First of all a big thank you to everyone who completed our wide-ranging information gathering questionnaire, which closed on 7th April 2017.
The members of the SBIF Review Working Group are sharing the task of analysing the responses and we are very pleased at the quality of insight and information that people have included within their responses, and we really appreciate and value the amount of time and effort that has been spent by each respondent. Although the analysis is at an early stage, we do have some headline statistics to share.
SBIF results so far
A total of 290 respondents completed the questionnaire. The pie chart below shows the number of respondents by country, the majority of whom, 209 (72.1%), were from Scotland.
Sectors
Responses were received from all sectors, and overall, the largest number of respondents had roles in non-governmental organisations (77 respondents (26.6%)), followed by recorders and recording group operators (47 respondents (16.2%)) and national recording scheme operators (35 respondents (12.1%)). The rest of the respondents were well-spread across the other sectors so we are pleased at the reach of the questionnaire, both geographically and sectorally.
Motivation
One early section of the responses that has been analysed looks at our motivation, and across all roles the 290 respondents provided 495 responses to the question ‘What motivates you to be a <ROLE>?’ (each respondent could have supplied responses in relation to up to 12 roles). All responses were classified as relating to, or being primarily motivated by, one of seven broad themes: passion for recording, wildlife, nature, the environment and conservation; improved data quality, standards, skills or knowledge; job satisfaction and effective fulfilment of their professional function; scientific curiosity and a wish to know more; duty and responsibility; needing access to data of interest; and leaving a legacy.
The results are shown in the table below: primary motivators (highlighted): the most frequent theme across responses by role. Respondents with the roles of Recorder and Scheme Operator were primarily motivated by their passion for recording, wildlife, nature, the environment and conservation; those with the roles of Data Developer, Verifier, Data Provider, Facilitator, Service Provider and Collection Curator were primarily motivated by their desire to improve data quality, standards, skills or available knowledge; and, those with the roles of Service User, Funder, Group Operator and Data User were primarily motivated by job satisfaction and effective fulfilment of their professional function. Note that one role, Service Provider, had two motivators of equal priority (their desire to improve and their wish for job satisfaction and effective professional fulfilment). Perhaps it was to be expected that the primary motivation for recorders IS a passion for recording, wildlife, nature, the environment and conservation, but it is good to see that message coming through in the results.
Analysis of the questionnaire findings will continue over the next few weeks and once competed the full report will be published on the Scotland pages of the NBN website.