Surveying volunteers

I just sent a survey to almost 1,000 people--all of those individuals who volunteered over the past year for whom I have e-mail addresses. It's a short survey, 30 questions, which should take about 15 minutes to respond to, but which will provide us with invaluable feedback about what we're doing well, what we can improve on, and how best to get from here to there.

We sent out a test survey a few weeks ago to about 20 people, and the responses we got back were very insightful. We can already see some common themes in the responses that indicate where we should be putting our energies. (I'd tell you what they are, but don't want to put ideas into your head before you take the survey!) If you receive a survey, I encourage you to take the time to respond to it. It will help us to set priorities for the coming year. If you do not receive a survey, but volunteered this past year, please contact me and I'll send you the link so you can contribute, too. We're accepting responses through April 6.

Once the responses are in, we'll tabulate the results and post the highlights here. It should be very interesting.

One final thing: Special thanks to Deanne Adams, our Pacific West Regional Chief of Interpretation and Education, who invested a lot of time helping us to put the survey together and get it posted.