Message From the Board Q2 2006

Aki Ito, GALA Board Chair

The results of 2006 GALA Member Survey are here. We will share the complete results in the May 2006 Member Monthly Update and at the semi-annual meeting in Barcelona. However, I would like to share some highlights of the survey results here.

Good News

The survey was open March 22 - April 9, 2006, and we received responses from 48% of our member companies. I am pleased to report that the results show GALA members are enjoying their experience with the association. In response to the question, “How would you rate your overall experience with GALA?”, 28% answered “Excellent” 60% answered “Good.” For the question, “Do you plan to renew your membership?”, 77% answered “Yes” and 23%) answered “Probably.” No members answered “Not likely” or “No” to this question.

I found the responses to the question, “Would you recommend membership to other companies?” very encouraging. 94% of respondents answered “Yes”, while only 6% answered “No.” Although we did not get a 100% “Yes” response rate, I think the generally positive response shows that GALA members recognize the benefits from membership and want GALA to be a leading industry association.

Areas for Improvement

When it comes to marketing-related member benefits, one of the findings shows that promotion of member companies on the GALA website is more important than participation in industry promotion initiatives or group advertising opportunities. However, when we asked if members have been contacted by prospective clients who found their company through the GALA website, only 24% responded “Yes.” I do not know if all member companies keep track of how prospective clients find them; however, this response gives feedback that GALA needs to improve the website to attract more prospective clients to our members. I would like to hear from members with your ideas on this matter. And, of course, we would love to hear from clients, too, on how GALA can make finding prospective suppliers and tools easier!

More Activities and Your Participation

Members are looking for increased promotion in Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. If you have ideas for regional promotions and events, we want to hear from you so that we can work together to promote the member companies and increase members in your region. The GALA Board is always open for proposals from members, and of course, we are also strategizing to increase our activities in these areas for the months and years to come.

Your participation is the key to our success. Every member company gets more benefit from the association when more members get involved in activities and take the lead on specific association initiatives. For this reason, I would like to ask each of you to promote the association within your own company and recruit volunteers for GALA initiatives that are important to you. For starters, I invite members to distribute GALA Monthly Updates and GALAxy to employees and give them opportunities to participate in our activities. This will give member employees a chance to be a part of an industry activities, and with more volunteers, help to create more benefits for the membership as a whole.

See You in Barcelona!

I hope to see many of you at the semi-annual meeting in Barcelona. Among other things, we will review the results of the member survey and use them to discuss resulting action items. We also have some fun activities planned for the meeting to make your participation an enjoyable experience.

For the GALA Board,

Aki Ito
GALA Board Chair