What Do Members Want?

As part of the Administrative Council's ongoing effort to schedule community activities that are relevant, constructive, and engaging, PR Lead Marce Epstein conducted an online survey of SWO members in June. The 13-question survey probed member preferences for meetings (speakers, locations, and timing) and annual SWO-sponsored techcomm competitions, and looked at member motivation. Here's a discussion of the results.

Meeting Attendance

Why do SWO members attend monthly meetings? Respondents gave these reasons:

• Professional development and networking (tied for first place at 39% each)
• Moral support from others in the field (20%)

Amazingly, 2% of the members who responded indicated they hadn't attended yet because the meetings weren't on their personal radar; they simply didn't know SWO had monthly meetings. (Do we need to increase community visibility, even among members?)

Why don't members attend monthly meetings? Respondents cited three main reasons:

• The topics don't interest me (33%).
• They occur on the wrong day of the week for me (17%).
• The location is inconvenient (13%).

Meeting Topics

There's considerable divergence of opinion about preferred meeting topics. But a survey is all about the numbers, so here they are. Five percent (or more) of members responding to the survey selected the following subjects as meeting topics they "are most interested in." (Topics are listed in descending order, by popularity.)

1. What Technical Communicators Need to Know to Succeed in the Real World
2. Cool Tools for Tech Writers for $100 or Less
3. A three-way tie for third place:
   - Myths and Trends in the Changing English Language
   - Writing for the Web
   - Designing Usable and Accessible Web Sites
4. E-Learning
5. A two-way tie for fifth place:
   - How to Write an Effective White Paper
   - Understanding Web 2.0 and its Impact on TechComm

Articulating what seemed to be the general desire for more specific, career-enhancing topics, one member gave this opinion:

I'd prefer to see some tools-based meetings where an expert gives in-depth advice and examples on using specific tools. The chapter has not provided many of these types of meetings over the past few years.

Meeting Location and Time

Northern Cincinnati was the preferred meeting location, getting the nod almost twice as often (54%) as South Dayton (29%), and almost six times as often as Middletown (8%).

The preferred meeting day of the week was Wednesday, getting twice as many votes (52%) as runner up Thursday (26%). Nobody voted for the weekend (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday). The preferred meeting time was evenly split (43% for each) between 6 and 6:30 p.m.

Annual TechComm Competition

For a number of years, SWO sponsored a technical communication competition that was open to members and non-members alike. For a specified entry fee, technical communicators submitted copies of their print publications, online systems, or technical artwork for competitive evaluation and judging. When asked "Would you be likely to submit at least one entry to an SWO-sponsored competition?" 22% would enter, 52% would not, and 26% weren't sure.

There was more agreement about willingness (or the lack thereof) to help judge a competition. Two-thirds of those taking the poll skipped the question, and another 1/6 said "No." That said, the remaining 1/6 left e-mail and phone contact information to indicate their willingness to serve.

Motivation

When asked "Is there anything we can do that would increase your interest in attending meetings?" more than half the respondents skipped the question. You can read these suggestions from those who did respond.

In response to the survey's request for suggestions about helping SWO do a better job of meeting the members' professional needs, 2/3 of survey respondents  chose not to respond. You can check out some of the comments from those who did offer suggestions.