Results of the 2022 Member Survey: What we found and who won!

The member survey was open from 18–31 January 2022 and was sent to all Canoe Wales members with an email address on our database. It was fantastic to see a total of 258 responses, or about 6% of members.

179 respondents entered the prize draw to win a year’s free membership, and we are pleased to announce that the winner is Iain Jardine from Dragon Paddlers.

Overall findings suggest our members are still generally satisfied with Canoe Wales membership. In fact, membership satisfaction has increased again up to 74% (from 69% last year), which appears to be down to a good "onboarding" process for new members, good communication (including through COVID-19), increasing member engagement through events like the Roadshows, and the success of inclusive programmes like #ShePaddles Cymru.

Here are some other key findings from the survey:

• You told us you like the magazine and the engaging content it presents, along with the increasing news items on our website and social media engagement.
  
  
• Access is a continual concern for you, and we know that many of you think we should be doing more in this area. Likewise, quite a few members suggested we do more of a focus on the environment and engage with more environment-based groups going forward.
  
  
• Many of you have reminded us that you find the coaching scheme confusing, and we will ensure your feedback is passed onto British Canoeing Awarding Body who control the scheme. We will also do what we can over the next 12 months to provide guidance and updates to help people understand some of the recent changes and developments. Some of you have also told us you find the scheme financially or time onerous.
  
  
• 74% of you have been satisfied with our response to COVID-19 and appreciated our regular communications about the guidance and accessibility of staff for questions or support. Some of you reminded us how significant the impact of the early 2021 lockdown was to you as paddlers, and that you felt we should have done more to influence Welsh Government.
  
  
• We know that clubs are struggling to find enough volunteers and train up enough coaches and leaders. Some of you would like to see programmes like #ShePaddles Cymru rolled out to other underrepresented groups.

So we’ve some interesting and useful insights which will help inform what we do and how we do it going forwards into 2022. For the first time, we gave an option to leave us your contact details for a follow up about any concern you have raised and (if you left your contact details) we will be following up with you over the next few weeks.

The results of the survey will also help to shape the new 2024-28 Strategy, and we will be providing you more opportunity to engage in the development of the strategy over the next 12 months.

Finally, the Canoe Wales Board has already reviewed the findings and would like to pass their appreciation to all members who engaged in the process. The next opportunity to tell us what you think will be at the Canoe Wales 2022 Roadshows. We’re finalising plans for the events which we shall be launching very shortly. We hope to see some of you there!