January/February 2005 | Home

Membership Survey Results

by Becky Rude
EBSTC President

Larry Gottlieb, winner of $25 Borders certificate

The second annual member survey results are in! In October 2004, the EBSTC council conducted a Web-based survey of its members. Essentially, we wanted hard data with which to make decisions affecting the chapter. Among other issues, we wanted to learn about preferences for program topics and dinner meeting costs, demographics, what keeps members away from meetings, and what motivates members to become involved in the chapter.

The survey was designed using the free services of Zoomerang. We received positive feedback that people enjoyed taking the survey because it was easy and fast. An invitation to complete the survey was sent to all emailable members.

Everyone’s a Winner

Coincidentally, the response rate was identical to that of last year—27%.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. You helped shape our chapter for the coming year.

The lucky winner of our drawing is Larry Gottlieb, whose prize is a $25 gift certificate to Borders.

What the Survey Tells Us

Following is a summary of the main points of the survey results. View the complete 2004 survey results (HTML). View the 2003 survey results.

What’s important to you?

Your answers indicate that we must continue to hold regular chapter meetings, get our local jobs database up and running, and continue to produce a quality newsletter.

Chapter meetings and STC publications tied for the number one STC benefit you value most (18%).
Local jobs database (12%) and STC jobs database (11%) are the number two and three STC benefits you value.
Chapter newsletter (10%) is the fourth most valued benefit.

Top three reasons you belong to STC

The top three reasons you belong to STC highlight the need to have informative programs and to continue to hold regular chapter meetings.

To stay current in the field (26%)
Networking opportunities for jobs (14%)
To meet others in the field (14%)

Why don’t members attend meetings?

Contrary to chapter discussions in recent years, no one (0%) responded that cost is a reason for not attending meetings.

Not enough personal time (24%)
Not interested in programs (21%)

What program topics do you want?

Because program topics are a main reason you attend or don't attend meetings, we must continue to provide high quality speakers.

This year there were no prominent winners in the ranked program topics. Two topics (listed below) stood out slightly from the list of ranked topics. Many of the specialized writing topics were similarly ranked so Melody Brumis, V.P. of Programs, came up with a creative way to provide several speakers at the January meeting by having rotating round table discussions. We have scheduled the top three topics and will plan many other interesting topics.

Trends in technical communication – scheduled for February
Project management – held in December
Alternative careers for tech communicators – scheduled for January

What We’re Doing Right

The survey showed that we’re doing many things right. Here are some examples:

20% of the respondents said they attend 9 to 11 meetings a year, 25% attend 3 to 5 meetings a year.
38% said their favorite meeting format is lectures, which is generally our meeting format.
Most respondents like the meeting length and time or voted within the immediate range of our current schedule.
38% said they don’t volunteer with the chapter due to time constraints, and 22% they are not interested in volunteering no matter what. This data suggests that we're probably doing the best we can recruiting volunteers.
Although members live and work all over the East Bay, 54% prefer that we hold chapter meetings in the Danville/Dublin/San Ramon area. This means we’re holding meetings in the correct location!

Who Are the EBSTC Members?

Here’s a quick snapshot of the members who completed the survey:

70% are employed full time (last year it was 51%).
8% are unemployed (last year it was 18%); only 7% of those members have been unemployed for 4–6 months (last year it was 44%).
40% hold a bachelor’s degree; 28% hold a master’s degree.
55% have worked in the technical communication field for 11 or more years.
71% are female.
53% are over the age of 50.

Again, thank you to everyone who completed the survey.

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