Subject: CSA-L and Outreach and Turnover Questions

From: John Barclay <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 20:16:35 -0500 (CDT)

The number of subscribers to CSA-L has grown gradually to 92 over the 
last couple of months.  People who are new to the list are welcome to 
send out a short description of themselves, the CSA they work with, 
and what they are looking to gain from this e-mail network list. Below 
are some general questions I have regarding member turnover and 
outreach:  

We've just finished signing up members for our third year at Prairieland 
CSA in Champaign, IL.  Over three years we've grown from 30 (1994) to 70 
(1995) to 110 (1996)  members, but have had high turnover and a trend 
toward more people purchasing the smaller of the two size shares we 
offer.  Despite a slow start in recruiting this February and March, we 
ended up surpassing our outreach goals by the beginning of May.  
Approximately 2/3 of last years 70 shareholders left and many more new 
members joined this year.  Many of our shareholders are from the local 
university community (University of Illinois) so we expect a fair amount 
of turnover, but not this much and we have little success getting surveys 
back from the shareholders that don't come back.

I am interested in hearing from other CSA's how great their turnover is 
and if turnover rates do eventually drop as CSAs grow older.  I expected 
a high percentage of the first-time members to not return, but I also 
expected that over the years first-time members would make up a smaller 
and smaller percentage of the CSA, thus decreasing the overall turnover 
rate.  This doesn't seem to be happening.  

After we take a closer look at the various ways we did outreach and which 
were most effective, I plan to post the results to CSA-L.  I would be 
interested in what types of outreach work for other CSA's as well as any 
innovative ideas such as the CSA that gives out free sample shares during 
the season.

John Barclay, Prairieland CSA, Champaign, IL

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From: "Leslie L. Pelch" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 09:16:44 -0400 (EDT)

Dear Mr. Barclay and the CSA list community,
before I address the question of outreach and turnover I would like to 
introduce myself.  I am a graduate student (for a few more days) at the 
University of Vermont in Burlington, VT, and I have just finished a 
thesis entitled:  An Economic Analysis of CSA Consumers.  I did a survey 
of members, ex-members, and non-members of three CSAs in Vermont, and 
then performed some statistical and econometric analysis on the data 
collected.  My purpose in life is NOT to become a number-cruncher, but 
rather to learn about the ways in which we can create a more sustainable 
food system and then apply what I have learned in the communities where I 
live.
So anyway, Word of mouth was definitely the most successful form of 
outreach because members (as opposed to ex and non-members) were most 
likely to have heard via that route.  The large CSA near where I live has 
gone through a lot of membership changes since it began 7 or so years ago 
and I can only relate my impressions of those changes.  It is only in the 
last 2 or 3 years that they have been able to attract plenty of members, 
and I believe that it is a result of settling into the operation, the 
land, and the community.  It takes time for the people who are really 
comfortable dealing with CSA to find it, and it takes time for the 
farmers to figure out what to offer in terms of services and produce.  
One of the innovative (although it may be a common practice?) things that 
they do is reward members who bring in friends to be members.  Given the 
results of my research, this is a very good idea.  I believe they gave 
away canvas bags with the CSA logo on it.  I would suggest that getting 
feedback from those members who are not renewing is the most important 
thing you could do.  If take home surveys aren't being returned, perhaps 
you should see if some of your committed members would be willing to do 
short phone surveys, perhaps just a random sample rather than the whole 
membership.  Good luck.
Leslie

***********************************
Leslie Pelch
Morrill Hall
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05401
(802)656-1022
[email-masked]
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