Assessing membership relations programs : a national investigation of communication, evaluation and feedback techniques at zoological parks and aquariums

Membership departments at zoological parks and aquariums are constantly working to retain existing members by employing various communication tactics such as exclusive membership events, public service announcements and members-only magazines and newsletters. Communication tactics must be evaluated to display public relations success and financial accountability within organizational systems, and member relations departments must employ two-way communications to survive within organizational and organization-public systems. The primary purpose of this study, conducted in cooperation with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) and The University of Tennessee Communications Research Center, is to examine member relations, communication and evaluation tactics employed among zoos and aquariums accredited by AZA. This study employs an Internet-based survey that was distributed to all zoos and aquariums that have membership departments and societies and are members of AZA. The total population for this study was 160. The total number of zoological societies that responded to the questionnaire was 73, thus the response rate for this study was 45.6 percent. Data reveal that the most dominant communication tactics used to retain members are Internet Web sites, renewal mailings and newspaper media releases, and the most dominant evaluation techniques employed to measure the effectiveness of communication tactics within membership departments and societies are number of people who participate in events and activities, number of telephone calls to membership hotlines and departments, and the number of people who renew their memberships. Further, in functioning within organizational and organization-public systems, membership departments and societies most often incorporate two-way communication techniques via means of membership hotlines and telephone calls, comments from Web site submissions and inquiry surveys. Results further reveal that membership departments and societies use Internet Web sites more than nine times per year across all budget and membership sizes. In addition, it was found that there is a significant difference between channels of distribution of communication tactics and number of household memberships. Only in zoos and aquarium with high membership sizes were the majority of communication tactics disseminated from membership departments as opposed "to public relations, marketing or communication departments.