RW Survey: The results & Initial Comments, Part 1

81% of respondents wanted us to keep them informed of the results and many suggested, not surprisingly, doing it via RW so here goes. For non-readers, we shall also put the results in a free access part of our website. We shall do it in instalments as there were many questions.

There is a wealth of information which has relevance for the whole exercise, not just for RW. Survey Monkey provides good tools for analysing results including the ability to summarise answers according to the responses to particular questions. We shall present the information separated, where relevant, into answers from subscribers, non-subscribers and overall. Please let me know via survey@ringingworld.co.uk or by post if you wish the information presented in other ways (e.g. answers from different age groups); this can be for better understanding of the future options for RW or to illuminate the discussion about the future of the exercise.

1771 subscribers replied (out of our current 2707 subscribers = 65%) 1724 non-subscribers replied. With an estimated total number of ringers between 30,000 and 40,000 this amounts to between 8% and 12%.

Q1: 264 (8%) did not give a name

Q2: It is clear that our subscribers’ age profile is much higher than that of non-subscribers and we are not attracting the younger ringers. 81% of our subscribers are over 50 and 53% are over 65. With hindsight we should have further divided the 65+ category so that we could see if it is biased nearer 65 or higher. We may need to investigate this as it will be important in working out the likely rate of fall-off in subscriptions. The profile is not very encouraging for the exercise as a whole!

Q3: We received 1497 emaill addresses from subscribers and 1450 from non-subscribers

Q4: 71% of subscribers are happy for us to use their email address for occasional information and details of offers, 57% of non-subscribers. This was to give us a valuable possible future tool; we have no immediate plans nor resources to use it.

Q5: 86% of subscribers and 76% of non-subscribers want us to keep them informed about the result of this consultation.

Next week the ringing capabilities’ profile. Watch this space!