Ask your members questions and see everyone's answers added up. You write the questions and press Publish. SocietyPress makes the page and gives you a link to send out. Each member can answer once, and a survey can be anonymous, so you see who took part but not who said what.
How to run your first survey
SocietyPress → Surveys → Add New Survey.
- Survey title. Members see this at the top (e.g. "2027 Membership Survey").
- Introduction. Optional. Why you're asking, and how long it takes.
- Questions. Type each question and pick the kind of answer: - Multiple choice (pick one) or Drop down menu for things like age group or county. - Checkboxes (pick many) for "which of these interest you?" - Rating scale (agree/disagree) comes worded Strongly disagree through Strongly agree. Type your own wording in the choices box if you want something different. - Star rating (1 to 5) also reports an average. - Paragraph text for written answers.
- Grid for several statements on the same scale ("How satisfied are you with…" meetings, the newsletter, the website). Type the statements one per line. The scale across the top is Strongly disagree through Strongly agree unless you type your own. - Page break splits a long survey into pages. Type a heading for the next page if you like. Members see one page at a time with a progress bar.
Tick Required if everyone must answer it. Use the arrows to change the order.
Ask this question can be left on Always, or set to ask only when an earlier answer matches. For example, ask "What kind of help could you give?" only when someone answered Yes to "Would you consider volunteering?".
- Optional: set Opens on and Last day to answer. Leave them empty to open when you press Publish and close when you press Close.
- Press Publish. The box on the right shows the link. Press Copy and paste it into your email or newsletter.
Starting from a template
At the bottom of the Surveys screen, Start from a template offers a ready-made Seminar feedback survey and a Membership survey (age group, years in the society, what members use, and satisfaction). Either one makes a new draft you can change before publishing.
To reuse your own survey next year, open it and press Save as Template, or choose Duplicate under its name on the Surveys screen. Only the questions and wording are copied, not the answers.
Emailing members
The Invitations tab emails the survey for you.
- Invite sends to every active member who hasn't opted out of society notices and hasn't already been invited or answered. Press it again later to reach only members who joined since.
- Remind sends only to invited members who haven't answered yet.
Each member gets their own link. It lets them answer without signing in, and still only once, so it also works for members who never set a password. Emails go out in small batches over a few minutes. Edit the subject and message on the same tab. {first_name} and {survey_title} are filled in for each member.
Anonymous or named
Anonymous is on for every new survey.
- On: the Results tab lists who has taken part, but no answer is tied to a name. Answers are dated by day only, and the list of who took part has no dates, so nobody can match an answer to a person by when it came in.
- Off: each member's name and email appear next to their answers in the spreadsheet. Use this when you need to know who said what, such as "who's bringing what to the potluck."
Members see a line above the questions saying which kind of survey it is.
Once anyone has answered, the Anonymous setting is locked. Members answered under that promise, so it can't be changed afterwards.
Who can answer
Members in good standing is the default. Members sign in, and each one can answer once.
Anyone who has the link opens the survey to the public. With no sign-in to check, SocietyPress stops casual repeat answers from the same browser, but someone determined could answer twice. Keep it to members when the count matters.
Reading the results
Open the survey and choose the Results tab. You'll see:
- how many members have answered, out of how many could
- Who has answered: click it to see the list
- every question with its answers counted, including choices nobody picked
- every written answer
- Download answers as a spreadsheet for your own analysis (anonymous surveys are shuffled, so row order says nothing about who answered first)
- Break the answers down by any single-choice question, such as age group, to see how each group answered everything else
- Printable Summary opens a clean page to print for the board
Closing and reopening
Close Survey stops new answers. The page stays up and tells latecomers the survey has ended, so the link in your email doesn't lead to an error. Results stay on the Results tab.
Reopen Survey brings it back at the same link.
You can change what members see in each case under Wording: the button text, the thank-you message, the message for someone who has already answered, and the message after it closes.
If something looks wrong
A member says the survey won't let them answer. They probably aren't signed in, or their membership has lapsed. The survey page tells them which.
A member says it told them they'd already answered. They have. Each member gets one answer.
A question never appears. Check its Ask this question setting. It only shows when the earlier answer matches.
The survey's page is gone. If someone deleted it from the Pages screen, open the survey and press Put the Page Back.
Surveys isn't in the menu. Settings → Modules → turn on Surveys.