The right track: responses to our member survey

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Thankyou

During May the Museums Australia (Tasmania) Committee circulated a ten question survey monkey to our members. We emailed members and put a link on our Facebook Page . The committee wanted your feedback to help us plan our activities and will use the results and comments into the future. Thirty five museum workers and fans stepped up to the plate and let us know what they thought. We are grateful. 

Something to note was the ease of using SurveyMonkey and for a limit of ten questions and basic analysis the service was free. It could be a useful tool for your museum in planning exhibitions and programs.

Snapshot

Time period: Between 3 May until 9 June 2017 with the bulk of responses in May

No. of respondents: 35

Best avenue for collection: Via direct email with a Web Link rather than the link from our Facebook page

Question 1: Few non members responded ( 5/35) with a fair majority being institutional members.

Respondent locations by postcode:

Most respondents came from around Launceston.

7250 (16) [Launceston];  7000 (3) [Hobart]; 7320 (2); [Burnie]; 7019 (2) [Rokeby]; 7248 (1); 7216 (1);  7268 (1);  7011 (1);  7052 (1);  7050 (1); 7018 (1);  7315 (1); 7015 (1)

Question 2:  Most respondents were paid museum workers in a museum with its own collection and a mixture of paid and unpaid workers. The museum received ongoing funds as well as fundraising. The museum displayed its own collection. Very few borrowed works from anywhere else.

Question 3: In terms of member benefits the currency of the online information was important and something the committee manages. Organisational members favoured the workshop subsidy.

Question 4: Price sensitivity arose again in terms of barriers to membership. Workers are time poor so reasons for membership have to be compelling. The indication that MAT promotion of our work is either insufficient or poorly targetted promotion a heads up for us (also indicated in Q8).

Question 5: Workshops were generally well received.

Question 6: School holidays universally dismissed as a time for PD. Half days on a weekday before noon (although afternoon also acceptable). Online workshops to be scoped.

Question 7: Workers are willing to travel up to an hour and twenty minutes. This is greater than the distance between Hobart and Launceston so unless the topic or content is completely on target and/or unique we should plan for region specific PD.

Question 8: Workplace communication the most effective followed by our FB page and the Arts Tasmania email. We should encourage organisational members to circulate information about MAT activities to their staff and volunteers. To note that many of our activities are held in collaboration and with the support of Arts Tasmania. 

Question 9: There was enthusiasm for online PD and respondents also like the idea of exclusive site visits followed by strategies to improve visitor experience, attracting school visitors (but little traction on families noted...) and using mobile devices. The option of collaborating with agencies that already have online workshop capability (such as the university) to be explored in future for webinars and streamed talks. 

For the full report download it here at this link

Congratulations

Linda Farrington from QVMAG emerged out of the hat as the successful recipient of 'kanalaritja: an unbroken string'. Linda gave us permission to let you know as the survey was anonymous declaring herself to be a lucky duck.  We are all lucky ducks to be in the industry we love. Until next time for assessing how MAT is going.