Analysis of ADEC Membership Survey Winter 2007

At the beginning of 2007, ADEC conducted an online survey of members of the organization. 401 members participated in the survey, which was 35% of those members who were eligible to participate.

Length of membership
Just fewer than 50% of the 401 respondents to the survey reported having been members for five years or more. The two largest groups included those who had been members for 3 to 5 years and those who had been members for 10 or more years (28%).

Profession
Respondents to the survey were allowed to identify multiple professions. Sixty percent self-identified as counselors, with the next most frequent profession being educator (30%). Of those 119 persons identifying themselves as educators, 48% also identified themselves as counselors and 20% as researchers. In contrast, of those 240 persons who identified themselves as counselors, only 24% also identified themselves as educators and just 4% identified themselves as researchers. The majority of respondents self-identified as counselors. Although educator was the next most frequent profession, half of the individuals who selected that option also selected counselor.

Examining profession by length of membership, those who self-identified as counselor ranged from a low frequency of 50.5% for those who were members three to five years and a high frequency of 67.5% for those who were members from 10 to 31 years. Comparing length of membership, those identifying themselves as educators ranged from 21 to 27%, except for those who were members 10 to 31 years, of which 42% identified themselves as being educators. Those who self-identified as educators were more likely to have been ADEC members for 10 or more years.

Work setting
Respondents to this question were allowed to select only one response. Twenty-one percent of the respondents identified their practice setting as “private practice”, 19% identified “educational institution” and 16% “hospice”. Of the 17% of those who selected “other” as their practice setting, frequent responses were “student”, “retired”, and “health care center”. Other respondents used the “other” category to indicate multiple work settings.

There was a difference in practice settings reported by length of membership. The most frequently reported work setting of members less than one year was hospice (26.7%). Those members one to two years reported both hospice and “other” most frequently (each at 24.2%). Of those members 3 to 5 years, hospital was most frequently reported (18.8%). Members reporting 5 to 10 years of membership were most likely to report working in private practice (32.9%). 28.9% of members ten years or longer also reported private practice as their work setting, with educational institution close behind at 27.2%.

As length of membership has a high degree of correlation with length of career, particularly in the case of longer term members, the data suggest that those in the earlier stages of their career are more likely to work as employees of service delivery organizations, while those later in their careers have moved more toward academic settings and self-employment in private practice.

Other professional organizations
Most respondents reported being members of other organizations. The complete list of the names of organizations provided was quite extensive. Those organizations mentioned most frequently based on the percent of respondents were the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), listed by eleven percent of all respondents; the American Psychological Association (APA), 10%; the American Counseling Association (ACA), 10%; the American Academy of Bereavement (AAB), 8%,; and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), 5%.

Use of current membership benefits
The benefits of membership having the greatest reported usage are The Forum (96%), broadcast e-mails (72%), the online directoy and members only section of the Web site (65%), discounted registration for the conference (62%), and networking opportunities (47%). The most frequent response to all other listed benefits was that they had not been used. These benefits included discounted journal subscriptions; discounts for workshops, courses and certification; special interest groups; the ability to nominate someone for an award; serving as an ADEC volunteer; and ADEC’s job services.

Usage varied based on length of membership. The longer someone reported being a member, the more benefits respondents reported using. For example, the only group in which more people indicated that they had taken advantage of the opportunities to volunteer and to obtain discounted journal subscriptions were those people reporting being members for 10 to 31 years. Of all the benefits listed, those with the least reported usage were the ability to list and search for jobs. These were also the two benefits about which respondents reported the least familiarity.

Importance of membership benefits
The membership benefits that were identified being most important were discounts for registration to the annual conference (56% said these were extremely important) and discounts to specialty workshops and professional development courses (48% said these were extremely important). The ranking of these two benefits as being extremely important was consistent regardless of length of membership.

Overall, The Forum was rated as extremely important (45%), though responses varied by length of membership. Members from three to 10 years saw the newsletter as extremely important; those less than 3 years and 10 to 31 were most likely to rate The Forum as important.

Discounts on the certification program for members was rated overall as extremely important (45%). Members 10 to 31 years were less likely to rate this benefit as very important (though most still did).

Networking opportunities was rated as an extremely important benefit by 36% of those responding. This was more likely to be the case for members less than 3 years and those 10 to 31. Participation in SIGs was seen by respondents overall as only somewhat important. Volunteering for ADEC was another area rated most frequently as somewhat important.

Job services, which most people reported not having used, were the only listed benefits seen as not important.

Satisfaction with Membership Benefits
With the exception of the newsletter, regarding which most people indicated they were very satisfied, generally respondents reported themselves satisfied with all member benefits. The level of satisfaction with The Forum increased as length of membership increased. The comments regarding The Forum were also positive.

As indicated above (and in the open-ended comments), networking was viewed as an extremely important potential benefit of membership. However, the area of greatest dissatisfaction was special interest groups; 14% of those responding reported being either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

As noted above, certification discounts were considered extremely important by respondents and most appeared satisfied with those discounts.

Data indicates that there are a large number of members who are unfamiliar with several benefits of ADEC membership. More than one third of respondents reported not being familiar enough with ADEC’s job services to indicate a level of satisfaction with them. Approximately one quarter of the respondents indicated they were not sufficiently familiar with special interest groups or the ability to nominate someone for awards to rate them. Approximately one respondent in five indicated not being familiar enough with networking opportunities and the discounted journal program to indicate how satisfied they were with them. Not surprisingly, those who were the newest members reported the greatest level of being unfamiliar.

Comments
Thirty six percent of respondents to the survey took the time to provide comments, which suggests a high level of engagement of respondents with the association. Among the many topics addressed were the cost of participation in ADEC, interest in ADEC providing more continuing education, professional journals, special interest groups, chapter development, interest in volunteering and ideas about the Web site.

Updated: July 5, 2007