Exit Surveys

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

We just lost two members from our squadron in April.  They didn't come in to a meeting one day and say "I quit!".  They just started coming less and less frequently and then just... stopped showing up.

That's the way I've usually seen it.

However, each time I have left CAP I have tendered a written letter of resignation to the unit CC in question...I figure that if I'm going to go, I might as well be professional about it.

[lordmonar]

Just did the UCC over the weekend. Exit surveys on the local level were discussed, and consensus was that they are really important.

Sure they are important.......but who's got the time for it?

[Private Investigator]

Just did the UCC over the weekend. Exit surveys on the local level were discussed, and consensus was that they are really important.

Sure they are important.......but who's got the time for it?

At the Squadron level it depends on if you have six Senior Members or sixty. I have never been in a Squadron with 200 members but I have been told they do exist on the other side of the mountain.

OTOH, I was a Marine. I was told I need to know my people by a hardnose D.I. so I did. I remember the names of most people I have ever met in CAP. 

[Майор Хаткевич]

Just did the UCC over the weekend. Exit surveys on the local level were discussed, and consensus was that they are really important.

Sure they are important.......but who's got the time for it?

A member drops off and no one can make a call?

[lordmonar]

Just did the UCC over the weekend. Exit surveys on the local level were discussed, and consensus was that they are really important.

Sure they are important.......but who's got the time for it?

A member drops off and no one can make a call?

And then what?    Sure it is just another 5-10 minutes of my or my staff's time.....but that is one of the problems with CAP is that they are Nickel and Dimeing us to death.

[Eclipse]

People who drop off randomly are not likely to be a factor in operations anyway, nor is information on an exit survey likely to
be usable in bringing them back, however statistically, it could be good information, and would show trends
those of on this board know exist, but no one seems interested in remediation.

Generally those you'd want to retain are either "throwing ashtrays" in a meeting because they feel wronged on an
epic scale (and might actually have been), or go dark after a number of years of consistent activity.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Perhaps that's where we part ways on this. You may not get that member back, but the feedback can help retain others in the future. Sure, there will be cases when you know the reason, and it may or may not be "good riddance", but when our turnover is 40%-60%, knowing why someone left in their first year is important.

[Eclipse]

Perhaps that's where we part ways on this. You may not get that member back, but the feedback can help retain others in the future. Sure, there will be cases when you know the reason, and it may or may not be "good riddance", but when our turnover is 40%-60%, knowing why someone left in their first year is important.

I agree we should have the data, just not under the illusion it is something that will have much impact.

IMHO, anytime a member expires, the unit, Group, and Wing CC should get a notification and
have to click-through their understanding as to why they are one less.

As it stands today, wings dissolve at the edges and no one notices until they randomly see
the number is smaller in eservices.

[The CyBorg is destroyed]

I think one big variable is: does the local unit care whether or not they've lost someone?

[Eclipse]

The actual questions asked, as well as the integrity of the responder are an issue as well, for the data to
have any value.

"Because you are all a bunch of poopy-pants-losers..." might be how the responder feels, but it's hard to
turn that into action.

[BorgCommander]

I lost 98% of my seniors. Thank goodness I still have Cadets!

[Panache]

I think one big variable is: does the local unit care whether or not they've lost someone?

When the person being lost hasn't been showing up at meetings or contributing, probably not.

[KF6YVD]

Just did the UCC over the weekend. Exit surveys on the local level were discussed, and consensus was that they are really important.

Sure they are important.......but who's got the time for it?

A member drops off and no one can make a call?

We just had a fairly new cadet in our squadron stop showing up. All it took was a phone call to determine it was because they thought flight was mandatory.

Turns out the cadet has a fear of heights. I spent a few minutes briefing this cadet on all the other opportunities and training available, while being able to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground.

A simple phone call, before they dropped out, has retained this member.

While this may not be a solution in all cases, it provides an opportunity to stop a cadet/senior member from leaving. Even if the solution is helping them find a new squadron, they were retained as a member.

[Private Investigator]

I lost 98% of my seniors. Thank goodness I still have Cadets!

Can you send again? I did not copy your math, 98% 

[Private Investigator]

Just did the UCC over the weekend. Exit surveys on the local level were discussed, and consensus was that they are really important.

Sure they are important.......but who's got the time for it?

A member drops off and no one can make a call?

We just had a fairly new cadet in our squadron stop showing up. All it took was a phone call to determine it was because they thought flight was mandatory.

Turns out the cadet has a fear of heights. I spent a few minutes briefing this cadet on all the other opportunities and training available, while being able to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground.

A simple phone call, before they dropped out, has retained this member.

While this may not be a solution in all cases, it provides an opportunity to stop a cadet/senior member from leaving. Even if the solution is helping them find a new squadron, they were retained as a member.

Good example, job well done   :clap:

[TSEEKER]

It's doubtful that exit surveys will change much in the organization.  From my viewpoint there's a "Group Think" mentality and either you like it (the way it is) or you just quit.
JH

[rustyjeeper]

One thing I hear repeated on CAPTalk when it comes to membership being bled from the organization is a lack of understanding of why. Why did this person who has been in for 20 years leave, why did we fail to grab the attention of a new member; and the answer always comes back, "we don't know." I have heard repeated calls for NHQ to do exit surveys in hopes of figuring some of this out. When I let my membership lapse for 6 months more than a year ago there was no such exit survey, no one from higher up cared to learn why I had left. After continually beating my head against the wall that is CAP as hard as I can, I again let my membership lapse when it expired in December.

However, this time someone wants to know why. I just received an email from NHQ asking me to take an exit survey about why I left. It was short and simple, and the choices for why you left (bad leadership, undervalued, wasting time, etc...) are all topics that get discussed and rehashed here routinely. It also asks what you like the most and least about CAP and gives ample opportunity for you to tell your own side of the story should it not fit neatly into a multiple choice check box.

So national is listening, and while change to the status quo are slow, even glacial, they are changes nonetheless. I just hope now that national actually does something with this survey and doesn't just dump it in another black hole.

It is good to know that someone is in fact listening. I expired in February of this year and as my final act as a CAP member I hit that big ask the National Commander button and made the suggestion on my way out the door that exit interviews be conducted. Unfortunately I never received even the courtesy of a reply or acknowledgement of my suggestion. The only thing I have received so far is a form letter saying "did you forget to renew"....
I am glad that NHQ is listening or Noting the numbers dropping, maybe there is hope things will someday change.

[MSG Mac]

Members aren't lost on the last day of the month the fall off the MML, they're usually lost in the first six months of their membership. Are we including them in activities? Calling when they miss a meeting? Giving them meaningful jobs to do? If not you're telling them we don't care. If a hospital or military unit, had a 40% casualty rate! heads would be rolling.

[SunDog]

It's doubtful that exit surveys will change much in the organization.  From my viewpoint there's a "Group Think" mentality and either you like it (the way it is) or you just quit.
JH

Yeah, I think that's about it.  Deal with it as is, or depart. There is a lot to like, and a lot that is broken. Quite a few good folks are mostly O.K. with the way it is, and I can respect that.  For others of us, the SAS is just too much, and we need to move on.

Stay or go, change of signifigance is unlikely; no leverage for it from the bottom up, and senior leadership hasn't shown the vision real adaptation will require.

[Private Investigator]

Members aren't lost on the last day of the month the fall off the MML, they're usually lost in the first six months of their membership. Are we including them in activities? Calling when they miss a meeting? Giving them meaningful jobs to do? If not you're telling them we don't care. If a hospital or military unit, had a 40% casualty rate! heads would be rolling.

Very good point. I have seen that at the poorer performing Units and it happens at the Unit of the Year too. Not putting them in Staff assignments, not including them in activities and when the new member asks for their 2nd Lt promotion, after 6, 7, 9 months, the CC tells them that they did not do enough yet for the Unit?