As you know a members’ survey went out to all members with emails on 25 February 2016. The survey was open until 20 March and we promised that we would let you know the results.
First of all, we’d like to thank all of you who participated. We had a brilliant response – 2,481 members completed the questions!
Here are some headlines…
- Nearly 50% have been members for 20 years or more while 35% have been members for less than 10 years
- 65% of members are over 65 years of age
- 30 % of members have moved around and belonged to 2 or more groups but 70 % have stayed with the group that they originally joined
- 91% of groups hold their main meeting in the evenings but from your comments we learn that with retirement many groups are holding daytime meetings/events too
- 40% of members have been Local Organiser once or twice and 40% have never been LO, 11% have been LO four or more times
- Members value friendship then intellectual stimulation
- Members want more Area events, national themes and newsletters
- 2/3 of members had attended an area event
- 95% of members read the magazine either partially or completely
- 30% had visited the website in the last month, but 18% had never visited it
- NWR values are seen as friendly, welcoming, interested in all issues and open-minded (and from comments NWR is supportive/caring and fun)
We had a wealth of comments about NWR – some of them conflicting but then, we are lively-minded women! Examples of conflicting comments were:
- Pleas for publicity to older women and also for younger women
- More regional/area events and also less central organisation
- More email and digital communications to save money, and also less
All comments will be taken on board as we plan for the future.
Two comments from members illustrate how our communications don’t always get through to everyone:
Comment A
- Ideas for meetings
- Suggestions for meeting topics
- Circulate more ideas for meetings based on other groups experiences
- Maybe a dedicated section of the website where groups can say what meetings that had that went well
- Useful topics to discuss
We do this already!:
- You can get a plethora of ideas for meetings with our Tips and ideas for programme planning
- Join the NWR Programme Planning Facebook group
- You can also see what meetings and events are happening right on our homepage
- You can discuss topics on the website forum or the social media network
Comment B
- Online groups for the housebound or physically limited people who can’t easily get out
We do do this too!:
- Chat away and start discussions with fellow members on the website forum or the social media network
- Choose from several Facebook groups to join! Simply ‘Like’ the NWR Facebook page and then Search for our groups by the following names:
- NWR Discussion Forum
- NWR Culture Vultures
- NWR Bookworms
- NWR Travel Bugs
- NWR Naturewatch
- NWR Genealogy Research
- NWR Programme Planning
- NWR Techie Help
- NWR History Buffs
- NWR Creative Writing Group
- NWR Health Advice Forum
- NWR Helpful Members
- NWR Points and Shoots
- NWR Chat
- NWR Brighton Conference 2016
- NWR How Was Your Day?
These are closed groups to give you privacy, so you will have to be approved. As long as you are a current paid-up member you will be allowed access to the group.
We hope you visit the website more often and use all the resources that are there at your fingertips.
Thank you once more for participating in the survey. We will have more in the future which we will spread across the year and we encourage you to participate in them so that we can get a better picture of what our members like/dislike and wish to see and have.