"Why Did You Come To Today's ASIS Meeting?"

“Why Did You Come To Today’s ASIS Meeting?” was the question at the top of the survey sheet I handed out during our second meeting for the New Year.  With a record crowd of 37 attendees for a “regular” meeting, I continue to determine why so many SFBA Chapter members decided to come.  There were serious questions and a few “fun” questions.

Of the 37 attendees, 29 (or 78%, up 5% from January’s responses) completed some portion of the survey.  The significant break out went like this:

From the unscientific survey ("very much" and "yes" were combined), we learned in order what our attendees' wanted/felt was important:

#1  76%,  (#3) liked the topic presented by Mike Welch, Manager of Network Security.
#2  68%,  (#1) new time was more convenient. 
#3  66%,  (#6) to increase their professional education.
#4  62%,  (#2) convenient location.
#5  55%,  (#4) meet security friends.
#6  31%,  (#5) get back into ASIS activity.

Of the “fun” questions in this survey only one respondent indicated that he/she was on the way to something else more important.  I wonder if it was the same person who answer this question the same way last month?

The new question (#10) about the value of door prizes as a motivator was clearly answered.  While one person answered that he/she felt the door prizes were valuable (“Always, even if I never win!”), the majority (41% vs. 10%) felt they were not a valuable motivator to encourage attendance. 

Again, it is obvious that the topic of the presentation is the main reason our members will take time out of their schedules to attend an ASIS meeting.  Time, professional education and location were all lumped together in this survey (68%, 66% and 62%, respectively).  And finally, over half of our attendees (55%) felt they wanted to get back into activity with ASIS.  I’ll keep you posted about how we fair with future meetings. 

By Ronald R. Sathre CPP
ASIS SFBA Chapter Chair