Many Ways to Skin A Cat: Measuring OLLI’s Successes

1. Many Ways to Skin A Cat:Measuring OLLI’s Successes Linda G. Shook and Virginia E. O’Leary

3. Big Data

4. Little Data

5. In a member led, member driven organization like OLLI, how do you know what your membership wants?

6. Many of us in leadership positions think we know because we have strong opinions and they often coincide with those of the others we know best. • BUT….

7. An N of 2 won’t do!

8. Surveying the membership is the only way to really know for sure.

9. The OLLI at Auburn Story • In the beginning there were the opinions of the members of the OLLI Board. • Then, at a Board meeting in October during an intense discussion of ways to raise funds..

11. OLLI’s Partner • Dr. Malissa Clark and her class of 7 doctoral students enrolled in a course entitled Research Methods for Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

12. OLLI at Auburn as Client • Brief history • Purpose of the survey • Question domains

13. Content Categories • Demographics • Gender • Age • Education • Comfort with technology • Years living in the Auburn area • Experiences with OLLI • Attitudes toward OLLI Fundraising

14. Ways members learned about OLLI • Attendance at OLLI functions by type, academic or social • Reasons for considering withdrawing from membership • Curriculum and Services • Satisfaction • Use of OLLI benefits

15. Qualtrics

16. Drafts • Original 105 questions • Pared to 45 questions • Reviewed by the OLLI Director, Linda Shook, and me • Final review for content by the Board

17. Pretests • Pretest of the internet version for time and wording • 20 OLLI members randomly selected • Pretest of the hard copy version for time and wording • 5 convenience sample of OLLI members

18. Survey Administration • Across 2 weeks with a reminder at day 10 • Paper surveys available at the OLLI desk during classes

19. OLLI at Auburn Membership Survey • www.olliatauburn.org

20. Response Rate • 43% (N=267 of the 615 members who were sent the survey.

21. Crosstabs • Gender • Member status (academic or general) • Length of OLLI affiliation • Previous career history • Previous career • Educational background • Marital status

22. Content Analyses • The ended questions included in the survey were content analyzed.

23. Analyses • The students analyzed the survey with input from me regarding crosstabs of interest.

24. Results • The students presented the results to the Board at a meeting called for that purpose.

25. Linda Shook, DirectorOLLI at Auburn • Worked with non profit groups. • B. A., Public Relations, University of Alabama. • M.Ed., Adult Education, Auburn University.

26. The Survey is Available at: • http://www.olliatauburn.org/documents/OLLI%20Exec%20Membership%20Survey%20Report_FINAL%20June%202013.pdf

27. Win-Win • OLLI at Auburn has data on which to base decisions for the next couple of years. • Dr. Clark was able to teach survey research methods in real time. • The students were able to work with an actual client and can now claim to have done survey work on their resumes when they go to look for jobs. • The university has an illustration of the contribution of OLLI at Auburn to its academic mission.

28. Partnering with Academic Units • Enhances OLLI’s relevance to the broader campus community. • Provides a platform of inter generational collaboration that benefits both.

29. As Director of OLLI at Auburn • The value of surveys for data to enhance our programs. • The importance of using empirical data to make decisions. • The utility of forging partnerships with the academic side of the University which deepens our roots within our host institution.

30. New Data Collection Efforts • Survey of OLLI faculty. • Attrition Survey. • Preferences for social events.

31. There are many ways to skin a cat using survey methodology. • Michael Cheang a faculty member in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa will now tell us about their OLLI curricular content analysis.

32. Thank You