Help shape future facilities at UK Club campsites

Well, I have been selected to take part in said survey. Like others, I have no idea who was told about the survey.

I will receive an email on Monday giving me log in details. As far as I can tell, I have all day to answer the questions.

we are actually away at present, so I will be completing each days task in the evening.

I will endeavour to give you some idea of questions, but not necessarily my answers!!

Even here on this forum there are members who don’t use Club sites,  but the Club managers seem uninterested to know why that is or what would bring them back, as those members are excluded from the survey.

Well Bill, I was involved, in a minor way, with the introduction of an organisation wide, 80000, people, staff survey many years ago. The point being that people inside an organisation, if things are going OK, overall usually don't understand why some people within the organisation are unhappy or want changes. A forward looking organisation will look beyond their own thoughts and solutions, its a brave thing to do. The CMC is, as I see it, is a very traditional organisation and that probably permeates through the structure of the Club and I imagine tends towards a conservative approach to things. Don't forget the Club structure consists of two elements, the paid management and an elected Council. Perhaps the paid management want to move the Club on but there is a resistance from the more traditional parts of the Club. A survey of the nature being used may well be able to enlighten all sides to a way forward?

David

All of that assumes the consultants have some value to add. I could play ‘top trumps’ with you about previous roles and experience, but what I do know is that management consultants of the type recruited for this exercise are largely a waste of money - we should  agree to differ. If an organisation needs refreshing, change the senior management team. The best bit of management advice I was ever given was ‘the team that gets you into trouble is not the one you need to get you out.

Surely the club is employing a company that specialises in research using the methods described by Rowena in her post. No mention of consultants? No doubt the Club would have fully discussed with them their aims and hopes of what they want to establish and then let the researchers use their skills to design and survey/focus group that can help establish what the Club want to know. It seems like good practise to me. 

David

Is this going to be a case of the Club asking members their opinions and the go and do what they were going to do in the first place and ignore the members opinions? 

That is not necessarilly so HD but I do wonder at what the Club hope to gain by it. In my career I learnt to miss trust the the use of consultants/ surveys and considered most if not all a waste of a companiy's money. It didn't do the company I worked for much good, it no longer exists. I didn't immediately dismiss applying to take part in this survey but after some thought decided not to.

peedee

It didn't do the company I worked for much good, it no longer exists

That is implying that one led to the other, of course that might not be the case, companies go out of business or close for many reasons, having a survey or consultants isn't necessarily one of them?

Did the company actually listen and act upon any information gained? Or did it just carry on? A survey gives just information and then they leave but if the company met or shared your mistrust then any changes probably wouldn't have been implemented with full support. Who knows but saying one led to the other is misleading?

How far apart were the company no longer existing and the survey/consultants? At least the company tried?

And all the club has done is employ a company to obtain some data, I can't see any mention of a consultant that people are going on about?

For many years people on here have posted (rightly or wrongly) that the club doesn't listen to it's users of club sites, badly designed this... the club needs a rethink type of posts... people making decisions don't use club sites... Now when it tries to do that it get negative comments too?

If it’s got anything to do with Google it’ll be in part a harvesting exercise-I personally have no issue with that as it has served me well in the past but I need to be on board with the psychology & dynamic behind any harvesting practice.

“no mention of consultants”, are you sure? What about the bit on their website….”Discovery Research is a qualitative and quantitative market research consultancy”. 

There’s nothing in Rowena’s opening remarks that defines a problem and therefore to what, research is part of a solution.