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Results - Dec '11 Member Survey-Rally & Events

Sue

Friend of the Marque
Forum Friends ...

Here is the link to the survey that we sent to 2000 randomly-selected members in the end of December. 2011. We were amazed and delighted with the member-response: Nearly half of those contacted accessed the questionnaire, and 751 completed it. If you were one of those members, we thank you. Your input is invaluable as we look to the future of the BMW MOA national rallies.

Some members emailed us back and asked if they should complete it if they have never attended a rally. As you can see, we definitely wanted their feedback as well.

How did we generate the list of members? We used a computer program to generate the random-list of 2000 from the members whose email addresses we had. If I recall correctly, that was around 27,000.

One of the key things we pulled from this survey was that the last three weeks in July continue to be the preference, although the end of June is certainly popular as well. The 4th of July week is definitely out.

Not included in this survey was the feedback from the Key Committee Chairs, who overwhelmingly still prefer the last two weeks of July. While this is an important factor to keep in mind when scheduling rally dates, the members who took the time to fill this out showed us that the end of June should be a consideration as well.

RALLY and EVENTS Survey - Membership
 
One of the key things we pulled from this survey was that the last three weeks in July continue to be the preference, although the end of June is certainly popular as well. The 4th of July week is definitely out.

unless i am reading it incorrectly it seems the members that responded prefer the rally to be held mid-June through end of June, followed by mid-July through end of July, after July 4th through mid-July and finally July 4th week or weekend.
 
unless i am reading it incorrectly it seems the members that responded prefer the rally to be held mid-June through end of June, followed by mid-July through end of July, after July 4th through mid-July and finally July 4th week or weekend.

July wins if you combine the time periods to match the single June time period.

The main thing I got from the survey is the most important factor is the distance the rally is from the member questioned. With the way members are spread out, I think we're fortunate to have the number attending that we have.
 
This presentation needs to be tweaked some...for example, on slide 7 about the rally dates, what do the numbers mean within each block? They don't sum to anything that makes sense. And how come the left axis values don't really match anything? All the charts are that way. In some cases, the legend at the bottom doesn't provide any information as to the choices...it's just a number 1 thru 5, etc.

Makes me wonder if the proper comparisons are being shown? Hmmm...
 
The more interesting statistic to me is why of the 2,000 members who were sent the e-mail survey in December (which is definitely not hot) less than half even accessed it and only 751 replied. If 1249 members out of 2,000 would not even take the time to reply to a survey that so many at that time seemed to have wanted, then what would make anyone think that any more than 15% to 20% of them would attend the national rally no matter what time of the year or where it is held?
 
This presentation needs to be tweaked some...for example, on slide 7 about the rally dates, what do the numbers mean within each block? They don't sum to anything that makes sense. And how come the left axis values don't really match anything? All the charts are that way. In some cases, the legend at the bottom doesn't provide any information as to the choices...it's just a number 1 thru 5, etc.

Makes me wonder if the proper comparisons are being shown? Hmmm...

This pdf is the power point presentation that the software offers as the report. We have all of the numbers, but I did not have the time nor the energy to try to figure out a practical way to display them. So I just chose this report, and saved it as a pdf. Here is another view, which was not incorporated into the power point.
(You guys are killin' me!)

I hope this picture helps ...
 

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The more interesting statistic to me is why of the 2,000 members who were sent the e-mail survey in December (which is definitely not hot) less than half even accessed it and only 751 replied. If 1249 members out of 2,000 would not even take the time to reply to a survey that so many at that time seemed to have wanted, then what would make anyone think that any more than 15% to 20% of them would attend the national rally no matter what time of the year or where it is held?

Gator ...
We sent it when we were working on the Rally Review committee. Would you rather have had us wait until mid-summer to get this information, and lose 6 months?
:banghead
 
Sue -

Thanks...the alternate picture will really mess people up!! I just didn't understand why some were in % of respondents (that makes sense) and others were in some kind of none descript scale. I'm an engineer, so these kind of things sort of bug me! Just me I guess... :dunno. I guess about all we can do is look at the relative differences between any of the colored columns and draw some conclusion from that.
 
Gator ...
We sent it when we were working on the Rally Review committee. Would you rather have had us wait until mid-summer to get this information, and lose 6 months?
:banghead

Sue, I was not critisizing you or the rally review committee about when the survey was sent out. There are members complaining now and after last year's rally about not attending because it is too hot in July. My point was that if only 751 people out of 2,000 suveys sent out even replied to the survey from the comfort of their homes in December then many of them would not likely attend the rally no matter what month or where it is held. You would think that after all of the griping about the heat at last year's rally and posting on this forum asking the BOD to take a survey about this that a lot larger percentage of the surveys sent out would have been completed and returned. They asked for the survey. This leads me to believe that some people just have a need to complain and no matter what anyone tries to do to satisfy them they will never be satisfied.
Wanda and I enjoyed meeting you and helping out at the volunteer table on Tuesday.
 
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interestingly, 42% of respondents haven't been to a rally in the past 10 years and 80% have never volunteered at a rally.

Don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing... but it would be interesting to compare the opinions of regular rally goers to those who have never gone to a rally.

these charts have been posted before somewhere... I remember posting that Kenk has been vindicated. It's pretty obvious that the most salient features of a rally are:

  • Location
  • Riding
  • S&S
  • Camping

Yes, there are many additional considerations, such as the ability to sell beer ourselves, but as someone who has attended many rallies, this makes it clear we *really* need to focus on location and riding.
 
That seems to have a different meaning to different people. I heard somebody say the riding in Gillette was terrible, and I enjoyed it a lot. No, it was not the Dragon, but still enjoyable. I heard somebody say there was nothing to draw them to MO, and I think the roads in MO are very nice to ride on, and I enjoyed that a lot.
I think it is impossible to please everybody, especially if some have high expectations, and/or expect to be entertained, instead of entertaining themselves.
 
One year, we had the national rally in July - in FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA. I can remember thinking, why would anyone go to Arizona in July? But off I went - - because, after all, it was the MOA National Rally! Flagstaff is quite high in elevation and the nights were cool, and as I recall, we had a significant amount of rain at that rally as well.

Same story with Fredericksburg, Texas. Who would have guessed that the Hill Country of Texas was so beautiful ? ? ? Certainly not a northern girl like me.

My club picks my vacation destinations. I have never been disappointed. I have ridden to destinations that I never would have chosen for myself.

Is this for everyone? Nope. But it worked for me for 26 years. I would like to thank former boards and future boards for thinking outside the box, and not bowing to the vocal few, always keeping an eye out for the membership as a whole.
 
What Sue said in spades!

My fist MOA National was in Escanaba MI, that was it, I was hooked!

I have only missed 2 since, we center our vaccation around the Nationals.

The circle of friends keeps getting bigger!

We volunteer as much as we can, more friends!

Never was at a bad Rally, some better than others.

I would like to thank the 3 rally chairs, committee chairs, the MOA Board and the all the vollunteers that made this happen!
 
One year, we had the national rally in July - in FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA. I can remember thinking, why would anyone go to Arizona in July? But off I went - - because, after all, it was the MOA National Rally! Flagstaff is quite high in elevation and the nights were cool, and as I recall, we had a significant amount of rain at that rally as well.

the operative phrase....
 
Did I miss something in the power point presentation, the only time frames mentioned were Mid-June thru end-July? Is that correct? Were any other time frames considered? i.e. April, May, June (early), August, Sept, October, etc.
And 7xx people spoke for 3xxxx? or about 3% of the membership? Is that what is being taken as gospel?

Ride Safe,
Robert
 
I agree with asking the entire membership via BMWON, AND I also don't understand why the entire year ie 12 months were not given as an option. Seems like the 'dates' were biased from the beginning to in the middle of the summer, IMHO.
How hard would it be to have half a page in the BMWON asking 1) what temperature range would you like the Rally to have, and is that important, very important, etc. And 2) what month/dates would you like to see the Rally held, and is that important, very important, etc.? Once the temps and dates were known, that would narrow down the geographic location(s). What event brought about the NO MOVE from the July time-frame attitude, or it just a feeling or something else? Just curious.
Ride Safe,
Robert


:scratchIf you can send out the milage start forms in the springtime in the moa on mag. why can't you also send out a 3 by 5 card with a survey to EVERYONE??Why survey only 2000 why not EVERYONE? I just don't understand why this is not done ,period!What do you have against surveying EVERY ONE,might you not like the outcome or what may have to be done(move the rally that you really don't want to do) to remity the situation from a total survey of EVERYONE??:scratch I never saw a survey?
 
Sending out forms in the ON is expensive and doesn't guarentee any better results. One look at the number of people who vote in elections, even when there is competition, would show that. A web survey can be done for a fraction of the cost. Why spend more money for the same results?

Why include all 12 months in the survey? I don't think very many people would go to a rally held in the middle of winter. Again, you also have to consider when the volunteers who actually put on the rally are available. Without the volunteers MOA would be forced to spend a lot of money to pay other people to do those jobs. That would raise the rally fee and really give everyone something to whine about.

Lastly, the opinions of people who may have never been to a rally may be just as important, maybe more so, that the opinion of those that have been. Face it, you know what the people who come to the rally think (just read the forum). Don't discount someone's opinion just because they may have never been to a rally unless you also know why. For many years I wanted to make a national rally but my life situation just never allowed it, nor would it regardless of when it was held.

Here's a radical idea you can try if you are really that concerned about the rally timing, it's called participation. Run for a spot on the BOD and try and change things from the inside. At the very least volunteer for something in the MOA so that you can get a little bettter understanding of how, and why, things work the way they do.
 
TexPaul,
I agree, some type of online survey to the whole membership should be considered. However, the questions/survey should be contained in the ON for those who may not be 'online' so their opinions 'counted' in some way.
May not need 12 months in the survey, but certainly the time-frame should NOT be limited to June/July, don't you agree?
Don't cry wolf unless it is needed, volunteers can volunteer in other months too! And that then begs the question, are volunteers numbers more important than members numbers? If you've never tried another time frame then nobody really knows, IMHO.
I agree, every members' opinion/vote is just as important as anyone else's. I also agree that change from the inside is good, but like you sometimes life situations may not allow it. I don't think you necessarily need to be on the BOD, the BOD knows about the Rally conditions, and like I have said in the past, people speaking/voting with their feet/not coming will be the deciding factor, not you or me on this forum.
Ride Safe,
Robert

Sending out forms in the ON is expensive and doesn't guarentee any better results. One look at the number of people who vote in elections, even when there is competition, would show that. A web survey can be done for a fraction of the cost. Why spend more money for the same results?

Why include all 12 months in the survey? I don't think very many people would go to a rally held in the middle of winter. Again, you also have to consider when the volunteers who actually put on the rally are available. Without the volunteers MOA would be forced to spend a lot of money to pay other people to do those jobs. That would raise the rally fee and really give everyone something to whine about.

Lastly, the opinions of people who may have never been to a rally may be just as important, maybe more so, that the opinion of those that have been. Face it, you know what the people who come to the rally think (just read the forum). Don't discount someone's opinion just because they may have never been to a rally unless you also know why. For many years I wanted to make a national rally but my life situation just never allowed it, nor would it regardless of when it was held.

Here's a radical idea you can try if you are really that concerned about the rally timing, it's called participation. Run for a spot on the BOD and try and change things from the inside. At the very least volunteer for something in the MOA so that you can get a little bettter understanding of how, and why, things work the way they do.
 
A new guy perspective

As a new guy that has not attended a Rally (yet) this was a hard survey to fill out. At least 2/3 of the questions would take knowledge and the experience of attending a rally in order to make an educated choice. I was not able to skip questions that I did not feel qualified to answer. So, it was not completed. Certainly, when the rally is held, is a good question for the general population that wants to attend? June? July? For me, does not matter. I can see that for some folks it makes all the difference in the world as to when they have the time off. Collecting computerized data makes a lot sense, because it takes less time for the person or persons trying to compile the data.

I applaud the volunteers that put the Rally on and are looking for new ways of improving the event. From my perspective, it looks like a fantastic event that I hope to attend some day? Maybe at Salem Oregon? Like any event I have ever attended, if your a new guy/gal at your first event, all of it is new and exciting. If you have attended many events, it may seem stale and need refreshing. I can't gripe because I don't know?

Since I am from California (the home of fruits and nuts) may I suggest we all sit around in a circle, hold hands and sing Coom-bi-yaa. That is Happy-Hippy-Healer stuff! Coom-bi-yaa, I don't think I spelled that right?:scratch Peace-Love...
 
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