BIG CANOE POA RECORDS REQUEST 0002:
“CENSUS RECORDS” sent Wed, Aug 22, 2018 7:59 am
To: Jill Philmon / Big Canoe General Manager
Cc: The POA Board
Please find attached a 2 Page PDF Request to Review and Copy Records, made pursuant to Big Canoe Policies and Related Procedures; Procedure 156.2 (POA Member Access to Records).
http://www.bigcanoe.themountainsvoice.com/docs/RecordsRequestToGMandBoard-0002(2018-08-22).pdf
THE REASON FOR THIS RECORDS REQUEST came about in an interesting manner. We recently started the Big Canoe Young Families Project (“YFP”). The general goal of the YFP is to be a voice for Young Families in the community. One specific goal is to advocate for the building of the Indoor Family Center, some form of which has been promised going all the way back to 1994…. and yet there always seems to be an excuse for why it never gets done. The 2014 Long Range Planning Committee listed the Indoor Family Center as one of the “additional activities that the residents believed should be addressed; these include child and youth activities, which were identified by 62% of the respondents” in the 2013 Community Activity/Family survey.
But the 2018 Update to the Long Range Plan cancelled the project – again! One of the reasons given was the low number of children in the community. The numbers used to establish population counts of permanent resident children (and part time families) came from the 2012 Big Canoe Census.
As I researched the Census, I found a summary report from the Census Creator. It is as follows (marked up):
This 6 year old Census, that had an approximate 50% participation rate, is effectively worthless for making community decisions in 2018 – and yet it IS the primary source of information that the POA & Various Committees rely on to make critical decisions. It is the primary reference for population study numbers being used across the board by Committees, such as the Long Range Task Force.
The realization that the Powers That Be inside of Big Canoe care so little about facts and actual data when making important decisions truly disturbed me., especially when the numbers are often used as just more justification for killing off Young Family Programs that have been talked about for decades, but never delivered.
The comments in the 2012 Census Summary are clear evidence that very little professionalism or thought is given to actually achieving a participation rate high enough to achieve accurate data. Other census and poll reviews suggest that the questions being asked show very little thought for actually acquiring detailed young family and children’s data that would be helpful to decision making in those regards.
The 2018 Census will be the last opportunity to get accurate data for many years to come. It is important that this process be given increased scrutiny and oversight in light of weak past performances. This Records Request is a step towards understanding the process better. Reasonable verbal requests to POA Staff for some of this information were met with legal jargon quoting OCGA Legal Code, and involved the word, “NO!”.
I wasn’t asking for nuclear launch codes, just lists of questions that have in the past, and may now be being considered, to be part of a Census that will eventually be issued publicly. The problem with poll questions is that they can be manipulated to achieve a preconceived reply, and then those results can be abused to push forward a false narrative. For example, leading up to the 2017 Internet Deal – a poll was run where people overwhelmingly responded favorably to a question of whether they would like faster internet speeds. They used that poll result to repeatedly justify the Internet Task Force Suggestions. I’ve always wondered if a more truthful poll question, such as, “Would you like faster interent…. IF IT WAS GOING TO COST THE COMMUNITY $10,500,000.00?” might possibly have come up with much less favorable response ratios. So my concern is that given the manipulative history of this Board in running Poll & Census Questions designed to elicit a specified response – that the 2018 Census needs more openness in the development process. I do not understand the extreme levels of secrecy that are surrounding the process. The question the community should be asking is WHY? And they should be demanding answers, and changes.
Peace,
– david (aka The Mountains Voice)
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