DEFINITION OF MEMBERSHIP

The Challenges, Moving Forward:

• Current vs. Future Members: Avoiding any policy change that would require a current member to leave. Although we didn’t identify a specific chorus where this might be the case, the feedback was clear that if a current member is welcomed by their chorus and also feels welcome, they should be allowed to stay, regardless of the rule change.

• Male/Masculine Appearance: A number of interviewees said they would welcome anyone who is comfortable being part of a women’s organization but struggle to put someone on the risers who looks male or masculine.

• Male Voice: Interviewees were split on this. Some weren’t sure how to include a male voice in otherwise female music arrangements, while others said it’s fine but that person would probably have to sing bass.

• Feminine Terms: There seems to be very strong support for the phrase and meaning of a “sisterhood” within Sweet Adelines. Several interviewees also expressed concern over removing lyrics or entire songs that reference feminine words.

• Local Decision Making: A small number of interviewees indicated they didn’t mind how other areas operated but wanted to choose for themselves how they define women-centric and who they allow to join.

Pandemic Protocols

Your feedback shows we all navigated the pandemic and survived, even when many other membership organizations severely struggled. We did this even as we also faced significant challenges with the health issues that significantly reduced our ability to get together and sing, economic impacts and heightened awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Members were predictably split on pandemic protocols, just as our world is. You indicated that you would like to decide locally what procedures work for your chorus.

As with anything, communication will be extremely important as we navigate this ongoing issue, and we will continue to talk with you as we make decisions and potential course changes related to this health issue in the future.

Cost of Participation

Overall, members indicated they feel they’re receiving great value for their Sweet Adelines membership compared to the costs of being a member. They also are good with the various other related costs for competition, international education events and other expenses. Although it’s not clear, the feedback seems to indicate that members understand and accept each individual cost associated with participation, while recognizing that, overall, this is an expensive hobby.

Because 28% of those not intending to renew membership cited high cost of participation as one of their reasons, we intend to explore this issue to assure that local choruses know to be as clear as possible up front about costs.

For context, the 28% who cited high costs equates to about 60 individuals out of 214 respondents who intend to not renew. If we assume those numbers correlate to all 16,000+ members, that would mean about 600 members intend to not renew and presumably about 168 people around the world find cost to be high. However, by contrast, 69% of all 5,358 survey respondents rated high or very high perceived value vs. cost. Applied to all members, that would mean about 10,350 members are satisfied with cost of participation.