Preparing for the Board Retreat

Survey of Membership
Recently the board emailed members and requested that they participate in a survey. While not every EIFA member participated in the survey, the results, along with data about membership renewal rates, were used as the basis for a board retreat.

The board asked members how many of their children were under the age of 10: 61% of respondents have 1-3 children under 10, while 40% of respondents have no children under the age of 10. While 94% of our members have children who could have been, were, or are currently eligible for early intervention services, only 55% of respondents report that they have children with disabilities or special healthcare needs (this could be because their child had delays which were resolved as a result of receiving early intervention services). We also asked about involvement in various organizations, 61% reported that they had participated on their State's ICC, 50% reported involvement on their Local ICC, 44% are committee members on their State or Local ICC, 72% are involved in family support groups and 72% are involved in other disability advocacy organizations.

Clearly our members are busy and involved family leaders promoting early intervention and disability-rights programs.  We asked members about which EIFA activities or resources they use while some respondents indicated that they want more information, 44% participated in the annual meeting, 33% participate in web discussions, 16% follow @eifaorg on twitter, 33% visit the EIFA Facebook fanpage and 72% use materials from the website.  Individuals responded: that they wanted more information on current issues, policy and best practices, want more information about the resources and that they would like to be used as resources to other family leaders.

Membership Data
The Board also looked at the current membership rolls. Efforts to encourage families participating in early intervention leadership trainings to join EIFA has lead to increased members. Unfortunately, these same members are not renewing their membership at the same rate as parents of children who are older. Additionally, EIFA continues to have a heavy concentration of members in Northeastern states, particularly those states with strong parent leadership projects.