This month AuSAE welcomes Jon Bisset, Chief Executive Officer, Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) as our Member in Focus. Jon recently spoke with AuSAE about his role, member analysis and the future for CBAA.
How did you first become involved with the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA)?
I joined the CBAA as Chief Executive Officer in February 2013. The CBAA is a charity and peak industry association for the community radio industry. The CBAA’s role is to champion community broadcasting by building stations’ capability and by creating a healthy environment for the sector to thrive. The CBAA's member stations actively broadcast nationwide to over 5 million listeners per week.
In a recent article featured on LinkedIn, you discuss if we really know our members and prospective members and how knowing member needs was a key to the future success of the CBAA. How did the CBAA begin to gather data on member needs and what were the key questions/findings?
When I joined the CBAA in 2013 the Board and I commenced a review of our strategy. We decided that a comprehensive independent member research project was a priority to inform the plans development.
We engaged Randall Pearce of Think: Insight and Advice who firstly conducted a series of interviews with a cross section of our members, followed by a World Café at our National Conference and then an online survey of members. The results gave us a comprehensive picture of what our members wanted, how we were doing in delivering our initiatives and what kept station management up at night.
Whilst we had very good levels of member satisfaction the research did identify several areas where we could make improvements. I talk about what we have done and the changes we have made following our initial member research on my LinkedIn Blog.
With our 2014 research acting as an initial benchmark we are now undertaking membership research on an annual basis to track how we are doing and any changes in member needs. Just this week we have received the results of our 2015 survey and its pleasing to see that while overall satisfaction has remained consistent with 2014, there has been an increase in members who are extremely satisfied with their membership of the CBAA.
How does the future look for the CBAA?
The future is very bright for the CBAA. Over the last year we have achieved some fantastic results.
Membership levels are now at the highest ever, there has been a significant improvement in member satisfaction with our communications which was a key priority over the last year follow its identification in our member research, we have just wrapped up one of our biggest national conferences ever and our Australian Music Radio Airplay Project has just finished one of its strongest years.
What would you say to someone starting out in the not-for-profit sector with a view to become a future leader?
Association leadership is a real skill for which there are no specific university degrees. I always encourage those new to the sector to go out and meet other association executives - we are often facing similar challenges. Knowing others in the industry with whom you can discuss these challenges and learn from others experiences is vitally important.
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AuSAE thanks member Jon Bisset for appearing in the November Edition of AuSAE Insider. AuSAE recognises a current member every month, acknowledging their success and ongoing commitment to advancing the not-for-profit sector. If you would like to share your story with other executives, please contact Kim Miller, GM Australia AuSAE at kimberley@ausae.org.au.
