About this research:

A common theme among professional organizations, particularly those rooted in academic research, is that membership rates are declining and tend to skew towards older, more established academics nearing retirement age. Given these trends, this study seeks to identify the perceptions of and value found in professional academic organizations among early career researchers and professional level graduate students. With an abundance of free resources available for these individuals to “find their tribe” including social media, the free web economy, and new for-profit organizations, it is imperative that membership groups understand and communicate their value to new members. The old model of “here’s the newsletter, thanks for paying your dues, we’ll see you at the conference” doesn’t work any longer. Organizations must engage and interact with their younger members and fill a need often not met or seen as valuable among the “old guard.” This study seeks to identify the best practices and features of organizations named as being important and valuable to early career academics.

Note: by completing the sort activity and answering the narrative questions, you are providing your consent for your data and responses to be used in this study and any resultant publications. Please DO NOT provide any personally identifying information. Any information that could identify you (the participant) or a professional organization by name, affiliation, etc will be removed from analysis and write-up. 

This research is being conducted under IRB approval and is subject to all terms and regulations thereof. 

Participant Instructions: 

Please note that this research instrument has TWO parts, and that both parts must be completed for your responses to be accurately recorded. In each part, there is an entry for a "unique identifier." You may choose any identifier you wish, but would strongly urge you to select something like your birthday or wedding anniversary (MMDD), the digits of your street address, or the last four of your phone number. Please, please DO NOT enter something like "1111" or "1234," as these entries make your responses (and the responses of everyone else who chose the same code) virtually unusable. (The Q sort instrument may ask for your email address. You may provide it if you wish, or you may enter a fake address).

Participant criteria: 
In order to participate in this research, we ask that you:
*be a graduate student or early career faculty/researcher (defined here as pre-tenure or within 5 years of your initial appointment), 
*be familiar with (but not necessarily active in) at least one dues-requiring professional organization in your field or methodology, and
*agree to complete both parts of the research instrument to the best of your ability and with good faith responses. 

Click here to begin Part 1: Q-sort
Click here to complete Part 2: Demographic form and narrative responses

About this research: 

Children’s birthday parties, military simulations, and weekend evenings spent around a campfire: what do these scenarios have in common? Quickly growing as a recreational pastime in America and abroad, combat action sports, namely paintball, airsoft, and tactical target shooting, are drawing larger crowds and gaining traction in the outdoor sports market. Scenario games hosted by tiny fields in small towns can draw upwards of 2,500 people from across the country for a three-day event. Speedball game tournaments are hosted on national and international sports news networks. Who chooses to participate in these games, and why? 

Participant Instructions:

Please note that this research instrument has TWO parts, and that both parts must be completed for your responses to be accurately recorded. In each part, there is an entry for a "unique identifier." You may choose any identifier you wish, but would strongly urge you to select something like your birthday (MMDD), the digits of your street address, or the last four of your phone number. Please, please DO NOT enter something like "1111" or "1234," as these entries make your responses (and the responses of everyone else who chose the same code) virtually unusable. 

This research instrument has closed and data is under analysis.