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As part of our ongoing desire to make appropriate connections with our members, we arranged a third party consultant to facilitate three focus groups with a range of members. The group was randomly selected from current membership, to help us understand the perception of the Chamber’s value proposition.
The following is a summary of the focus group participant’s comments.
Summary of observations by the facilitator
‘The following general observations and opinions are made by the facilitator based upon responses from participants of the focus groups.
Overall feelings about the Chamber:
The response from the focus groups was first and foremost strong in their support for the Chamber and a wish to see the organisation prosper. Two of the groups were very clear in their view that the incumbent CEO has raised the profile of organisation significantly in his time with the Chamber. The positive comments listed later in this report clearly indicate there is significant contentment with the Board, CEO and staff of the Chamber.
It is the opinion of the facilitator; the Chamber is in good heart and its members reasonably happy with the current offering of events and services. The ongoing membership “churn” is, in part, due to the very broad membership base where the Chamber markets itself to all business types and this causes a very wide service delivery expectation base. Even though it is impossible to meet everyone’s needs every time the Chamber interacts with its members, this very wide membership base is one of the strong attractants for members.
It must also be noted that the nature of focus groups is that at times as a facilitator you feel occasionally comments are drawn from the group that may affect a very limited number of people; this includes both positive and negative comments. This does sometimes lead to comments being reported that, as they do not have any weighting attributed to them, may assume a stronger influence than they deserve.
Suggestions and recommendations from the process will be applied to the strategic direction of the Chamber and have provided some important insights into providing greater value for our members
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