Membership | Membership Survey

Halifax & Calderdale CAMRA - Members Survey, August 2003

Summary of Results

On becoming membership secretary of the new committee at the 2003 AGM, I wanted to find what CAMRA members in the area wanted from CAMRA and from the committee in particular.  A survey form was sent to all local CAMRA members and 38 responded.  Their answers are helping us decide what to do, although they reflect much of what has already been said and done.  Numerous actions have been determined which the committee will be addressing over the coming months.

Background

Halifax & Calderdale CAMRA has a largely stable membership, with steady growth.

Most people joined CAMRA at a beer festival, although there were other ways too.  Just one person had signed up from a web site, perhaps not too surprising given that most people have been members a long time.  Clearly beer festivals are important recruitment opportunities, but there are plenty of other areas, including leaving leaflets in pubs, getting publicity in local papers and asking friends.

Not surprisingly, almost everyone joined CAMRA because they support real ale.  Other reasons included because people enjoy visiting pubs or to find out more about beer.

Around a third of respondents consider themselves to be active members, which means a good response from people who may not take such an active part in branch matters, but who nonetheless are interested in what's going on locally.

Of the activities that members take part in, the most popular was attending beer festivals.  There was good support for other activities, including attending meetings and socials, working at beer festivals and attending brewery visits.  Hopefully, there'll always be something in the diary to keep people happy.

National Campaigns

Of several specific national campaigns, almost everyone supports the Ask if it's Cask campaigns.  Promoting real ale to women is less well supported, most are in favour but some aren't bothered about it.  No one is against campaigning for mild, although not everyone thinks it a top priority.  Support for threatened breweries and pubs is almost universal, although some have reservations about total support, perhaps depending on the particular brewery or pub.

The "full pint" issue is supported by most, but six people are against it.  Support for flexible opening is also mixed - most people support it, but four people are against.  Diversity of opinion has always existed in CAMRA - and rightfully so - and we should never forget that in our campaigning and never assume all members are of one mind.

Halifax & Calderdale CAMRA

Attendance at meetings and socials is often very good, but there's always room for improvement.  Several people think there are too many socials in Halifax and too little variety.  More trips to other areas and brewery visits are wanted.

Opinion about when to have socials is divided - during the week, Friday evenings, Saturday afternoons, Saturday evenings, Sunday afternoons and Sunday evening all have support.  These last three times are hardly ever used, so are worth considering further.

Most members use the diary sent by the branch to find out about future events, but What’s Brewing, the Pub Paper and the web site are also used.  The branch will continue to send out the diary (now part of Calder Cask), but other ways to publicise events will be looked into.

How people travel to meetings and social depends where it is in relation to where people live.  Buses are the most popular choice, but many people walk when possible, while trains, cars, bicycles and taxis are also used.  A few people are interested in car sharing, and this is being followed up separately.

The most important factor for attending branch meetings is the choice of real ales, ahead of an interesting discussion and the venue being easy to get to.  A private room, of sufficient size and comfort, are less important.

Most members are aware the branch makes a pub of the season award - only a couple didn't know about it.  This is good news for the branch, but suggests it still needs greater publicity.

Submitting scores on beer quality in pubs is a bit of a minority activity.  This is a shame, as it is from these scores that entries for the Good Beer Guide are decided.  Whatever the reason for this, it must be stressed that the more scores, from more people, the better the GBG selections will be.

Many people have suggestions of interesting breweries they would like to visit.  The most popular is Ossett, followed by traditional family breweries around Manchester and several microbreweries.  Weekends during the day is the most popular time to visit breweries, followed by weekday evenings.  Only a couple of people want visits during weekdays (although this is when breweries are most likely to be working).

Suggestions for other events that the branch could organise include: more walks in summer, visits to GBG pubs in other areas, beer tents at other events (although this will involve a lot of work and a lot of risk), treasure hunts around pubs and a mystery tour.

Beer Festivals

Beer festivals are generally popular among CAMRA members, perhaps encouraged by reduced price admission to CAMRA organised events.

Our own Mayfest 2003 was attended by more than half of respondents.  Of those that didn't attend, most would have liked to but some didn't know about it, while it was just too far or difficult to get to for a couple.  Only one person wasn't interested, which is fair enough.  However, this suggests that there must be more publicity for events, the sooner the better.

Various suggestions about improving Mayfest were made, although many of these have been mentioned previously and some were simply not practical.  All have been passed onto the beer festival sub-committee.

Computers

While more than of respondents had access to the internet at home or work, not everyone had visited the web site www.hxcalderdalecamra.org.uk.  Of those that commented, most felt there was room for improvement on the web site.  This is well known to those people working on it, but the fact remains that there is a lot of work to be done.  More volunteers would be very welcome.

Suggestions for the web site include: more practical information, that it should be updated more often, should be articles on socials with photos, more reports on pubs of the season.

More than a dozen people are interested in receiving information about the branch and events by email, both regular attenders to non-attenders.  Email will never replace everything, but there is a lot of scope for campaigning this way.

Geoff Green

January 2004