A big thank you to everyone for taking the time to complete the membership survey which was emailed out in the past couple of months! Your participation helps give us a clearer understanding of things that are being done well, things that may need some tweaking, and areas that we can focus on in the future within the chapter. This year, we received responses from just under 30% of our membership base.
In this blog post, we’ll share some survey questions and how members responded. Please know that even though this membership survey is a great way to share your thoughts with the chapter, you are more than welcome (and encouraged) to reach out with thoughts & feedback any day of the week throughout the year.
“What areas of Apra Carolinas provide value to you?”
Overwhelmingly, every single respondent answered ‘Webinars’ as an area which provides value to them. Point taken! The two response that shared second place, both with about three-quarters of respondents answering, were ‘Recorded webinars on Member Resources tab’ and ‘Newsletters.’ Along the same line, members said that the most valuable benefit was ‘Webinars’ at 64% with ‘Conferences’ in a well-earned 2nd place spot at 25%. ‘Recorded webinars’ were once again mentioned with just over 10% of the responses given.
"What is something that you wish was offered by Apra Carolinas to its member base?”
Without being able to include every open-ended response, some great feedback was provided such as:
- “More live educational opportunities via webinar. …”
- “While Apra International offers a Body of Knowledge feature, it would be incredibly beneficial if Apra Carolinas published a guide, whether through a webinar or blog post, on what a career trajectory in Prospect Research looks like for those who are interested in growing their expertise.”
- “More webinars/mentoring on data analysis, modeling, … anything data.”
A growing interest in recent years is on data analytics, on which this response touches: “More webinars/mentoring on data analysis, modeling, okay anything data.” Data analytics were mentioned several times in the post, but nothing about specific interests. We want to deliver, so we scheduled a roundtable in April to dive in and learn more!
Members may find it interesting that 39% of respondents indicated that they were members of Apra International and the same number indicated that they were not members. Additionally, close to one-fifth of respondents indicated that they were not currently Apra International members but previously were at one point in time.
We also asked members how many years they’ve worked in prospect development; an impressive 43% have been working in the field for more than ten years! Following this, 32% in the 3–5-year range and 14% in the 1–3-year range.
“How interested are you in attending virtual networking?”
Since we’ve become so accustomed to virtual networking in the last couple of years, we made sure to include several questions on the topic. Member responses showed that out of a scale of 1-5, almost 40% gave a response of 3 (mildly interested). When asked what kind of virtual networking should be offered, members overwhelmingly responded with ‘Professional topic led discussion groups’ (82%) and ‘Personal topic led discussion groups’ (46%) followed. Members indicated that if they haven’t attended a networking event yet, it’s mostly due to scheduling or timing issues.
On the topic of conferences (Fall conference planning underway!), we asked members if they currently prefer an in-person or virtual setting. Votes were very close with just over half of respondents indicating a current preference for virtual conferences. When asked if they’d be willing to attend if a conference was offered in-person, 61% said yes. Location and schedule conflict were the two greatest obstacles for conference attendance with each vote contributing 33% of the total.
This year, just over two-thirds of members indicate that they have a budget for travel and professional development in place. Although this question was not directly asked in 2020, we did receive some responses that cost was a prohibitive factor when considering conference attendance. Thankfully, Apra Carolinas offers a Professional Development Scholarship (congratulations to our 2022 winners - Kelly Kemp & Gillian Hayden!) which may provide financial assistance to those restricted due to budget. Scholarship applications will reopen on January 1st, 2023, on the Apra Carolinas website for any member interested.
“What topics would you like to see in upcoming programming?”
We received numerous help and constructive thoughts in response to this question. These suggestions are taken very seriously and discussed by the board thoroughly in various stages of planning our programming. There are too many to share in this one blog post, so we created a word cloud visualization so that it can be viewed in a fun and different way, highlighting the more frequently mentioned (larger text) subjects.
Upon wrapping up the membership survey, we wanted to know what else you, the member, wanted to share with us. Those suggestions and comments were shared with the board. We appreciate every single piece of feedback - the gracious compliments, encouraging messages, and everything in between. As mentioned previously, this survey is a good way to assess and improve Apra Carolinas, but our ears are open year-round for any feedback, big or small. The Apra Carolinas board appreciates your participation, and we can’t wait to see you all at the next webinar, networking event, or conference!
Finally, please join us in congratulating member Michele Tanzosch of Grinnell College for winning the $50.00 Amazon gift card raffle!
