I’m glad to learn this is part of a broader effort. And as I said above, I’m happy to answer three question surveys! I hope you can learn something from it.

Wes

Over the years we have experienced declining response rates to our annual survey. This year, we decided to try this short survey asking only the ‘independent’ variables (overall importance, satisfaction and value for dues paid) to see if we could improve response rates. This short survey was sent to all members — not a sample and will be connected to our data mining activities where we will be able to see how people answer these questions in the context of their activity. So, to answer Chris’ question it IS part of a broader effort. The ability to connect member importance/satisfaction with engagement is something we have been trying to do for a long time and with a new data mining product offered through SPSS we can now do that. This allows for us to see the key drivers of satisfaction from an actual performance perspective. In addition the member’s perception of importance of membership and their satisfaction with membership are dashboard indicators that are important to the Board. We provide that on an annual basis.

Wes

So here are my questions. How are they sampling or is this a full membership blast? What is the timing for these surveys: every 3, 6 or 12 months? And – here’s probably the second most important question – how are they using these results to measure action? If they see a decline in trending toward negative satisfaction, how will they know what this is attached to? One of the reasons why quantitative data collection alone is insufficient is that it rarely helps the organization delve deep enough to move in a focused direction. Hopefully, ASAE is also including enough qualitative data collection to balance their results toward action.

Which does come back to your question, which I believe is definitely the most important one to ask: what will they do with their information? I’m hoping this isn’t just a survey sent for its own sake (or to appease someone’s curiosity). As an anthropologist, I’d like to see this as a part of ASAE’s integrated data gathering and analysis efforts using quantative and qualitative methods.