2015 Membership Survey: Behind the Scenes
Author: Maibella Rhoiden
The start of a new year is always a good time to look back on the previous year, and what better way to do that than to take a closer look at our 2015 Membership Survey? I asked our new Survey Project Manager, Cahalan Sothron, to share a bit about her experiences in her new position of Survey Project Manager and give us a behind the scenes look at the Membership Survey.
When I decided to take the plunge and become a member of the TarValon.Net community, I had no plans for taking charge of anything. Over the years, I've had my fill of running or moderating the different sites I've been a part of. I really prefer just to kick back and relax. But I also have this unfortunate streak of responsibility within me that doesn't always let me do that. And when something comes along that I feel I can contribute positively to, I feel obligated to put myself forward for it.
I was only a Citizen here when the Survey Project Manager position came open, and was in the process of trying to become a Novice. Even without knowing whether my Novice application would be approved, I took a chance and reached out to Calypsa Sedai about the position. I had spent a little over two years as my department’s survey guru - sifting through numbers and responses and issues for nearly 1000 customers each month. I knew I had the work experience to offer, but not the site experience. Thankfully, it was enough to convince Calypsa Sedai that I could pull this off. And also thankfully, I had a team to help me out.
That team – Zasha Sedai, Yelenia Sedai, Morrighan Sedai, Izabella Serra, Alena Sedai, and Pol Gaidin - had the misfortune of having a newb running the project. There were a lot of things I didn't know about how the site worked, how different groups interacted, or what life was like during the integration debates, but they were always willing to answer my questions, or let me know that perhaps the way something was worded would offend some, or that maybe what I thought might be important wasn't an issue at all.
I still had plenty of missteps along the way. It was hard for me to get used to leading a team instead of doing everything myself like I do in my real life job. Sometimes my communication style comes across as either overly blunt or overly accommodating, or sometimes virtually nonexistent. It was, in all, a good learning experience for me, though I apologize for any bruises I left along the way.
When it came time to pull the results of our survey together, I wanted to live by the most important rule I've learned in my job: everyone's time is important. When tasked with any request at work, we're expected to be concise, paint a picture with the information, and anticipate any questions that might arise. The best way I saw to do that with the Membership Survey was to create a similar format to what I would use at work. That was challenging because it was a lot of information to try and shrink down into something that you could quickly glance at and get what you needed from it.
The information itself was pretty interesting, at least to me. I was impressed at the sheer number of long-time members who not only remain at the site but who also care enough to provide feedback. Also, the overall percentage of responses was pretty much on target, as it's typical to get between a 30-40% response rate to any survey. As for the results, here are some quick thoughts I had on them:
- I was glad to see the notion of a summer camp got some positive hits. It's always important to branch out and try new things as a site, regardless of whether or not they end up being successful. Stagnation leads to a slow loss of members.
- For currency donations, many non-US members of the site indicated that they were willing to donate in whatever currency was easiest for the site to accept. I thought that was pretty awesome.
- It was good to see that there were more positive changes in opinion than negative toward integration, particularly among the Senior Members. That does not appear to line up with the self-reported decrease in Ajah/Company activity, however. Most members did indicate, though, that having guests of the opposite gender in their respective guest rooms made little difference as Aes Sedai/Gaidin were always welcomed there if bonded to a member of that group.
- Junior Members generally liked having two mentors from different Senior Memebership paths, which indicates that the revamped program is working as intended.
- The notion of symbols of rank for male Aes Sedai and female Gaidin was quite the hot topic. Some felt it should be up to the members of those groups or to each individual to decide; others felt that giving them something other than a traditional symbol completely missed the point of integration altogether.
The final thing that made an impression on me was not a particular statistic but rather the willingness of the site members to speak their minds, often quite bluntly. That speaks to me of the passion we have for this site and what it means to us. It's important from a "voice of the people" standpoint that people continue to care enough that they will say what they feel and think and put their faith that they won't be stymied for their opinion.
Overall, the Membership Survey was a great learning experience for me, as I was able to get a glimpse into one of the more recent hot topics of the site as well as see a wider view of the site than you get as a fairly new Junior Member. I also hope that it gave the site an opportunity to see the direction in which the Survey Team is headed. If you have any questions or comments about this year’s survey, or if you are interested in learning more about this type of data presentation, please feel free to reach out to me at survey@tarvalon.net. I truly appreciate your participation and feedback, and we hope to hear from you again in next year’s survey!
