{"id":9910,"date":"2020-05-05T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/?p=9910"},"modified":"2020-04-29T19:17:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T19:17:19","slug":"2020-association-communications-benchmarking-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naylor.com\/associationadviser\/2020-association-communications-benchmarking-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Set a Course for the Future: Take the 2020 Association Communications Benchmarking Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another day, another organization asking you to take a survey. Why participate in association surveys when you could be working on something else?<\/p>\n

Protect Your Association from Future Failure<\/h2>\n

One reason is that the knowledge we gain from survey results is protection against future harm. Consider the COVID-19 outbreak<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that began earlier this year. Although the World Health Organization classified it as a global pandemic, health agencies around the world were able to mitigate its spread by issuing this preventive advice: Wash your hands thoroughly and often. Cover your cough. Stay away from individuals who might have the virus, and quarantine yourself if you display the known symptoms.<\/p>\n

When you pay attention to surveys, you set your association up to protect itself against future failure by learning new information about strategies and tactics that work, best practices that no longer work, false claims, and new truisms. You can use such knowledge to set a better, more informed direction toward your mission and goals.<\/p>\n

Voice Your Association\u2019s Communication Priorities<\/h2>\n

But it\u2019s not enough to just sit back and watch survey results come in. For a survey to truly work for all interested in its data, everyone should participate. Consider last year\u2019s Canadian elections and the upcoming American elections. Forming a government that prioritizes the most important needs of its citizens requires as many people as possible to voice their priorities.<\/p>\n

In elections, we do this by attending town halls, holding discussions with others, and politicians, and most importantly, by voting for the leaders who promise to carry out our top priorities. For an association survey to accurately report on the top priorities of the association community and how association executives should approach them, doing your part by participating in such surveys is required.<\/p>\n

Put in the Work to Achieve Greatness<\/h2>\n

A third reason to participate is that reaping the rewards of successful association life requires time and effort, just like achieving greatness in sports requires time, effort and lots of training. Consider the unfolding stories of Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu and American runner Molly Seidel. Andreescu entered the 2019 tennis season ranked 152nd\u00a0in the world. Not shabby, but not No. 1 either. However, she unexpectedly beat Serena Williams in the women\u2019s 2019 U.S. Open<\/strong><\/a> last September, becoming the first Canadian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title. Similarly, Seidel wasn\u2019t known for distance running before qualifying for the February 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, but trained like she was a top distance runner anyway \u2013 and placed 2nd\u00a0in her first marathon race ever<\/strong><\/a>, earning a spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team.<\/p>\n

If your association wants to be successful, putting in the work requires time and effort dedicated to offering up data about your association\u2019s current situation, and what you plan to do about it.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the ask: The 2020 Association Communications Benchmarking Survey<\/strong><\/a> is now open, and we\u2019re looking for association executives from organizations of all sizes, demographics, industries and budgets to tell us what their communication landscape looks like, what\u2019s going well, and what needs improvement. Our annual survey provides useful data about the state of association communications as well as insights into what communication trends association communicators should watch for in the now, near and far<\/strong><\/a>. Now in its ninth year, the survey has become a valuable tool for associations wanting to know how well their communications are performing compared to peer organizations, and what steps they should take to serve their members better through improved communication practices.<\/p>\n

This year, in an effort to help associations understand how others in the community are navigating communications in the COVID-19 climate, specific questions about the impact of the coronavirus have been added. We’ll also be releasing the results of this year’s survey in our benchmarking report in June, two months earlier than usual.<\/p>\n

Some of the benefits of taking the 2020 Association Communications Benchmarking Survey:<\/h3>\n