Membership feedback

Membership questionnaire – key insights

I am currently going through the results of the questionnaire members have kindly been completing over the past weeks. We’ve had a very good response and the challenge now is to take these findings and use them to create a more memorable and engaging membership experience. Our goal is to make membership the single ‘must-do’ action for those working in or studying the subject and ensure we remain the organisation of preference for the duration of your professional life. It’s not an easy challenge, but one we are determined to work towards.

I have chosen three questions to highlight that I believe are significant for us working within the Society and for you too, as members.

HOW DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT THE SOCIETY?

Overwhelmingly, the answer here was from a tutor, teacher, colleague or friend. In other words we were recommended, face-to-face. The importance of a personal recommendation to organisations like ours cannot be overstated. We rely on our existing members to spread the word to non-members. This implies, of course, that members feel positively enough towards us to do it! Fortunately, many of you do and we thank you for this.

With a new academic year underway, now is the ideal time to have those conversations with students, friends and colleagues, to spread the word and encourage others to join. To help in this, we have prepared a simple-to-use toolkit to convey the benefits of membership to a wide range of potential members. Components include a short 10-page presentation about the Society; and three posters that can be displayed on a departmental notice board. These can be downloaded from our website or sent on request.

IF WE COULD ENHANCE THREE ASPECTS OF SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

The three most popular responses were:

1. Improve local opportunities to socialise and network.
2. Support opportunities to improve your professional development.
3. Improve career enhancement tools and services.

Local opportunities to socialise and network were referenced strongly across all membership categories. These were equally identified by members who were established in their careers, as it was by those who were still studying. But we need to explore this further – what do we mean by ‘networking’, and what is ‘local’? Is networking to a postgraduate student the same as it is to someone who is established in their career? And if it’s different, what makes it different? Is ‘local’ the area you work in? Or is it the town nearby? Or even the country a short distance away? Again, we need to understand more about members’ perceptions of these concepts. Also, are members asking for something that we don’t currently do, or is it that it is happening, but they are simply not aware of it? There is a lot to consider here and we will be exploring this further in the weeks to come.

CHOOSE THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT SOCIETY BENEFITS TO YOU

As you might expect, career stage and personal circumstances drive the response to this question. But interestingly, when looked at across the Society, the two most important benefits were not tangible ‘things’; they were intangibles. ‘Building knowledge and understanding’ and ‘building my network’ were perceived as the two most important benefits of Society membership. Much of our work in future will revolve around improving our understanding of members’ expectations in these areas and looking at how we can better meet them.

The areas above (and others too) were discussed in more detail at a series of membership workshops held across the UK in the autumn. Workshops were held in Glasgow, Manchester, Norwich and London and participants engaged in some lively debate to help bring clarity to many of the issues raised. Input from the workshops and the questionnaire has given us a better insight into what’s important to members and prospective members.

If you weren’t able to complete the questionnaire or take part in the workshops, but wanted to join the membership conversation, there is still time. Simply email me your thoughts and comments and I will ensure they are fed into the wider discussion. A summary is also available of the questionnaire – do contact me if you would like a copy.

PAUL EASTON

Head of Membership Services
[email protected]