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Attitudes Toward Parks and Recreation <br />The attitudes toward parks and recreation of urban and rural survey <br />respondents closely matches the overall survey results. <br />Resident Focus Groups Format <br />The focus group was composed of 13 community residents, with a graduate <br />research assistant from the University of Minnesota serving as moderator. A <br />staff person from the City of Hugo insisted on being present in the focus <br />group, and interrupted the group's discussion at several points. The <br />presence of a city employee during the focus group almost certainly biased <br />the responses of the participants, who would have been more reluctant to <br />provide responses critical of the city. <br />Upon arrival, each participant was asked to fill out a questionnaire asking for <br />basic demographic and background information. A discussion guide was <br />used to guide the focus groups.3 The questions on the discussion guide were <br />deliberately kept general, both to avoid making assumptions about <br />participants' views and to cast the net as wide as possible in stimulating <br />discussion among the community residents present. Due to the large size of <br />the focus group, discussion was not as in-depth as would have been <br />preferred. <br />The following questions were used to stimulate discussion. Overall it <br />appeared the focus group participants each came to the focus group with <br />their own agenda and topic of concern for Hugo parks and recreation and <br />programming, and many of the participants were more interested in <br />promoting their agenda than participating in a free-flowing open discussion. <br />1) Introductions, where do participants live, how long have they <br />lived in Hugo and what brought them to Hugo and what has kept <br />them here? 4 follow-up favorite Hugo park/program/facility or <br />trail? <br />Residents have lived in Hugo from 4 months to 43 years with a group <br />average of 5.9 years. The focus group was relatively older with the average <br />year of birth being 1954. Reasons for why focus group participants moved to <br />Z See Appendix B for a copy of the questionnaire with de -identified results. <br />3 See Appendix C for the full guide; individual questions are reproduced at the start of each <br />summary section. <br />19 <br />