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The original purpose of the Angair Communications Survey (undertaken in December 2020) was to gauge membership support for possible changes to the monthly newsletter.

The proposed survey, however, also offered an opportunity to ask members about changes Angair adopted in 2020 to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions and about other aspects of its communications. These included the Angair website, the annual Wildflower and Art Weekend, the Nature Show website and the Facebook page.

The survey web link was sent to approximately 800 members in the December newsletter, with hardcopy versions sent to those members who receive their newsletter by mail. A two-week period ending on December 10 was allowed for responses. Overall 145 responses were received.

Angair received much useful feedback on all the matters canvassed, but this article will focus on the proposed changes to the monthly newsletter. The other issues will be considered by Angair over the course of 2021.

The following chart shows how long the responders have been a member of Angair.

survey1

Just on half have been members of Angair for more than 10 years and the largest group of responses came from the 1 to 4-year group.

Regardless of how long their period of membership, responders found the current monthly newsletter very interesting. 

survey2(5 = most interesting)

Members indicated that they mostly read all sections of the newsletter each month.

Members were asked to rate possible changes to the newsletter which could include:

  1. Producing an ‘Angair MONTHLY UPDATE’ (2-3 pages) which would include items of immediate relevance: a calendar page, highlights of flora/fauna sightings, alerts to special events, and links to longer reports.
  2. In addition to a Monthly Update, producing a new ‘Angair QUARTERLY’ publication (approx. 10-12 pages) containing informative, topical articles. These might include more in-depth reports, botanical notes, environmental issues, research articles, etc.

Given that the newsletter is well-liked by the members who responded, it is probably not surprising that the possibility of change elicited a more disparate response, compared to the previous two questions. The graph shows the level of agreement with the proposed changes. Overall, there is positive support for the proposal. There was no significant difference in opinion among the various membership cohorts.

survey3(5= most favourable rating)

Many comments and helpful suggestions were received. Members clearly value the type and immediacy of the information in the current newsletter and want these features carried across to any new format (s). More linkage to the Angair websites was also recommended.

The management and communications committees have met and are working on possible new formats for both monthly and quarterly newsletters. They are also looking at adopting appropriate technology to facilitate the process and provide high quality and timely information to our members.

Members can request the complete survey report from admin@angair.org.au .

Thank you to Olivia Clarke for her valuable analysis of the survey responses. Olivia and Bill Clarke will be guest presenters at the Annual General Meeting on Friday February 26. Their topic is Angair’s Digital Asset Management project (DAM) and the 2020 virtual Nature Show.