Then and Now: What the Data Tell Us Since 2006
In November 2006 , when then-Executive Director Ray Joyce presented a membership report to the National Representative Council, he estimated that VOTF had about 35,000 members: people who had registered with VOTF either individually or through an affiliate and thus were counted in the organization’s database.
Of course, there were multiple databases at the time – which is why Ray estimated the total.. He based it on the expected final count that would emerge when a half-dozen office databases were consolidated and then de-duped (i.e., duplicated entries removed) to create the primary and secondary databases we now use.
Aside from the estimate, Ray also had a “hard count” for the number of postal addresses stored in the various databases. That number was 27,564 – the total of appeal letters mailed to members in September 2006.
Ray had an email address count too, because VOTF also communicated regularly to members via email. In November 2006, he reported, VOTF used the communications service to send out 21,580 emails.
Where do we stand now in comparison with 2006? Healthy.
In February 2008, with a cleaned-up database, VOTF has 43,088 individuals registered in the organization.
For postal addresses, we count 29,086 – that’s the number of appeal letters mailed in December 2007. Note that the number of postal addresses, in both 2006 and 2007, is lower than the total number of individuals registered. That’s because postal mail excludes (a) those who provide an email address only; (b) those who are spouses or who reside in a multiple-person household; and (c) those who do not wish to be solicited by mail.
In 2006, Ray also reported that VOTF used its Constant Contact email database to reach 21,580 recipients. The number of “active” email addressees in February 2008 is 23,004. (The total number of addresses in this communications database is 33,503 but the higher number includes emails that are currently bouncing and ones whose recipients have not opened an email in more than 3 months.)
Why Use Three Measures?
Using three measures, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each, gives us a better picture of where we really stand. Looking only at total numbers in the database, for example, doesn’t tell us how many people maintain a high enough interest to read about us and what we are doing – it’s not a good measure of active support. But it’s a very good measure of the number of individuals who support our mission and goals enough to tell us who they are and that they are “with us.”
Similarly, using only the number of postal addresses won’t tell us how many individuals support us, because we mail only one letter to each household no matter how many belong to VOTF in that household. Plus some people ask us not to send emails but to send only “snail mail.” Conversely, some folks won’t tell us where they live but happily share their email addresses with us so they can receive the latest In the Vineyard or Focus e-letters – and that’s another way of measuring their level of interest in VOTF.
There’s always an overlap in the measurements. Some people may be a name and email address, so they are counted in the primary database and in the communications database but don’t show up in the postal count. Others give us postal addresses but are not in the email count. Some are listed by name in one database but only as “& spouse” in another.
The numbers change almost daily, of course, because new people register, current members ask to be removed, or we lose track of people who have moved – not to mention the ever-present problem of those who forget to update email addresses.
But by all three measures of registered members, VOTF continues to grow:
