Standardization News

We have many stakeholders at ASTM International, but none are more central to our mission than our members. It’s crucial that our staff hears from members so we can understand how we can continue to meet their needs.

In January, more than 1,400 members completed a 25-question membership satisfaction survey, which was a mix of closed- and open-ended questions conducted by an outside company.

If you are a member who took the survey, thank you. This fresh portrait of our membership is invaluable to me as I step into my new role.

After personally reviewing the data and each of the hundreds of comments — along with others on our staff — I am pleased to say that the results show satisfaction is high across nearly all areas. The findings are strikingly comparable to the high levels we saw five years ago when we did a very similar survey.

You can see some of the specific results if you scroll down to the graphics below. Overall, here are the themes that stood out to me:

• ASTM International serves a diverse membership, reflecting a broad demographic range with varying priorities and needs. This is a challenge that we must continue to meet, and respondents gave us great ideas for how we can support the specific populations they represent, such as emerging professionals.
• ASTM International’s global footprint is one of its most important assets. Nearly one-third of respondents were from outside the United States. And regardless of where members live, they place a high value on international activities and the global applicability of ASTM standards and products.
• The ASTM International process and our standards retain industry’s highest respect. Members rated very highly their satisfaction with and significance of ASTM standards to industry and business. And respondents continue to put a premium on the quality of standards that come from the globally respected ASTM process.
• Onboarding new members is important. We need to explore and implement more and better ways to help new members quickly get involved and acclimated to our website and member tools.
• Virtual participation is highly valued. While attendance at committee weeks continues to grow, many members want more options to participate virtually whenever possible.

We are in the process of sharing the results of the survey with our board of directors and our staff. Some of the findings and suggestions are immediately actionable. Others will take some time to discuss and deliberate best courses of action.

Rest assured that the decisions we make related to our membership will be placed in the context of this rich new quantitative and qualitative data.

One important note: We did the survey anonymously to ensure candid feedback. The drawback to that approach is that we can’t follow up directly with those members who had specific questions in areas like website navigation and committee participation. If you’re in that situation, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your staff managers for help or to give suggestions at any time. I personally welcome comments and suggestions.

Looking forward, I am pleased to say that we also recently conducted a survey of our customers. More than 600 have responded as of this writing. We are analyzing those results to make sure that we continue to offer the value-added products and services that customers, members, and others want and need.

Thank you for providing feedback through these surveys. Your input is immensely helpful to our senior staff team and everyone throughout ASTM International as we plan for the future.

Katharine E. Morgan
President, ASTM International