The Citizen’s League is asking Minnesotans to share their experiences of interacting with public officials.

In an unprecedented survey, the views of the general public will be compared with those of public officials, to determine where the two groups see eye-to-eye and where they are misunderstanding one another when they interact.

The survey is being conducted as part of the Citizens League MAP 150 project, which was designed to honor the 150th anniversary of Minnesota’s statehood on May 11, 2008. Over the past 12 months, the Citizens League has conducted a series of demonstration projects to learn first hand about what works, and what doesn’t in civic involvement practices as a path to better public policy.

MAP 150 began with a statewide poll. The poll found that the primary obstacle to greater civic involvement for Minnesotans is that they consider most civic engagement processes to be “all talk and no action.” Through MAP 150, the Citizens League set out to learn what practices would enable citizens to have a more meaningful seat at the table, and to contribute the insights that are so badly needed to come to grips with today’s pressing problems. The current survey is an effort to test whether the lessons the Citizens League thinks it has learned are on the right track.

“So far we have about 450 responses from Minnesotans and 80 responses from public officials” said Sean Kershaw, the Citizens League’s Executive Director. “The preliminary results are fascinating and we believe they can make a big difference in how Minnesotans and public officials interact with one another. But we really want to hear from more Minnesotans—the more who respond, the more credible the results will be, and the more we’ll all be on this path together for improving democracy—and public policy-- in Minnesota.”

The survey can be completed online in about 5-10 minutes. Go to www.map150.org to take the survey and to learn more about MAP 150. Results will be posted online in late May. Public officials—elected, appointed or civil service-- who would like to take the survey can email ern@map150.org to receive a link to the public official survey.