Attached below is a copy of the survey conducted by the Hon Treasurer and Membership Secretary. The following are some pointers for its interpretation.
- The return rate was 44%. This is considered to be good bearing in mind a predominantly “mature” membership who are likely to be less amenable to on-line interaction than younger people.
- The numbers of responses to each questions varies. These are shown immediately under the question.
- “Either/or” questions are identified by a bottom line total that matches the number answering. See for instance Q8. Multiple choice questions, such as Q7, generally show a greater number of responses than the number of respondents. Note that the scale of multiple choice responses does not go up to 100%.
- Multiple choice answers, such as Q9, are also shown proportionately rather than numerically. Sometimes the presentation (which is an automatic function of the survey engine) is counterintuitive with (in the case of Q9) “Very likely” being at the top of the column rather than the bottom.
- In some of the multiple choice questions – see for instance Q11 –opposing questions have been set. These gauge whether the alternatives are important or not. But then with others, in order not to make the questions too long, some fairly far-reaching inferences have to be drawn. For instance:
- “I would prefer an annual 3-day conference to a triennial 5-day conference (11)”
- “I would be equally as likely to attend if a triennial 5-day conference was held in mainland Europe (7)”.
- Some questions are what is described as open-ended, where contributors are invited to express views. Of particular note here is Q4, which prompted a high response.
The Treasurer has drawn some inferences from the survey, which are also attached.
