SSAA NSW

4 Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. From Diana's Desk Members have their say... It was brilliant to see such a positive response to the SSAA NSW Member Survey. We had 4,790 members respond; that's 8.5% of our membership which is a great representative sample. It gives a really good indication of what the expectations are of our membership as a whole. Thank you to all of those members that took the time to complete the survey – we really value your feedback. By now, everyone that responded to the survey should have received their exclusive SSAA NSW cap. Wear it with pride knowing you have helped shape the future of your SSAA NSW. You can read the detailed report on the survey outcomes prepared by Paul Costantoura of Review Partners in a separate article on pages 6 to 11. Inherent in such a large and diverse membership base is a variety of views, opinions, agendas and motivations. The challenge for SSAA NSW has always been to get a true picture of what our members want, what our sport needs, what is essential for our Association to continue to thrive and grow, and then balance that with available resources. The objective of the market research project is to assist us with this challenge. Engaging an independent market research company has ensured a professional and transparent outcome that has provided SSAA NSW with a balanced and informed insight into what the majority of members want and expect without being side tracked by 'squeaky wheels' and personal agendas or those driven by outside influences. The results from the Member Survey will be added to all the other feedback we gathered through the various mechanisms: member workshops, individual interviews, Branch delegate AGM workshop, Junior Camp workshops, staff and Board sessions. The overall outcomes will be used to: • guide our future planning, • test and adjust our current strategic assumptions, • inform financial and human resource allocation, and • determine where our priorities should be focussed. It is pleasing to see that the overwhelming majority of members are generally happy with the performance of SSAA NSW with almost three quarters (74%) rating our performance as good or very good and a total of 89% rating our performance as at least adequate. Only 6% gave a not very good or bad rating. However, we cannot rest on our laurels – we must continually strive to do better, and the market research will provide solid data on which to base our future direction and identify areas that we need to work to improve upon. WINNER – AN AFTERNOON SHOOTING WITH LAETISHA SCANLAN Michael Low has won the major prize of an afternoon shooting with Commonwealth Games gold medallist Laetisha Scanlan for him and a friend. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION… Communication within SSAA NSW is another constant challenge; this is not really any different to many other organisations. Despite using multiple communication platforms, anecdotal information indicates that the level of cut-through for information sent by SSAA NSW is low for a variety of reasons. In past research, members have indicated that they look for information to be provided in different ways; some prefer print and others prefer electronic options. To ensure that we provided all members with equal opportunity to have their say we offered the survey via paper and online. It was interesting to see that the responses were split almost 50/50 between paper and online with 49% responding via the paper survey and 51% completing the survey online. Survey results indicated that 78% of members felt the NSW Shooter Quarterly Review was important or very important to them. The two most important electronic forms of communication were the website (74%) and email updates from SSAA NSW (71%). The survey also identified areas where information sharing can be improved; specifically, with regard to the awareness of the operations and activities of SSAA NSW. Two-thirds (67%) of members indicated that they are either very familiar or familiar with these. Awareness of SSAA NSW government- related activities yielded similar results. The outcomes of the market research will inform an internal public relations campaign, which will focus on improving information flow and communication between SSAA NSW, Branches, Affiliate Clubs and members.

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