Thank you to everyone who responded to our PA Future Directions Survey, especially to those who offered help and support. Don’t worry, we will definitely be getting to you and taking you up on your kind offer very soon!
Meanwhile, if you meant to fill in the survey and thought you had missed the deadline, we have decided to keep it open until 14 May 2017.
Preliminary findings — 15 February 2017
Summary of information so far…
The PA survey went live on 1 November 2016. Of those who have responded so far:
- 97% live in Australia
- Nearly half have been actively involved in permaculture for less than 5 years
- One quarter have been actively involved in permaculture for at least 20 years
- Half of respondents were actively involved in permaculture in just one of the options given. 21% were involved in 2 activities, 13% in 3 activities and 16% in 4-7 activities. Half of respondents indicated this involvement was ‘Community Garden/Other community group’
Figure 1: Responses to’ How long have you been actively involved in Permaculture in some way?’
Examples of responses so far:
On: Do you support the current requirement for an ordinary PA member to have a PDC or APT qualification in order to vote? 52% responded ‘yes’, 22% responded ‘no’ and 47% were unsure.
On: Currently, only those present at the AGM and their proxies can vote. For electing the Board, should there be a membership wide ballot? 53% responded ‘yes’, 14% wanted it left as it is, and 34% were unsure.
On rating the key directions listed:
At least 30% of respondents gave a high importance rating to all of the options presented. Two options had a high importance rating of above 50%. And suggestions were made to improve the Key Directions.
On: PA relies on working groups for carrying out its work. What skills do you have that you might be prepared to contribute in some way? 100 responded citing at least one skill.
Hearteningly, 59 respondents gave a contact email or name.
Compiled by:
Wendy Marchment, PA Member
The PA Board is grateful to Wendy for her expertise. Survey writing is a specialised skill and here is a great example of support being offered to PA by an expert in the field. Thanks Wendy!