SUNYLA Membership Enthusiasm & Outreach Working Group (MEOW):

SUNYLAMembership Enthusiasm & Outreach

Working Group(MEOW):

Survey Results Revealed

A panel presentation by Kim Davies Hoffman, Rudy Leon, Stephan Macaluso & Nancy Williamson

Friday, June 13, 2008 SUNYLA Annual Conference

MEOW: Survey Results Revealed, SUNYLA

How it all began . . .

• Lack of candidates for SUNYLA Election 2007• Decrease in voting members due to unpaid membership dues•Not enough marketing for SUNYLA• Lack of participation in SUNYLA activities, overall


Proposal to SUNYLA Executive Council

Investigate apathy Develop

proposals Pass proposals to others


What to investigate?Named concerns

Delegates Promotion & Tenure

Administrative support Workload

New members


Member ideas for addressing the concerns

• Member survey• Special programs for new

members• Restructuring SUNYLA

Council meetings• Develop a new website

(web committee) for marketing purposes

• Establish and incorporate a mission statement

• Develop a new SUNYLA logo

• Training programs given by directors & SUNYLA officers• Committee for concerns & future of SUNYLA• Incentives for SUNYLA officers• Career advancement initiatives• Publishing workshop/group


Formation of the Ad hoc Committee

Comprehensive 4-Year College

Kim Hoffman, ChairKen FujiuchiDan HarmsEmily HartRudy LeonStephan MacalusoTracy ParadisKate Pitcher

Technical College

Fran ApolloJoe Petrick

Community College

Bill DrewNicki LerczakMarc WildmanNancy Williamson

Other

Kadri Niider (Optometry)Mark Smith (Alfred U)Lori Widzinski (UB HSL)

Meeting in person and via the wiki

http://sunylameow.pbwiki.com

http://sunylameow.pbwiki.com


The Survey

All SUNY librarians & some staff

• Not just SUNYLA members• Via direct e-mails

187 responses

• Multiple choice• Open-ended• Likert scale rating

25 questions


Survey Demographics

18%

35%

33%

6%

2% 3% 4%

I currently work at: n=192 (?)University Center Comprehensive College Community College

Technical College Health Sciences Other SUNY unit

No answer


Survey Demographics

12%

17%

20%

51%

I have worked for SUNY for: n=187under 2 years 3-5 years6-10 years more than 10 years

Over 6 years at SUNY (presumably tenured) = 71%


Survey Demographics

My official title/status is: n=187

Librarian (75%)Professional staff (5%)Paraprofessional, clerical, or technical staff (5%)Director or other admin-istrator (7%)Other (8%)


Survey Demographics

71%

28%1%

Are you currently a member of SUNYLA? n=187Yes No No Answer

Survey Demographics

9%15%

17%30%

29%

If yes, how long? n=133under 2 years 3-5 years6-10 years more than 10 yearsNo answer

37%

57%

6%

If no, have you ever been a member? n=54

Yes No No answer

* 133 out of 187 responded being current SUNYLA members – 100% response rate

* 53 respondents stated not being a current SUNYLA member. 1 person did not answer.


Why Not SUNYLA? Q8: If you have never been a SUNYLA member, or have stopped renewing your membership, could you provide any specific reasons why SUNYLA has not appealed to you?

INDIFFERENCE: no compelling reason to join, perceived lack of value in membership, “not getting around to it.” OTHER ORGANIZATIONS: professional interests met sufficiently by other library organizations. EXCLUSION: lack of an invitation or information; not a librarian. OTHER: retirement, travel issues, lack of institutional support, etc.


What Other Organizations?

32%

22%12%

12%

3%18%

Membership in Other Professional Organizations

ALA ACRL ENY-ACRLWNY/O ACRL NYSLAA Other

Other Organizations include: Specialized like LITA, NASIG, MLA (medical), MLA (music), and SLA; Local chapters of various specialized orgs; Localized like NYLA, NCLA (Nassau County), SCLA (Suffolk County), and 3 R’s

Reasons why we participate

From MEOW

Localized

Close-knit

Focus is on high quality, practical presentations

Friendliness among colleagues

Affordability

$ link between membership dues & conference

registration

From Survey = Q12

On average, a 73% response rate (n=137)

Top 5 reasons stated why SUNYLA members participate in SUNYLA


Reasons why some do not participate

Q13: . . . if you do not participate, please tell us why (n=19)

Time commitment to

other orgs

Time commitment to campus duties

Loss of interest/ burnout/ plans

to retireOther


How do we participate

No involvement8%

1 activity11%

2 activities18%

3 activities25%

4 activities16%

5 activities8%

6 activ-ities10%

More than 63%

Level of SUNYLA Participation


How do we participate•Of 133, 64 are involved (48%)•65 are not involved (49%)•2 marked being unaware of opportunity

Committee membership

•Of 133, 67 are involved (50%)•60 are not involved (45%)•5 marked being unaware of opportunity

Special Interest Groups (SIG)


Funding opportunities


Conference presentation


How do we participateSUNYLA Executive Council


Campus delegate


Committee Chair

•Of 133, 13 are involved (10%)• 109 are not involved (82%)• 3 marked being unaware of opportunityOfficer


SUNYLA Annual Conference

31%

29%11%

8%

21%

My last SUNYLA Conference2007 1-2 years ago3-5 years ago more than 5 yrs agono answer

37%

19%

37%

6%

Do you plan to attend in 2008?Yes NoUnsure No answer


SUNYLA Annual ConferenceWhat interests you in the annual conference?

Interesting/relevant presentations

Continuing education

Networking opportunities

SUNY or SUNY library-related issues

Reasonable conference cost

05

10152025303540

2007 1-2yr

ago

A &B

3-5yr

>5

NOUNSURE

Q17: Of those who responded to “Do you plan to attend SUNYLA 2008” with No (35) or Unsure (69), when did they last attend a SUNYLA conference?

N=104

05

1015202530

Prefer

Funding

Busy

Releva

nt?

othr co

nf.

Rel. tim

e

prestig

eTrav

el

NOUNSURE

104 responses,

73 comments

Question 17: Do you plan to attend 2008 Conference? Why or Why Not?

02468

1012141618

Prefer Busy Travel/far

UnsureNo

N=50, 31 comments

Question 17, of those who reported No or unsure but attended SUNYLA within 2 years


Other conferences?•72 out of 187 (38%)Regional ACRL

•44 out of 187 (23%)ALA•36 out of 187 (19%)ACRL•36 out of 187 (19%)CIT•36 out of 187 (19%)LISUG•20 out of 187 (11%)Computers in Libraries


Open Ended Questions


Survey asked the following open questions:

20) Additional comments you would like to share regarding SUNYLA's activities?

21) What are one or two things that SUNYLA could change that

might increase your participation in the organization?

22) Are there specific SUNY library-related issues that you would like to see SUNYLA address that you don't think are currently being addressed by the organization?

Asking SUNYLA for ideas


What did the respondents say?

• Fairly low response rate– Comments re: SUNYLA

activities n=35– Changes? N=65– Specific issues to take on?

N=41• Contradictory responses• Revealed a lack of clarity

about mission, power, role of SUNYLA


Additional comments regarding SUNYLA’s activities?

• It’s all great!• UUP/Advocacy really important!• UUP/Advocacy irrelevant, stop it!• Need to address cliquishness• Need to do more outreach and advertising• Not enough time to engage• State is too big/SUNY is too big• Annual conference is great!• Annual conference needs to be better


SUNY library-related issues SUNYLA isn’t addressing but should?

• Open up! Too cliquish, too closed, too hard to break into• Mentoring of new members• More subcommittees/interest groups• Defeat space & time – webinars, regional meetings• More, and more frequent, events• Staffing and workload issues• Improve the quality of the conference• The conference is great• Help move SUNY Libraries into the future• More topics/more practical topics of conference and

committees• Make it cheaper• Improve standing of SUNYLA in eyes of library admin


Data that still needs to be analyzedInfo by sector and membership/participation:

* Caveat: the data points may be so small as to be statistically irrelevant

Active members

Happy with SUNYLA

Changes needed

Community Colleges

Not members

Members but not active

Comprehensive Colleges

Not members


University Centers

Not members



What else do we still need to know?

Member involvement by

longevity

Why members have left SUNYLA

Data specifically from non-members answering

survey

How to reach the large

number that didn’t answer

the survey


ThemesToo much attention paid to UUP issues

NYS is large; SUNY is large

SUNY library staff squeezed for time

More attention should be paid to issues of traditional librarianship


More themesMake better use of Web 2.0

Make better use of SUNYLA’s website

Improve moderation of SUNYLA discussion lists

Outreach, mentoring & retention of new members


Please use http://SUNYLA08.pbwiki.com to add recommendations brainstormed within the individual groups

$, Travel, Geography

Quality of Annual

Conference

Competition for Professional

Attention

Issues of SUNYLA’s Prestige

Main ThemesWouldn’t it be nice if SUNYLA . . . ?

http://sunyla08.pbwiki.com/


For more information, contact . . .

Kim Davies HoffmanSUNY Geneseo

[email protected](585) 245-5046

Nancy WilliamsonNassau Community [email protected]

(516) 572-7406

Stephan MacalusoSUNY New Paltz


Rudy LeonSUNY Potsdam


sunylameow.pbwiki.com

mailto:[email protected]




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