Every year, the membership committee conducts a membership engagement survey to help us better understand how we can engage our members and track how we are improving this effort. On February 12th, we sent out a survey to all members over the APHA Connect list-serv. The response rate was 10.44% (n=237) which is a decrease from last year’s 12% response rate.
Of the members who responded, 38% were regular members (full, discounted, or affiliate), 26.6% were students, 22.8% were Early Career Professionals (ECPs), and 12.7% were retired. Almost half of the respondents 46.4%, have been an IH member for less than a year, 29% have been a member for 1 to 3 years, 7.6% of them for over 20 years. The majority (85.2%) indicated that they intend to renew their APHA membership and 89% of them intend to remain with the IH section.
The most common reason listed as the primary reason for joining APHA was: connecting/networking with other professionals (40.5%), followed by professional collaboration with other researchers/professionals (20.7%). About one-third of respondents indicated that they joined to either attend (11.8%) or present (11.4%) or advocate/lobby (11.4%) at the Annual Meeting.
Respondents were asked how easy it is to get involved with Section activities. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the most difficult and 5 being the easiest, the percentage of respondents were; 1=6.6% (most difficult), 2=19.7%, 3=42.8%, 4=21%, and 5=10% (easiest). Most (79.5%) of the respondents have never been involved with the section committees or working groups.
A clear majority of survey respondents indicated that they were unaware of the Section’s communications platforms: the section website (65.5%), quarterly newsletter (62%), social media (67%) and APHA Connect (59.4%). A quarter of the respondents are aware of the section website, social media and APHA Connect but do not read. And a quarter of the respondents read the quarterly newsletter regularly. Many of the respondents (71.2%) are interested in using communications platforms to network with other section members and discuss global health research and advocacy programs outside of the Annual Meeting. Most of the respondents (81.7%) are also interested in attending regional meet-up event outside of the Annual Meeting.
Members were asked to indicate if they were interested in learning more about the Section’s committees and working groups and to provide their e-mail address so they can be contacted by our committees with information on how to get involved. Committees that generated the most interest among respondents were Policy/Advocacy (71.2%), Program (31.9%), Student (24.5%) and Mentorship (31.3%). Working groups with the largest number of interested respondents included Global Health Connections (70%), Maternal and Child Health (39.5%), Community-Based Primary Health Care (39.5%), and Climate Change and Health (37.9%).
If you have any questions about the survey or have an interest in additional analysis, please feel free to reach out to Jay Nepal or Rose Schenider of the Membership Committee.
