that is not the right thing to do. Would you hire a bunch of medical students to do your knee replacement surgery?
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Not the same thing.
I tend to like a huge amount of feedback.
You DO know that the Snorty logo was done by an NDSU student decades ago. The old one, not the slick new one.
There are an awful lot of people's opinion which will be lost when they do this survey in such a knee-jerk way. The comment at the end of the meeting was, "have we ever used this survey company before? Maybe City of Fargo did." Something that. Lazy. Should have had an NDSU statistical class do it as a project. But then the corporate world would not have had their $25,000 windfall.
Thinking a group of students can do a statistically significant survey with full analysis of the results as well as professionals diminishes the knowledge and experience of professionals. $25k is not a bad price for that level of market research.
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The basic question is - would you have tied the idea of the convention center to the FARGODOME renovation as was done for the December 5th vote or would you want the FARGODOME renovation to be the sole item to vote on in future elections? Some other simple questions such as what things in the FARGODOME concern you most? Bathrooms, concessions, etc. Did you vote yes or no? Some of these respondents may not have even voted. You insult the capabilities of students being able to do a statistically significant survey. 400 people is in my opinion a statistically small sample of respondents. Fargo has probably 100,000 eligible voters. Sometimes people who are outside of your profession are not as dumb as you would like to make us out to be.
Your elitism towards survey professionals versus statistics students is on full display.
To think that any group of students is as good or better than experienced professionals in ANY field is insulting. You've obviously never done it or hired a market research firm for anything. There is a difference. It won't be a simple survey if you want something meaningful. How you ask the questions can have a huge impact on the survey results. I've done more of this than any student, and I wouldn't hire me to do this project.
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