MEMBERSHIP SURVEY REPORT
Written by Inda Omerefendic
Recently, ASOR sent out a short, four question survey to all our members regarding ASOR membership. 302 of you completed the survey, providing insightful feedback about your interactions with ASOR and how we can improve your member experience.
The questions posed were:
1. Why are you an ASOR member?
2. What benefit(s) would you like to receive with your membership? (The options included benefits that were both currently available and not yet provided.)
3. Do you find the membership renewal process simple?
-If you answered No to the question above, why?
4. Would you be willing to participate in a longer survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card?
Why are you an ASOR member?
Rather than summing up all the unique and insightful reasons, I’ll provide you with a few quotes that stood out:
[I] am a member of ASOR for two basic reasons. First, it is an intellectually vibrant academic society serving and uniting my fields of interest. Second, it provides a very welcoming place where several generations of scholars can meet and socialize.
I am studying archaeology and being an ASOR member is a good way to meet other archaeologists and learn about news and popular topics.
As a professional archaeologist it is THE organization to belong to for the best, most accurate information on excavations in the Middle East. It is not a political organization so the facts are objective (for the most part), and thought stimulating.
I intended to be an archaeologist from the time I was a child, and succeeded to get as far as a BA in Anthropology concentrating on archaeology, but life took several turns in other directions. I still keep up, though, with this membership and others. I would like to think that my membership helps.
Because I believe strongly in the importance of what ASOR does. It is a professional group that I enjoy being part of.
While not everyone expressed sentiments similar to the ones above, I hope that as we work to improve the membership experience and as ASOR continues to grow, more individuals will feel that their ASOR membership is part of something greater than a professional necessity or a requirement for participating in the Annual Meeting. Thanks for all the thoughtful responses!
What benefit(s) would you like to receive with your membership?
For this question, we provided a list of benefits that are either currently available or not yet offered. There was also the option to write in a response. The list was as follows: receive some or all of ASOR’s journals, receive discounts on ASOR books and site reports, receive a discounted rate to the Annual Meeting, know that I support ASOR’s work through my membership dues, receive various ASOR e-newsletters, serve on ASOR committees, attend ASOR events in addition to the Annual Meeting, interact with fellow ASOR members in an online community forum, gain opportunities to share my research and professional work, receive discounts to related organizations, institutions, and museums, receive access to exclusive webinars on topics related to career and professional development, and other.
The results can be viewed on the graph below that was automatically created within our email service provider (Informz):
The bottom lines are difficult to read but they are the benefits listed in the order listed in the first paragraph of this section. “Receive some or all of ASOR’s journals” was the most selected benefit with 86% of respondents stating that it is a benefit they want to receive with their membership. In second place with 77% was “receive a discounted rate to the Annual Meeting.” Under “Other” some wrote that their ASOR membership helps them gain access to funding opportunities and that they feel pride in participating in ASOR-affiliated projects.
Do you find the membership renewal process simple?
95% of the individuals who responded to this survey question answered, “Yes.” Of the 5% that answered “No,” follow-up comments provided feedback for the ASOR staff who process memberships and provided insights regarding ASOR more generally and our members’ experiences.
Comments we received noted that it would be better if the confirmation email included the journals selected with one’s membership, since print professional/student/retired memberships have a choice of 2 out of 3 journals. If nothing is selected at the time of the purchase, NEA and BASOR become the default selections, but a note in the confirmation email would definitely be helpful. We hope to come to a solution by working with our database provider that creates the email templates. But if you are ever unsure about your purchase, regarding your selected journals or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Something else that was expressed was that the separate process for Annual Meeting registration and membership purchase is annoying. This happens when a new member is registering for the meeting when one’s membership has lapsed. Unfortunately, the registration system will only show meeting registration options if there is a current membership on your account, and, sadly, it does not register the membership in your shopping cart. This will be another topic that will be discussed with our database provider.
Another common response was that our online shopping environment can be (and should be) improved and streamlined. We hope to improve this in the near future. On the topic of online shopping, one person said that a useful feature would be a 1-click purchase button that would purchase the same membership you had previously.
One final comment was the concern that our membership expiration dates coincide with four quarterly dates, rather than a full year from the purchase date. This is something we have in place because of our journal publication schedule and for internal processes. But this will be discussed with our Membership and Outreach Committee as a result of the concerns raised in this survey.
Would you be willing to participate in a longer survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card?
78% of people answered “Yes” to this question, and the survey has already gone out and been completed. Check out Facebook and Twitter for the winner of the $100 Amazon gift card!
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We had a wonderful turn-out for this first membership survey, and we hope to make them more frequent to keep the channels of communication open between our members and those that work on providing them with membership benefits. The winner of the $50 Amazon gift card from this survey was Joan Branham, and you can find the announcement of her win on our Facebook and Twitter!
Membership Survey Report written by:
Inda Omerefendic
Publications and Fulfillment Manager
asorpubs@bu.edu
(617) 358-4376
