The National Association of Counties (NACo) sponsored a County Research Day at their headquarters in Washington, D.C.  CCAWV decided to attend as we look to expand our research capabilities. If any group has expertise on conducting successful, wide-reaching research projects, it’s NACo’s research team.  Led by Dr. Emilia Istrate, they have compiled the exhaustively comprehensive NACo County Explorer tool (http://explorer.naco.org/). With data points on everything from PILT funding to demographic details to economic information and much, much more, the County Explorer is an incredibly valuable resource.  And we wanted to learn how they did it.

The day began with members of participating county organizations sharing ideas and challenges they faced in their states. This open exchange of ideas and insights was very helpful as we learned what our counterparts across the country were doing. After lunch with NACo’s always engaging Executive Director, Matt Chase, the research team took over. First up, we heard from Natalie Ortiz, a Senior Research Analyst, on the in-depth, months-long process the research team follows for every report and survey they produce. Next, we heard from Daniel Handy and Jonathan Harris, both Research Associates, on how NACo collects information for the County Explorer tool. Pooling both qualitative and quantitative data from multiple sources, and then organizing that information is a massive undertaking. Dr. Istrate closed out the day by explaining how to determine what types of research products work best for different types of audiences, and how to market your final product.

It was a very informative day, and we returned to West Virginia with a lot of new ideas. We look forward to rolling out some cool county research tools of our own very soon!