Censusreminder-Survey

[Benjamin Wilden]

Hello Everyone,

the autumn-census is prepared and in translation. Athough we had a special newsletter about the importance of the census we just had the same number of participants as in spring.

In the synopsis I asked myself how you want to be remembered. We usually sent a mail at the beginning of the period and hoped that would work. Than we saw it wasn´t enouth so we extended the period and wrote a second mail. I don´t want this practise every time, since we have a certain period and don´t want to change that.

So please tell me your opinion on the best method you would like to be remembered.

Do you want a mail every week? – I assume not.
A mail at the beginning and another at the end? – Maybe the best way.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Bennie

PS: Please move this question in the right folder if it is wrong here.

[Marcin Chyla]

Hello Bennie, I think about something like quite big “census reminding screen” – everytime when somebody will login on paro webside…
You could pick “Yes” on that screen and then this screen will not be visible for you ( until the next census..:) )

Best regards!

[Benjamin Wilden]

Hello Martin,

think this is a nice idea. Helene will probably be able to install that, but also she can tell how many members are online here in one month. In my opinion the goal is to touch all the others.

We already have a censusreminder on the page. Lets see what Helene has to say.

Best,
Bennie

[Bernd Bussler]

I think it should be remembered quite often.
I know it from myself, I read it and forget it, usually I give up my stock quite late and if I am not reminded, I would surely forget the one or the other times my stock to you.

[Dorothee Jöllenbeck-Pfeffel]

Hi Bennie,
when I see the census reminder on the forum screen and had my first email, I write it in my digital (or paper if you have) calendar for the last weekend or the weekend before the last. I often (specially in spring) saw some new offspring during the census period.

But in September, for example, I begin to count my adult fish and write down in my fish diary the number. Then I look if some offspring are to be seen the next weeks.

Perhaps a reminder at the beginning and one at the end of the census?

If Bernd didn’t write, that it is even for him a problem to remember the census, I would have said, perhaps the members who don’t participate, are no longer interested members … perhaps have given up the Paros ….

Perhaps, if ypu all know for personal some other members, perhaps you could remember them personally ? The busy young ones and the not so interested in digital communication older ones???

[helene schoubye]

The idea of having a big notification here on the homepage, at first seems a brilliant idea, – however, unfortunately I do not believe we reach many members this way.
By far the biggest part of our members who take part in Census do not come on the homepage regularly, so I dont think it would help a lot.
It could still be done perhaps, – 🙂 however, – I dont excatly know how to do it, but I am sure theres a way.

There are some members who are not so much online as others, – and even for ‘onliners’ the numbers are few. More people come to facebook than on a homepage as ours, – unfortunately. That could be one way to reach a few more.
But still, many need a reminder via personal mail, and I think perhaps the best is how we have done it the last couple of times, -(except this time 🙂 ) – to remind people about a week prior, and then a last reminder around the end of the month.
That seems to me to have worked the best

And again, – even I forgot it this time, – and have just send my report to Benjamin now .. :dry:

[Benjamin Wilden]

Thank you for your opinions.

I agree that this time was a bit strange because of the special newsletter.

If all of you like to be remembered at the beginning and one week before ending of the period by mail that is fine. I can do that. But I must disagree to do it as the last ones. I don´t want to extend the period every time. That should be an exceptional action if there are far too low participation numbers. If we do that everytime it has no effect anymore.

So I will definetely send a reminder an the beginning and than state clearly in the last reminder that there are no reports included if sent after the deadline (of cause I will include them a day after, but I just want everybody to be aware of that).

But I am always open to better ideas.

Regards,
Bennie

[Stefanie Rick]

Hi, Bennie,

thank you for your efforts to enhance the participation in the census.

As I understand you have already decided to send two reminders now – one at the beginning and one at the end. And that you will not again extend the census period – what I find absolutely right.

In my opinion it is rather a matter of individual discipline of the members than a matter of how often we are reminded. As 7Zwerge wrote – it is no problem for anyone to make a mark in one’s own calendar and so be reminded as often as necessary by your own PC alarm.

I think it is an imposition to expect to be reminded by you.

(A large screen popping up when logging in to the forum will only reach those members who visit the forum regularly. Due to personal matters I don’t visit the forum very often at the moment – but I take part in the census. It IS possible ………)

[Benjamin Wilden]

Hi Stefanie,

you got it right, I decided to send two reminders as we did before.

We always try to enhance the participation in the census since only 10% of our members are actually participating. So we are always open for new ways to improve.

I agree that the participation is a matter of individual discipline of the members, but we have seen in the past that the reminders increase the number of participants.

We just want a way to reach the most without spamming. So it looks like the two reminders are good and we have no better solution.

Regards,
Bennie

[helene schoubye]

I just want to add to that, Bennie, about only 10 % is taking part, – theres a big difference between active members and members who are members because they share the interest and want to support by being registered here. We cannot really know how big a percentage of the active members who are taking part, – I think it may be much higher than 10 percent 🙂 ..
But still, many people do not take part, I agree.
And I agree that it is also something which is every member with a keen understanding would remember by themselves.
I think those members, who actively see themselves as a contributing member of ‘the project’,- in the sense that they are keeping species, and breeding actively, – in many cases these people do report.
Perhaps the number of actual people who take part, tells us more about how many actually consider themselves as ‘actively part of the project in terms of breeding fish ?

[Rafael Eggli]

Hi everyone, well I must admit it was a bit of a surprise to me that there was no clear rise in the number of participants that last census after bennies newsletter.
Perhaps there are more then the 40-50 regular participants. This gets obvious if one reads through the old files. When doing some evaluation for the graphs, i realized that actually quite frequently specific people are only participating about every other census. If these persons usually report a large stock, this gets obvious since the total amount of reported animals is strongly fluctuating.

Regarding the options for other ways to make the people participate i thounght about that:
Why dont we create an easier way to participate. I’ve been thinking about something like a doodle file… maybe an excell file or something of thet kind that everybody would be able to fill in their stock and comments. Maybe for some it is more comfortable to click on one single link then fill in whatever is needed and finally having it done. For the mail, sometimes it might not be clear what they have to write althoukh bennie explains it verry well in his emails. Also, such a form might make it easier for bennie to evaluate…

Greetings rafael

[Benjamin Wilden]

Hey,

thanks Helene for bringing that point back into my mind. Of cause not all of our members are active. But we go around and state that we have about 500 members. We don´t know how much of them are acually dead mailadresses so you are probably right. The census tells us (a guess at least) how many people are active. I know that there are a lot more people who just don´t participate on a regular basis, but I think we should think about the real active members.

Thanks Rafael for your idea. We discussed that a lot of times before and it is just not working. We also tried a standard participationform in the past, but the people didn´t like it and kept mailing their stock. With all the experience of the past I personally feel that the way we do it right know is as userfriendly as possible. There are new technological ways of cause, but everyone is used to mailing (well not everyone but most of our members) and there are a lot of people who have problems with upcoming software. I am sorry to say that, but this is the playground of our generation and not the majority of our members. Maybe in the future we could install a dual system, but at the moment I don´t see a need for that.

Best regards,
Bennie

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