SiRvey or How are we doing ? John S. Lemon

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SiRveyorHow are we doing ? John S. Lemon
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Do you remember this ?
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Why did we do it ?

• Have been running events for many years
• Actually 20 years
• Are they really what users want
• Produced SiReporter for years
• Production and Mailing costs rising
• Was it still needed ?
• What should we offer in future ?

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Procedure

• Decided needed survey at October committee
  meeting
• I volunteered as use SNAP for surveys design
• On train back north to Aberdeen
• Created survey
• Uploaded it to Aberdeen web server
• E-mailed rest of committee
• First response / suggestion from Australia (Mo)

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Procedure

• Revised survey
• Re-published
• By time reached Edinburgh survey was finally
  approved after about 4 iterations
• Created E-mail address file from all the sources
  we had 79 addresses.
• Set it all going
• 39 replies 49.4 !!

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So what did we find out

• Who attended which conferences and how did they
  participate.

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Why people didnt attend
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Other reasons for not attending

• Only two of the six actually stated what the
  Other reason was
• fort holding
• Did not know about them, or about the user group
  
• The latter is a little worrying
• What have we not being doing right as a committee
  ?

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What you want Where ?
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Other location suggestions
Easy transport for all
3 day event - Dublin
By checking "Europe", I mean to include the UK!
From comments I heard at Stratford, I think people would travel further to stay at a "tourist" location (like Stratford) - London, Edinburgh, York? How about Ireland?
What about having joint 3 day conferences with other groups eg. ASSESS (SPSS user group), LARIA, SSRG, Royal Statistical Society and such like. Then mean spirited Employers may feel they are getting better value for money and be more inclined to fund prospective attendees.
Expense is an issue for most people...including me. So the cheaper the better. But not to an extreme...I just mean, please don't have the only hotel available be 300 a night.
Keep meetings close to an international airport if possible. I was going to go to Avon but the transportation and time commitment to travel from the states was too much. Also, is it possible to have at other times of the year? September or October?
I have benefited from both conferences attended and have enjoyed how the conferences were organized. This year, the conference from June 28-30 was great since the school year was over in America. However, if I am involved with a grant submission for July 1, then it becomes a bad time to be traveling. Overall the end of June or sometime in July would be a great time to attend this conference.
Dublin, Copenhagen or Brussels
I prefer the three day events but don't mind the location
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Likelihood of attending next event(s)

• 50 of respondents probably attend London
• 59 probably go to Dublin

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Training needs

• Offered Intermediate Training this time

• Other needs
• General developments in survey software
• Use of SIR ODBC and SQL in report writing.
  Crystal reports and SIR. Version migration.

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SiReporter

• Despite a mailing list of almost 200
• 16 people ( 41 ) claim not receive it

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SiReporter

• Very few sections are ignored
• Overall well liked !!

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Suggestions for improvements

• I would like to receive it
• I think the support has always been excellent
  when it is required.
• I want a chat room!!!!!!! (...or message board).
  It should be a dedicated site (don't have to
  navigate through 16 screens to get to it) It
  should be user friendly. Effort should be made
  to make it inclusive
• Keep up the good work! More often?
• Can you send me a sample?

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SiR version and Operating system

• SiR XS under Win95 thats something !

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Conclusions

• It appears that as a committee we are possibly
  doing most things right !!
• Where do we go from here ?
• SiReporter will be electronic from now on
• Reduced costs
• Easier to produce
• Wider audience
• Dublin 2008
• ?

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SiRvey