40th Season Year End Survey

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey! We think you’ll find the results interesting.

Right up front we want to thank you for the many positive comments we received. Someone wrote “Love you guys.” Well, we love you right back!

As important as receiving the warm and fuzzy kudos, is the candid feedback and suggestions for change. We’ll summarize your ideas, suggestions, and comments along with our action plans to address them.

Q1. How satisfied are you with the speakers we presented this past season?

Just under 90% are satisfied with our speaker choices which is a great statistic to see. We are concerned with the small number who are unsatisfied with our speakers. Please feel free to speak with Lori Sims (or any Director) to explain why you feel that way. Of course, our aim is to present quality speakers with interesting and informative topics.

We can’t bat 100% with every speaker. We cringe too when they don’t perform to expectations. We aren’t looking for individuals to read long excerpts from a book – or use profanity. We rely on referrals from others, research potential speakers on the Internet (including You Tube if they have posted material).

To respond to a few questions and suggestions, a committee does exist to finalize the speaker selection. Lori Sims does a tremendous job sourcing potential candidates. Members also pass along recommendations. Thank you to those who gave us speaker ideas on this survey. Once a list is compiled, the full CCH Board weighs in on who they believe will be the best speakers to attract members and guests to our events. Not every invitation extended is accepted. Some speakers are represented by agencies and will only speak for a fee. We are fortunate to have individuals within reach that have great stories to share. We believe our reputation also supports our ability to attract great speakers. Our 41^st season list has been finalized, and we look forward to, what we think, will be another outstanding season. Lastly, we aim to have a variety of topic areas and try to avoid duplication of topic in any two-year period.

Q2. How satisfied are you with the quality of the meals provided by the Oakville Conference Centre?

We are pleased to see 89% are satisfied with the quality of meals at the Conference Centre.

We did receive some specific food feedback on the question how we could make your experience better related to meals:

“I am a chicken, whitefish and beef guy. Everything else is off base.”

Any caterer will tell you a challenge is providing meals that ‘safe’ for larger crowds. OCC does provide vegetarian or gluten free dishes as an example and need to know if you have any food allergies. See next comment response.

Fewer chicken dinners and consider fish, pork, pasta, stir fry, etc.

We had a few comments on too many chicken meals. We will request greater variety and liked the suggestion of soup the odd time in place of salad.

Someone said servers missed tea and coffee sometimes.

We’ll ask OCC to be aware. Don’t be shy to flag a server down.

Have a greater wine selection. Usually only one red, one white.

We will ask OCC if they can have more variety.

Someone thought the portions are too large.

That is a tough one as a large number are happy with meals, so please eat only what you are comfortable with.

Q3. Would you be willing to “share” our event announcements with your social media contacts?

Quite a number mentioned they don’t use social media. But 29% said they would help share our event announcements! [Corrected – July 27]

Marg Milley our new marketing director will be asking for your help as she puts out Instagram and Facebook event posts.

One of our goals is to boost our number of attendees to keep Canadian Club of Halton viable. Your help is critical to this objective. As you know, there is nothing better than a personal referral. If you were to ‘share’ our social media, perhaps with a supportive comment, we would be very grateful.

A few of you suggested we focus on attracting younger guests. We’d love that too. Marg is putting her thinking cap on but would welcome your ideas too. Again, you can play an important role in promoting the club or thinking who might be interested in an upcoming speaker, and reach out to family, friends and neighbours.

Q4. What can we could do to make your Canadian Club experience better?

As we previously mentioned we received some great input on a variety of topics. We’ll summarize here.

Open Seating

You surprised us with the number of comments requesting “open seating” expressing a desire to sit with new people.

“Please go back to first come, first served in terms of seating. That way people would meet new friends as it was before.”

“Have members mix and mingle. There are some really interesting and nice folks who attend. We’re missing out by not moving around.”

“I like meeting and chatting with members.”

“Switch people so that it makes it interesting to meet new people.”

We heard you and the Executive met to discuss your wishes. Dave Dickson and Sandra King are a task force of two who will be trying to balance out the request of some that wish to sit as a regular group, to dealing with specific requests to accommodate mobility issues, hearing challenges, or putting the guest speaker at the front. We’re not sure totally open seating is the answer where we have a line up at the doors at 6 pm and everyone runs for a table. We’ve talked to a few table groups who regularly sit together and some like it as this is their ‘monthly social’, others said we see each other often so sitting with others would be fun, and it would be different people each event. Likely you’ll see an “OPEN” tick box on the ticket order form, which means we’ll have an “Open Seating” spot for you. Specific seating requirements will have a “reserved” sign on the seat so please respect those spots. There may be some kinks to work out, so please be patient with us.

Timing – You though current timing is fine (bar 6 pm, meal 7 pm, speaker 8 pm, conclude 9:30). You liked us being prompt.

Cogeco – You like knowing when taped talks will be aired. We don’t receive a schedule but will continue to watch their guide for airtimes and let you know.