Association member survey questions to gauge interest in data licensing

What is this survey for, and when should an association send it?

This is a seven-question, non-confidential member survey that tells an association whether enough members are curious about licensing their company records to justify a briefing. It collects opinions and system names only. It never collects records, customer names, prices or any file.

Send it before you book a speaker, not after. A short poll sent with the membership newsletter, or handed out at a regional chapter meeting, gives the board a number to act on: how many members have years of records in several systems, and how many want an education session on data licensing.

The survey fits an association that already runs member polls, annual conferences or committee calls. It does not need a new platform. Any form tool or the survey module in your association management system works.

The seven-question survey

Paste the text below into your form tool. Keep the order: easy facts first, interest last.

How do you personalize the questions for your members?

Change the wording to match the way your members talk about their own business. A trade group for freight brokers will say "TMS" where a software association says "product analytics".

How do you read the results?

Look at three cross-tabs rather than a single average. They tell you whether a briefing is worth the board's time.

Report only totals to the board. Do not publish a list of respondents, and do not forward email addresses to anyone without the respondent's clear permission.

What follow-up timing works after the survey closes?

Keep the cycle short so the interest does not cool.

1. Close the survey two weeks after the first send, with one reminder on day seven.
2. Share a one-page summary of totals with the board within a week.
3. Send the briefing invitation only to people who ticked Maybe or Yes on Q7 and left an email.
4. Hold the briefing within a month. Cover the process, the rights questions and the limits, using the company data readiness survey as a self-check handout for attendees.
5. Let interested members take the next step themselves, either by asking questions of the presenter or by running the company fit checker, which is a preliminary, non-binding screen that needs no contact details.

What must never go in the survey?

The point of this survey is that it is safe. Keep it that way.

• No questions about prices, margins, customer lists, win rates, pay or any other competitively sensitive subject. A trade group that circulates that kind of information can create problems; read the antitrust basics for associations discussing data with members and have your counsel review the final form.
• No request for files, screenshots, data samples or records of any kind.
• No promise that a member will be paid, and no reward amounts. Anything a partner earns is described only in the program terms.
• No claim that the association endorses a buyer or guarantees a result.
• No pooling of answers into a shared dataset. Each company decides about its own records, as explained in can an industry association license members' data together?.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel before circulating member surveys.

How does the survey connect to the partner program?

An association can register as a partner and make introductions that members choose to take up. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward is paid only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. Check your association's bylaws and its counsel's view on accepting fees before you register. The referral opportunities for industry associations page covers how associations usually structure this, and the association member value proposition ideas guide shows where a briefing fits in a member program.

Next step

Copy the seven questions into your form tool this week, run them past counsel, and send them with your next member email. If the numbers justify a briefing, register as a partner and use the network opportunity finder to plan which member segments to invite first.