Takes ~5 minutes. A few of the questions are poorly formed
"14. How many hours are you participating in Fencing per week?
Radio"
*snort* If ANYONE selects that they spend more than 0 hours/week participating in fencing via radio there's likely a problem.
"15. What is the primary reason for your membership?"
While I answered Participant/Athlete, there are three given answers which apply to me, any of which, on their own, would be enough for me to maintain membership.
"20. How much do you generally spend on travel?" without specifying for a single event, per month, per year, etc. The typical event I spend very little, it's less than a 2-hour drive. When flying somewhere it's significantly more. Depending on what they're asking my answer could be at either end of the given spectrum.
Anyway, go take the survey. Help out the marketing committee.
-B
"Oh but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
Well, not QUITE the worst, but definitely not the best.
That's it, I'm done with the discussion forums on F.net. It's had its uses, but the ideologues, ranters, and "experts" have drowned too many of the conversations. I'm changing my password to something random and never logging in again.
worst survey by a professional organization intended to obtain serious data from and about about the people who are the reason the organization exist.
Oh boy are you living in a sheltered world if you think this.
You should SEE some of the stupid things I've had to deal with over the years in totally different enviornments. Trust me, while I'm hardly singing the praises of the survey in question, I've seen a LOT LOT worse.
That being said, there were some real problems with the wording of the questions and the answers, I suspect due to some assumptions that the writer(s?) had going into it and the techinical limitations they chose to (were forced to?) operate under.
That's it, I'm done with the discussion forums on F.net. It's had its uses, but the ideologues, ranters, and "experts" have drowned too many of the conversations. I'm changing my password to something random and never logging in again.
It wasn't the worst by a long way. It did, however, look as if someone handed them a template and they tweaked it a little using search-and-replace. The purpose, of course, is to convince sponsors and advertisers that we are obsessed participants with spare cash who spend on things related to our obsession. It's always nice to have a report with numbers like that to show people when trying to convince them to provide services, develop products, or make products available to your membership.
So declare a sufficient income and be sure to check "shopping" and similar things as one of the things you do when you're at a tournament. Meanwhile telling the truth.
"Arm yourself, Watson, there is an evil hand afoot ahead." -- Dennis Pierce, 2010 Bulwer-Lytton contest, detective fiction category runner-up.
It wasn't the worst by a long way. It did, however, look as if someone handed them a template and they tweaked it a little using search-and-replace. The purpose, of course, is to convince sponsors and advertisers that we are obsessed participants with spare cash who spend on things related to our obsession. It's always nice to have a report with numbers like that to show people when trying to convince them to provide services, develop products, or make products available to your membership.
So declare a sufficient income and be sure to check "shopping" and similar things as one of the things you do when you're at a tournament. Meanwhile telling the truth.
I suspect that this is the closest to the truth. And really, the USFA does need that sort of info to convince sponsors and possible venue locations (think bid packages for NACs, etc.). I believe that several attempts to get sponsors to bid for hosting NACs, sections, Nationals have failed due to the inability to provide this information or what wasn't provided wasn't very impressive...
Oh boy are you living in a sheltered world if you think this.
You should SEE some of the stupid things I've had to deal with over the years in totally different enviornments. Trust me, while I'm hardly singing the praises of the survey in question, I've seen a LOT LOT worse.
That being said, there were some real problems with the wording of the questions and the answers, I suspect due to some assumptions that the writer(s?) had going into it and the techinical limitations they chose to (were forced to?) operate under.
Designing a good survey instrument that provide good reliable data is hard. Some marketing firms do a good job of it. Others, approach it like this was done, attempting to shoehorn odd-ball groups & interests into a standardized set of bins...
(Yes, I've designed a statistical survey or three in previous lives...)
I remember reading an article about Summer Nationals in a local publication in the host city (Greenville, IIRC), and they cited that the tournament was expected to bring in two million dollars of business to the area.
Consdier - hotel, food, car rentals, taxi... it all adds up in a big way.
That's it, I'm done with the discussion forums on F.net. It's had its uses, but the ideologues, ranters, and "experts" have drowned too many of the conversations. I'm changing my password to something random and never logging in again.
It wasn't the worst by a long way. It did, however, look as if someone handed them a template and they tweaked it a little using search-and-replace. The purpose, of course, is to convince sponsors and advertisers that we are obsessed participants with spare cash who spend on things related to our obsession. It's always nice to have a report with numbers like that to show people when trying to convince them to provide services, develop products, or make products available to your membership.
So declare a sufficient income and be sure to check "shopping" and similar things as one of the things you do when you're at a tournament. Meanwhile telling the truth.
If that's the case, why doesn't USFA just manufacture the data and presented to corporations. It's not as though the corporations don't do the same in reverse.
Consdier - hotel, food, car rentals, taxi... it all adds up in a big way.
I agree. Anyone with minimal knowledge of math (addition and multiplication is sufficient) can compute that 1000 fencers plus tagalongs (parents, spouse, siblings) plus coaches and officials (so, about 2000 people altogether) will all spend about $100/day in expenses for food, room, extraneous non-fencing shopping. That's $200K/day. Ten days or so and that's $2Million. That doesn't include the airfare or gas cost.
Originally Posted by qatet 
