Towards the end of 2018, we invited our members to provide their thoughts via our all new Member Survey. The survey looked at the following:

1. Technical areas and market segments our members are interested in
2. Views on IFRF events and communication activities
3. Views and values of IFRF resources such as MNM, website, archive and forums
4. Suggestions for future activities for IFRF
5. Levels of interest in IFRF hosting webinars and training courses
6. How much our members valued IFRF

We received 15 responses to this survey, all of which provided some valuable insight and will enable us to design future activities which are more suited to our members focus. Thank you to those of you who gave us your thoughts and time.

1. Technical areas and market segments

When asked about their interests and areas of expertise, our members graded the following topics as displayed.

2. IFRF events and communication activities

In 2018, we held our 19^th Conference – IFRF 2018. The event was attended by over 120 people from across 15 countries. The survey showed us that those who attended (53% of the respondees) gained real benefit from the event (average rating was 4.5/5). The survey also showed us why some of our members were unable to join us (time, distance, cost and awareness). These factors will be taken into consideration for our next large conference (2021) so more of you can join us.

We were keen to understand how frequently our members wanted to hear from us. Currently Monday Night Mail (MNM) is issued every two weeks, and the feedback suggests that this is preferred by our members – so we will keep going with this format!

3. IFRF resources

We have a suite of resources available to our members which aims to cater for a range of needs. Over the past couple of years, we have also introduced a few new resource channels such as social media and a new website. Here’s how our members, on average, valued our resources:

This shows that MNM, IFRF events and our website are most valued, plus the report archive, handbook and journal. Going forward, we will be focusing on creating more engaging and accessible activities through our social media platforms, plus reviewing other elements to ensure they deliver what our members need. As ever, we really value our members input to this.

4. Future activities for IFRF

We asked our members what else they would like to see from IFRF in the future. Here are some of the suggested activities we received:

5. Webinars and training courses

Over the next few years, we are interested in introducing more opportunities for information and knowledge exchange in the form of online webinars and/or short training courses.

The general feeling amongst those who responded was that they would be ‘very interested’ in us hosting webinars and ‘somewhat interested’ in IFRF hosting short training courses.

6. Value of IFRF

At the end of the survey we asked how much our members valued IFRF as a whole. The option allowed them to grade us as a percentage. The average value rating was 77.1%.

We will be conducting this survey on an annual basis – issued in October each year. This will ensure our activities reflect the needs of our members and provide them with a platform to highlight key areas of interest.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this survey. Your thoughts and feedback were carefully considered and worked into our strategic review. We look forward to implementing some of your suggestions over the next few years.