To provide a monthly, well-designed poll for islanders to anonymously voice their opinions on important Island issues so Vashonites can better gauge the range of sentiments of fellow community members in the hopes of fostering a culture of open engagement as well as to provide useful polling data on important issues.

This poll is created by Celina Yarkin. It is independent of any organization, and she created it to fulfill the mission above. Celina moved to Vashon with her husband and 9 month old daughter in 2000. They raised three girls on the island, and run Sun Island Farm. They sold at the Farmers Market for upwards of fifteen years, and now run a farmstead. All three girls went through the Vashon public schools, and Celina and Joe are open water swimmers.

Every month I create a poll about a Vashon topic of interest. I then post the poll on local Vashon facebook pages, I create a qr code which I put on posters on the bulletin boards around town, I table with the poll at First Friday and a couple of times in front of Thriftway, and I link to the poll here on the website.

I can’t. If the poll is to remain anonymous, which it has to, I can’t control if people take the poll more than once. This is not a valid, scientific poll where I control who gets polled. So far, people have been respectful of the poll, and to the best of my knowledge, people have not abused the poll. If people do start to abuse the poll, it will no longer be useful, and I will stop running it. So, don’t do that.