Online Survey of the members of TV 1880 Käfertal

Summary

The project consisted of designing, conducting and evaluating a member survey for TV 1880 Käfertal. The survey covered the topics of satisfaction, communication wishes, and a special survey for special target groups, whereby in particular the volunteer exercise instructors in the club were surveyed separately. In addition, a member overview was drawn up according to socio-demographic aspects on the basis of club data.

The Challenge

AtAt the start of the project, TV Käfertal was at the beginning of an extensive evaluation of the club’s structures. On the one hand, the club’s management wanted to get a picture of member satisfaction with regard to the sporting aspects of the club. On the other hand, the goal of the evaluation was to obtain feedback on the club’s own communication and its effectiveness. It was particularly important to distinguish between the needs of regular members and those of volunteers in the club. For this reason, the association’s board planned to conduct a comprehensive member survey at the beginning of 2019.

The Data

In order to obtain as comprehensive an opinion as possible, a digital survey of members was conducted. This survey required the development of an online survey to which members could provide meaningful responses to various questions. Additionally, the design of the survey required that members and engagers in all their capacities were properly directed to the questions designed for them.

After over 150 members of TV Käfertal participated in the survey, the CorrelAid team set out to analyze, visualize, and describe the results in the context of the survey.

The (anonymized) data of members from the club’s card index helped both to draw a clear picture of the socio-demographic structure of the members and to learn more about the representativeness of the sample drawn.

The Solution

In collaboration with the Board of Directors, the guiding themes and questions for the membership survey were defined in late 2018. Through social science expertise on the CorrelAid team, an online survey tool was selected and a meaningful set of questions, including response options, was designed. Extensive testing ensured that members were directed to the questions that were important to their role in the association. Due to the age structure within the association, particular attention was paid to making the questionnaire easy to understand and simple to use.

After a successful field phase of the questionnaire, the team was concerned with illustrating the survey data in an understandable way. Statistical analyses were used to summarize and visualize the data. In early summer 2019, the results could be handed over to the association in a nearly 30-page report.

The Impact

The results of the survey have sustainably helped the association and especially the board to put their decision and the association structures to the test. For example, the survey made it clear that the association’s magazine, the “Turnerbote,” is seen as an essential part of the association and should be retained. On the other hand, however, it unfortunately also became clear that in the long term it would not be possible for the association to recruit enough exercise instructors from within their club. The board of directors decided to look for trainers outside the club and to spend less energy on recruiting within the club. This allowed the association to adjust its strategies for further development. Furthermore, the board emphasized that they would like to conduct a regular evaluation of the association’s structures as well as other special topics in the future. For example, in the coming years, the conversion of the former military sites in Mannheim will create a new urban district in the immediate vicinity of the association. This presents the association with completely new challenges, which the association would like to proactively shape and thus would like to strive for further projects with CorrelAid in the future. The successfully completed project with CorrelAid enabled the association to make data-based decisions, which will lead the association sustainably into a successful future.