Focus Group Facilitation
Whether getting ready to do a renovation, an assessment or a membership initiative, it is always worthwhile to understand how your members are feeling about specific issues. CMC has found this vehicle to be nearly as valuable as the member survey, but infinitely less expensive.
CMC will provide you with the process to select focus group participants, set up the appropriate questions based upon your specific situation and then facilitate the meetings with select groups of members. CMC will meet with a maximum of three groups per day. At the end of the process, the facilitator will prepare a written summary of each group's response as well as an overview of the facilitator's perceptions.
The focus group program is designed to determine member’s impressions, understanding and attitude concerning the offerings of the club, its services and its facilities. Facilitation of the focus group session is best handled by an objective outsider to ensure that the discussions are more open and free flowing. The importance of the focus group, similar to a member survey, is that it allows the decision makers to quantify, in a more narrow sense, the feelings of the members on issues that may effect strategic planning, operations, event offerings, renovations and even, membership replenishment. Conversely, understanding the members views may also provide insights as to how best educate them relative to any elements of planning that may need their approval or consensus, such as a membership program.
These guidelines are meant to provide criteria for the selection of participants in the Club’s focus group sessions being facilitated by Club Mark Corporation’s staff.
Selection of participants should follow these guidelines
• Equal participation based upon gender & age of participants
• Diverse interests and usages of the Club (Golfers, social)
• Both positive and negative views of operations, facilities, etc.
• Tenure of membership (New members and those with 5 or more years of tenure)
• Make-up of family (Younger w/families and older empty nesters)
• Cultural differentiations (By race, sexual preference, etc.)
You should have no more than eight to ten participants at each session. Sessions are generally scheduled for and should last for exactly one hour. (Anyone wishing to stay and talk is welcomed, but in deference to the member’s time we generally try to stay at no more than an hour) The CMC facilitator will ensure that the conversations move along with the agenda. Each participant will be provided with an agenda as well as a background sheet on the CMC staff person. This provides credibility to the process.
CMC will work together with the Club to create acceptable questions for the focus group sessions. Criteria for selecting questions should be based upon trying to determine member’s perceptions about the Club and the services that it offers. Another aspect of the focus group sessions can be to ascertain the member’s level of willingness to support membership initiatives, renovations or other major decisions pending.
The deliverable to the Club after the focus group sessions have been concluded is a written executive summary as well as the verbatim responses of each group. CMC personnel shall provide a Board presentation of the executive summary along with any other facets of study work to a group of decision makers of the Club’s choice.
