Written By: Kate Scrafton
On Date: 1/12/2004
Membership Survey Results. In October of this year, EFTTA circulated a survey to all its members. The survey covered issues such as membership services, member communication, EFTTA’s lobbying, members’ networking and the performance of the EFTTA secretariat. The findings will help the Board of Directors to shape the future of the association according to its members’ requirements. In total, 55 EFTTA members responded to the membership survey. This represents about a quarter of the whole membership.
Membership Services
Not surprisingly, the main reason why members join EFTTA is the benefit of exhibiting at EFTTEX. Three out of four respondents indicated this as one of the main reasons for joining the association. One in three members ranked supporting the trade as a reason for joining and 30% of the respondents indicated supporting EFTTA’s lobbying efforts as one of their reasons to join EFTTA. Credibility to their company and access to industry information were both voted by over a quarter of members to be of importance to them when joining the association.
Top 5 reasons for joining EFTTA
1. exhibiting at EFTTEX
2. supporting the trade
3. supporting EFTTA’s lobbying
3. credibility to company
4. access to industry information
5. access to trade directory
When asked what membership services EFTTA members used, more than half of all members indicated the international trade directory. Other popular membership benefits were the free entrance to EFTTEX and the access to data and information services through the EFTTA secretariat. Both membership benefits are used by about 40% of all members. One in five members use the fishing dictionary, the annually produced import and export statistics and the EFTTA logo for stationary or companies’ websites.
Top 5 services used by members
1. international trade directory
2. free entrance to EFTTEX
3. data & information services through the EFTTA secretariat
4. import & export statistics
5. fishing dictionary
EFTTA members were also asked to indicate what other membership services would be of use to them. 40% of all members would like to receive a hardcopy trade directory rather then just using the online version as available at present. One third of all members would like to receive market research reports; detailed fishing data on specific country markets was mainly requested. Only one in ten members were interested in online training courses or special shipping deals for exhibitions other than EFTTEX.
Membership Communication
Three out of four members find the EFTTA email newsletter, the quarterly newsletter and the website either very useful or useful. One in four members thought the email newsletter was adequate. Less then one in five members rated the quarterly newsletter adequate; one in four members thought of the EFTTA website as adequate. An insignificant minority of members never used any of the means of communication EFTTA offered.
Some members commented that a hardcopy of the newsletter would be more appropriate.
Three quarters of members access the EFTTA website at least once a month or once a quarter. Six percent of members access the site once a week, less than 15% have never used the site at all.
When visiting the EFTTA website, 40% of members access the news pages, more than one third view EFTTEX information, nearly one quarter access the members’ only area and one in ten members download a copy of the quarterly newsline issue.
Top 5 pages on EFTTA website
1. news
2. EFTTEX
3. members’ only area
4. newsline
5. line test
60% of members prefer to receive communication from EFTTA on a monthly basis, less than 20% would like quarterly updates and 10% prefer weekly correspondence. A vast majority of 75% of members voted for email as their preferred means of communication. One quarter of members appreciate communication by post and 10% of members voted for communication by fax. Only four percent of all members wanted to be contacted by telephone.
EFTTA Lobbying
Three out of four members considered EFTTA’s lobbying either very important or important to the industry. Only 6% of members thought the lobbying was not important at all. Three out of five members thought that EFTTA’s lobbying had some impact on the industry, one out of five members thought that the impact was great, and less than 10% of members believed there to be no impact at all.
Nearly half of the members thought that the lobbying should be given medium priority on EFTTA’s agenda. 30% of all members believed that the lobbying efforts should be given highest priority, and only one in ten members thought that no priority should be given to EFTTA’s lobbying.
General comments from the members regarding the lobbying included requests for more funding, a stronger relationship with national associations and more contact with ministries and other governmental bodies.
EFTTA Networking
More than half of all members rated the importance of networking and exchanging ideas with fellow EFTTA members as fairly highly. More than one quarter of members even rated this very important. Only 10% of all members did not rate the networking aspect as important at all.
40% of members would like to see an evening event during EFTTEX in order to network with other EFTTA members. 30% are in favour of a seminar organised during EFTTEX. 20% of members would like EFTTA to organise a symposium outside EFTTEX. No clear date preference was established. The remaining 10% preferred an extension of the Annual General Assembly of EFTTA, which usually takes place in the morning of the second day of EFTTEX.
Top 4 networking events
1. evening event during EFTTEX
2. seminar at EFTTEX
3. symposium outside EFTTEX
4. extension of AGA
Most EFTTA members are interested in discussing the lobbying project. The second most interesting topic was how to introduce young people to the sport. About 15% of members were interested in discussing EFTTA’s line testing project. Other issues of interest to the membership are: trade matters, product copying, evolution of the rules regarding material such as lead, promotion of the angling sport.
Regarding national EFTTA introduction events in order to recruit new members and promote the association, one in two members were fairly interested and 15% of all members were very interested. Still, a quarter of all members were not interested at all. Two thirds of members were willing to introduce EFTTA to potential new members at such an event in their native country.
EFTTA Secretariat
The EFTTA secretariat was rated in the following categories: helpfulness, responsiveness, efficiency, friendliness and professionalism. The secretariat was rated highest in friendliness and helpfulness with 66% and 60% of members respectively rating them as very good. Throughout all categories a minimum of 90% of members rated the secretariat’s services as either very good or good. Nobody thought that any of the qualities was poor and the lowest score was an adequate in professionalism from only 10% of all members.
EFTTA would like to thank all members that participated in the survey and shared their comments and ideas with us. All results have been forwarded to the Board of Directors of EFTTA who will discuss the findings in detail during the next board meeting.
Jacques Prallet, Pure Fishing: ‘This survey is an excellent initiative. Congratulations!’
Andre Fournier-Bidoz, Bidoz Products: ‘The lobbying could be improved by making contact with more national fishing associations.’
Gregg Holloway, Hopkins & Holloway: ‘We need more cash to improve the lobbying
Guido Vinck, Beet Sportvissersmagazine: Guido rates the EFTTA secretariat as very good in all criteria and thinks that this is ‘the result of good team work’.
S K Patodia, Deepsons Trading Company: ‘A hardcopy of the newsletter is more useful for us.’
Guenther Burk, Pro&Con: ‘We would be interested in detailed figures of distribution line in different countries.’
To discuss any of the findings in more detail, please contact EFTTA membership manager Kathleen Glausch at kathleenglausch@eftta.com <mailto:kathleenglausch@eftta.com> or phone on +44.20.7553.7903
Kate Scrafton
PR, Marketing & Publications
EFTTA
Tel: +44.207.253.0777
Fax: +44.207.253.7779
EFTTA MEMBERS TELL US HOW IT IS