CURRENT TOPICS

RTO/ERO MEMBERSHIP SURVEY

Central Office carried out a survey in the fall of 2007. A percentage of the overall membership was chosen to reply to the survey. The following is an Executive Summary of the results of the members’ responses. It is a good snapshot of members’ viewpoints regarding RTO/ERO. The survey was conducted by Goldfarb Intelligence Marketing.

General members are not very likely to participate in District meetings or volunteer for RTO/ERO.

General members are likely to volunteer when they can, but they are not very interested in volunteering for RTO/ERO. Similarly, respondents who volunteer for RTO/ERO are also likely to volunteer for other organizations.

The majority of General respondents are not willing to volunteer in their local District of RTO/ERO; while 2 in 5 volunteer or are willing to volunteer, the proportion is different between General and Executive respondents. French speaking respondents are more likely to already volunteer for their local District while English speaking respondents are more willing to volunteer. French speaking members are usually more likely to participate than English-speaking members. Respondents in Greater Toronto and the French North and East are more likely to participate in RTO/ERO, while respondents in the Hamilton , St. Catharines and Niagara region are less likely to do so.

Executives are disproportionately retired administrators.

A small proportion of respondents use community services.

Practically all respondents read Renaissance.

More than half of General members skim through it. The most read section is the President's Message.

Although the majority of respondents have access to the Internet, only one-third access the RTO/ERO website several times per year.

Health Plans are the most used RTO/ERO's service.

General members are less involved in RTO/ERO than Executive members; they consider Health Plans and other insurance to be important, but they do not believe other services like social activities, travel or political action are as important.

Older respondents may be harder to please; respondents over 80 years old tend to think lobbying and political action are not important, compared to younger respondents. Nevertheless, they report being less satisfied with these items than younger respondents. Executive members tend to be more satisfied with services and programs offered by RTO/ERO.

Overall satisfaction with RTO/ERO is high among both General members and Executive members. The challenge is to get members to use additional benefits of the organization beyond health insurance.

Health Plans are retention drivers for both General and Executive members.

The derived importance analysis shows that even though General members state low importance of political action and lobbying, they are a hidden opportunity for General members. Participation and success in political action and lobbying would increase General member satisfaction. In addition, travel is a hidden opportunity for Executive members. Social and leisure activities are a retention driver for Executive members but are a low opportunity for General members. In order to retain Executive interest, social activities are required and travel would be appreciated.

Members report being satisfied with their current Health Plan, either RTO/ERO or other, but are less satisfied with RTO/ERO's plan (72%) than other plans (86%).

The Federal Government's Health Plan is the one that presents the highest level of satisfaction. The main reason for satisfaction with this Health Plan is adequate coverage. Drug coverage is the most important variable when considering Health Insurance. Executive members are significantly more likely to consider travel insurance an important feature of Health Insurance.

Perhaps because Executive members are themselves more politically involved, they are more likely to consider political issues important.                                                      

Health care is the political issue that is the most important for both General and Executive members. On the other hand, respondents 80 years old or older are less likely to consider political issues important. French-speaking respondents are less likely than English-speaking respondents to believe most political issues are important. The exception is PSA Testing, the second most important issue for French-speaking members following health care.

More than two-thirds of respondents are planning to travel fewer than 60 days per year in the next three to five years. Three-quarters of General respondents are planning to travel outside of Ontario , and more than two-thirds plan to travel outside of Canada . Executive members are more likely to plan to travel both outside of Ontario and outside of Canada .

Given the propensity of members to travel outside of Ontario and outside of Canada , travel insurance would likely be a welcome benefit of RTO/ERO.

Reaching out to new retirees is RTO/ERO's greatest strength. Other strengths are working with like-minded groups and lobbying for its issues of interest. Quickness to respond, bilingualism and being one of the best volunteer organizations in Canada are RTO/ERO's areas of weakness. Respondents tend to be neutral towards long-term planning, RTO/ERO as a Caring organization and competitiveness with other health plan providers. This neutrality can be translated into opportunities for RTO/ERO.

Almost half of General respondents would be willing to pay for extra services.

Members who have joined RTO/ERO recently are less willing to pay for extra services. In contrast, English-speaking respondents are more willing to pay for extra services than French-speaking respondents.

Older members are more likely to consider independent living and caregiver availability as important. As membership ages, enhancing these offerings may become more important to members generally.

 (RTO/ERO: Quantitative Long Term Planning Survey of Members Executive Summary)