The Steamship Authority deserves credit for seeking the public’s help in crafting its first-ever strategic plan, a document designed to set forth the boatline’s aspirations for the future.

But it is discouraging to see the community input survey now circulating from its consultants, Raftelis Financial Consultants, which seems unlikely to yield the kind of honest feedback that is needed.

Accessible on the SSA’s website, the survey  presents a draft vision statement and lists five “strategic outcome areas,” which it describes as “the bucket list of things that need to go well.” On the vision statement, respondents are asked to rank the importance of four concepts: vital part of our communities, safety, reliability and stewardship.

Come again?

It’s not clear what all these concepts mean, but it’s hard to imagine anything more important than safety and reliability. And if the SSA is serious about public involvement in its strategic plan, there are better ways to garner it than by seeking reaction to broadly worded statements.

With reservations hard to come by and trips being canceled at the very outset of summer for lack of trained staff, it’s hard to understand why the boat line would spend time and money trying to attract more traffic. A recent email seeking freelance writers for the authority’s long-promised new website asks, “Are you passionate about promoting the Islands to potential visitors?”

The SSA’s priority should be on getting back to the basics, stated plainly in its enabling act: to provide adequate transportation of persons and necessaries of life for the Islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.