michael h schneider
06-13-2001, 05:18 PM
05/15/2001
Proposal to Conduct a Membership Benefits and Services Survey
(Frank Del Greco)
Introduction
NAWCC?s members are the Association?s greatest assets. Council must create and maintain compelling reasons for members to stay with the organization and for new members to join. In order to do that, Council must learn about and understand the wants and needs of the membership, and then institute change and create cost-effective programs that provide the corresponding benefits and services.
Members belong to an organization when the benefits and services it provides are not available economically outside of that organization. When desirable benefits and services are available outside of the organization at an attractive price, or when the benefits and services offered are no longer valued by its members, then those members may leave and might not encourage their colleagues to join or stay.
Members? wants and needs change over time, as influenced (in our case) by communications technology and the introduction of on-line auction houses. In addition, many organizations of our type are experiencing a loss or stagnation in membership. Not only must an organization remain flexible enough to change in response to membership needs, it should be able to anticipate future needs as well.
There are two parts to the process of satisfying members? wants and needs. The first part is to understand what those wants and needs are. This is the basis for this proposal. The second part consists of implementing initiatives to follow-up on what has been learned.
The best way to understand members? wants and needs is by surveying them
regularly, in an unbiased fashion and in a variety of ways. Typical methods follow:
· One-on-one interviews (face-to-face or over the phone)
· Group sessions (meet your representative at regionals)
· Focus groups
· Mail surveys
All methods should be employed. It is suggested (and is being proposed here)
that NAWCC commence with a mail survey. Reasons follow:
· One-on-one interviews are very costly if a representative sample of the
membership is to be polled. Our telephone follow-up initiative for non-renewals
has demonstrated that the track record for getting in contact with members over
the phone is poor.
· The ?Meet Your Representative? sessions at regionals have not been very
successful. Low turnout may be the result of members being too busy in the marts
or at seminars.
· Focus groups require a moderator trained at extracting information without
bias while assuring equal participation. It is difficult to do without training.
· Mail surveys allow us to pick a representative sample. Although mail surveys
usually experience a low response rate (20 ? 40%), we found that the
demographics survey conducted in January 1999 resulted in a 60% return.
A benefits and services survey will provide Council with answers to the
following questions:
· What are the benefits and services that members want and need, and are willing
to pay for?
· What is the membership?s current level of satisfaction with respect to
benefits and services vs. dues?
· How do members want to be educated about the benefits and services offerred?
· If the Association must scale back benefits or services in order to balance
the budget, which ones can be cut without much member backlash and exodus, and
which ones shouldn?t be touched? Which ones could be substituted for others?
Discussion of Proposal
I propose that a survey be mailed to a sufficient number of members to learn
about their wants and needs. The following outline provides details:
· The survey will be sent to 3000 members. The sample population will be
selected randomly but weighted by location (state and international).
· The survey will consist of a questionnaire (maximum of six pages) and a return
envelope. Participants will be asked to place a stamp on the return envelope to
help reduce costs.
· A pilot survey will be sent to 100 members prior to printing the final survey in order to provide assurance that the survey is understandable and that probable responses can be correctly tabulated.
· The survey will be announced in the Bulletin and Mart to increase the rate of return.
· In order to eliminate the need for consultants, all coding, tabulating and
analysis will be done by Frank Del Greco.
· Cost of the survey (covered by the M&P budget) will include: printing of questionnaires - $850; 6,000 envelopes ? provided by headquarters; mailing
labels ? provided by headquarters; printing on 3,000 envelopes - $200; postage -
$1,020 (if sent first class); external labor ? none. Total: $2,100 or less.
· The complete surveying, tabulating and reporting process will take less than
one year, with interim reports available along the way.
Motion
I move that a membership benefits and services survey be conducted by the M&P committee and that follow-up action be taken by Council based upon the survey results.
Frank Del Greco, NAWCC Director-elect
fdelgreco@aol.com
Proposal to Conduct a Membership Benefits and Services Survey
(Frank Del Greco)
Introduction
NAWCC?s members are the Association?s greatest assets. Council must create and maintain compelling reasons for members to stay with the organization and for new members to join. In order to do that, Council must learn about and understand the wants and needs of the membership, and then institute change and create cost-effective programs that provide the corresponding benefits and services.
Members belong to an organization when the benefits and services it provides are not available economically outside of that organization. When desirable benefits and services are available outside of the organization at an attractive price, or when the benefits and services offered are no longer valued by its members, then those members may leave and might not encourage their colleagues to join or stay.
Members? wants and needs change over time, as influenced (in our case) by communications technology and the introduction of on-line auction houses. In addition, many organizations of our type are experiencing a loss or stagnation in membership. Not only must an organization remain flexible enough to change in response to membership needs, it should be able to anticipate future needs as well.
There are two parts to the process of satisfying members? wants and needs. The first part is to understand what those wants and needs are. This is the basis for this proposal. The second part consists of implementing initiatives to follow-up on what has been learned.
The best way to understand members? wants and needs is by surveying them
regularly, in an unbiased fashion and in a variety of ways. Typical methods follow:
· One-on-one interviews (face-to-face or over the phone)
· Group sessions (meet your representative at regionals)
· Focus groups
· Mail surveys
All methods should be employed. It is suggested (and is being proposed here)
that NAWCC commence with a mail survey. Reasons follow:
· One-on-one interviews are very costly if a representative sample of the
membership is to be polled. Our telephone follow-up initiative for non-renewals
has demonstrated that the track record for getting in contact with members over
the phone is poor.
· The ?Meet Your Representative? sessions at regionals have not been very
successful. Low turnout may be the result of members being too busy in the marts
or at seminars.
· Focus groups require a moderator trained at extracting information without
bias while assuring equal participation. It is difficult to do without training.
· Mail surveys allow us to pick a representative sample. Although mail surveys
usually experience a low response rate (20 ? 40%), we found that the
demographics survey conducted in January 1999 resulted in a 60% return.
A benefits and services survey will provide Council with answers to the
following questions:
· What are the benefits and services that members want and need, and are willing
to pay for?
· What is the membership?s current level of satisfaction with respect to
benefits and services vs. dues?
· How do members want to be educated about the benefits and services offerred?
· If the Association must scale back benefits or services in order to balance
the budget, which ones can be cut without much member backlash and exodus, and
which ones shouldn?t be touched? Which ones could be substituted for others?
Discussion of Proposal
I propose that a survey be mailed to a sufficient number of members to learn
about their wants and needs. The following outline provides details:
· The survey will be sent to 3000 members. The sample population will be
selected randomly but weighted by location (state and international).
· The survey will consist of a questionnaire (maximum of six pages) and a return
envelope. Participants will be asked to place a stamp on the return envelope to
help reduce costs.
· A pilot survey will be sent to 100 members prior to printing the final survey in order to provide assurance that the survey is understandable and that probable responses can be correctly tabulated.
· The survey will be announced in the Bulletin and Mart to increase the rate of return.
· In order to eliminate the need for consultants, all coding, tabulating and
analysis will be done by Frank Del Greco.
· Cost of the survey (covered by the M&P budget) will include: printing of questionnaires - $850; 6,000 envelopes ? provided by headquarters; mailing
labels ? provided by headquarters; printing on 3,000 envelopes - $200; postage -
$1,020 (if sent first class); external labor ? none. Total: $2,100 or less.
· The complete surveying, tabulating and reporting process will take less than
one year, with interim reports available along the way.
Motion
I move that a membership benefits and services survey be conducted by the M&P committee and that follow-up action be taken by Council based upon the survey results.
Frank Del Greco, NAWCC Director-elect
fdelgreco@aol.com