The big survey

I thought the survey was pretty good. I had no major objections to it. (For those who are confused.... USMS is doing a national online survey of a random number of USMS members. I have no idea what percentage of the membership is being selected. But if you didn't get an email about the survey, don't worry about it. If you did get the email, remember to _not_ post the URL of the survey, since by design it is not open to anyone who wants to respond -- just those selected by whatever random criteria they used.) -Rick

Originally posted by cjquill I participated in the survey, but wondered why I received two e-mails (identical) asking me to participate. It certainly would skew the data if respondents filled out multiple surveys. Did anyone else receive multiple e-mails? I have received one email telling me I have been chosen, and that a second email is on its way to tell me how to participate. I have not received the second one yet.

I also took the survey. When I was first alerted to this, as a member of the Communications Committee, I was nervous that it might not let me say exactly why I'm a member of USMS, but I thought it did allow that. Now that I'm coming out of the closet, I'll make the shameless admission that the only thing that USMS offers to me is the competition. If it were not for that, I wouldn't be a member. I trained in the 1970s alone before I became aware of USMS and would continue to do so today if the organization did not exist. However, I do like the organization and have donated my time in kind as coach, meet director, webmaster, LMSC Chair, LMSC Top Ten Chair, Chairman of the Current Top Times database project and other things to repay an organization that has done a lot of good for me. -- mel

I participated in the survey, but wondered why I received two e-mails (identical) asking me to participate. It certainly would skew the data if respondents filled out multiple surveys. Did anyone else receive multiple e-mails?

There were some problems in how the income was broken down. It wasn't in totally regular blocks. Also, it didn't ask if people got to meets or other things in other ways. I(;vew actually seen people walk ot a meet! I think that it will probalby get the answers that most of the people involed thought they would get. There were no questions to see how many people might be different from a norm. Was ther a question asking if the person had not been a swimmer previously?

Originally posted by cjquill I participated in the survey, but wondered why I received two e-mails (identical) asking me to participate. It certainly would skew the data if respondents filled out multiple surveys. Did anyone else receive multiple e-mails? I did also. I hope no one does the survey twice. Did any one else receive two requests? I bet that if two of us did than all of us who gotr the request did. Supposedly, there is no more likelyhood that soem one will take a survey if it is sent throuhg the mail, e-mail or telephone. ther si a vfery sstrong likelihood that if peole get two copies of a survey, they will do both. I owudl like to know how, at tne end, how many surveys were sent & how many peole responded. I truly believe that no survey is any good if geographic inforfmatin is not collected. Where peole live is one of the major determinig factors on what they do and how they do it! If geographic infomatin was a determining factor in selection, then the survey has a bias-just talk to John Kerry about that.

Originally posted by cjquill ....Did anyone else receive multiple e-mails? I got duplicate notifications for the survey too, but thought nothing of it till I saw this post and double-checked… yes, they both went to the same address, which is odd. I initially assumed I was “randomly selected” because I registered a USMS e-mail alias, but who knows. I’ve attended a number of meets, and I volunteer at the LMSC organizational level.

The survey is to gather information about our members. From the data collected; we will be able to serve the membership better. In addition, we will be using the results to help increase our sponsorhips and advertisements. Tom Boyd has done a great job putting this survey together. He has volunteered his time on this effort. Tom awesome job, thank you. You all have to remember this is a VOLUNTEER organization. There are a lot of members, who work behind the scenes to help make this organization run. If you have suggestions, e-mail us, but please be constructive when reporting negative aspects of things especially on the web. You not only attack the project, but the people who have worked hard on the project. Why don't you look at the positive side; there was more sections that you might have liked. In addition, we did ask for suggestions for questions for this survey. There are 2 surveys being performed. Survey A and Survey B. If you got both e-mails please participate in both surveys. Yes, some of the questions are the same. So, if you have suggestions please speak up. Constructive criticism is better than negative feedback. SWIMMER has their annual planning in June. If you have any suggestions: Contact: Bill Volckening the SWIMMER editor: BillVolckening AT usms DOT org

I'm not a survey writer but I took the survey. I suspect most members drive and/or own cars. I don't see it as a big deal.

Originally posted by cjquill Had the e-mail indicated that I might be receiving more than one survey, I could have looked to see if it was "A" or "B" that I was filling out since it's listed on the bottom. I simply assumed it was a duplicate, which was a logical assumption under the circumstances. I chose one at random and responded. I don't know which I filled out, and won't be responding to both because I can't be sure of which I have already responded to and don't want to fill out the same survey twice. I do not believe that the discussion of the survey in this forum casts negative aspersions on those who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to develop this survey. Some issues have been raised here which need to be addressed, and that is all that has happened here. On another aspect of the survey, have members without e-mail addresses been included, and if so, how? Catherine, Great question. Mark, I take trains to meets. And also, soem of the strongly agree/strongly disagree questions were really yes/no responses. The sample size is very large. That is one good thing about doing an electronic survey, you can reach so many peole easily. I just went back and looked at the duplicate survey I received and have not yet made a response. Did all who got one, get the other? It is exactly the same as the one I answered. When I was answering the first survey, I took notes because I wanted to see if there were any answers in the results that I thought might have been biased by the structure of the question.