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By Anjela Dukes, Vice President, STC Carolina
Monthly membership meetings allow members to network with area professionals and to learn about current issues, tools, and topics. Although the Carolina chapter has nearly 350 members, the average attendance rate for monthly meetings since January of 2002 is only 25 persons.
In October of 2003, in an attempt to understand what motivates members to attend our monthly meetings, the administrative council invited chapter members to complete an online survey. Forty-four members, approximately 13% of our chapter, completed the survey.
The first question on the survey asked, "What influences your decision to or not to attend a monthly membership meeting?" 88.6% of the respondents said that meeting topic was the primary influence. Meeting location came in second with 56.8% of the vote. We also found that the current time slot and RTP locations are optimal for most members.
Traditionally, membership meetings have been held at a local business and have been free to all. We wanted to find out if perhaps changing our venue and format would draw a larger crowd. We asked members if they would attend meetings in a hotel or restaurant and if a nice dinner was provided, would they be willing to pay. Although 50% of the participants have no opinion about moving the meetings out of office complexes, approximately 80% said that they would pay to have a catered dinner as part of the meeting format. Most of that 80% would pay up to $15.00.
Considering these results, we held the February monthly meeting at a restaurant in Research Triangle Park. Approximately 28 people attended. That is slightly higher than the average attendance rate. The administrative council is planning to hold more meetings in alternate locations to find out whether this will boost attendance before they decide to permanently change the venue.
Please contact us with your thoughts about how to boost attendance and about where we should hold our monthly meetings.
Monthly membership meetings allow members to network with area professionals and to learn about current issues, tools, and topics. Although the Carolina chapter has nearly 350 members, the average attendance rate for monthly meetings since January of 2002 is only 25 persons.
In October of 2003, in an attempt to understand what motivates members to attend our monthly meetings, the administrative council invited chapter members to complete an online survey. Forty-four members, approximately 13% of our chapter, completed the survey.
The first question on the survey asked, "What influences your decision to or not to attend a monthly membership meeting?" 88.6% of the respondents said that meeting topic was the primary influence. Meeting location came in second with 56.8% of the vote. We also found that the current time slot and RTP locations are optimal for most members.
Traditionally, membership meetings have been held at a local business and have been free to all. We wanted to find out if perhaps changing our venue and format would draw a larger crowd. We asked members if they would attend meetings in a hotel or restaurant and if a nice dinner was provided, would they be willing to pay. Although 50% of the participants have no opinion about moving the meetings out of office complexes, approximately 80% said that they would pay to have a catered dinner as part of the meeting format. Most of that 80% would pay up to $15.00.
Considering these results, we held the February monthly meeting at a restaurant in Research Triangle Park. Approximately 28 people attended. That is slightly higher than the average attendance rate. The administrative council is planning to hold more meetings in alternate locations to find out whether this will boost attendance before they decide to permanently change the venue.
Please contact us with your thoughts about how to boost attendance and about where we should hold our monthly meetings.
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