Empowering Industry: Improving two-way membership communication in peak industry bodies of the fishing and seafood industry

Funded Activity Summary

The seafood industry is comprised of national, state, regional and sector organisations all of whom have a "client group" with which two-way communication and connection is anticipated. It is also noted that industry organisations have identified the need to improve lines of communication between industry associations and their members as being critical for many associations survival.

Industry organisations have articulated the issues that impact on their associations'/organisations effectiveness and which they believe should be researched and could be addressed through improved and coordinated communication strategies via a research project.

The identified issues are:

• Defining how organisations are relevant and what value is being offered to members;
• Lack of clarity as to what ‘product’ is being offered;
• A lack of clarity as to what associations' key messages are for their members and broader industry;
• A disjunct between the message being sent by groups and those receiving it;
• Misunderstanding of what is being said amongst many competing messages;
• Different priorities at top and bottom of associations' organisational structures;
• Confusion amongst members as to who’s who and why. What do the different levels of organisations do? What representation do or don’t they have?
• All of the above were made more difficult by a general lack of support and funding for associations.

No one group has the resources or skills set to address all of these issues, but the issues were common across all sectors and jurisdictions and a cooperative approach was considered to be possible and beneficial.


Objectives:
1. Complete a communication audit to gain an understanding of what generic tools are already available to suit associations' communication needs.
2. Assist peak associations to clearly define their roles and responsibilities and develop an understanding of what their key ‘selling proposition’ is to members.
3. Clarify association members/audience, identify shared members and identify opportunities and methods to minimise duplication and maximise information exchange
4. Based on previous objectives, specifically modify and tailor communication techniques to improve communication and membership support in six case-study associations.
5. Extend project outcomes on a national basis

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 21-07-2011

End Date: 30-10-2013

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $167,500.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

App | Biodiversity | Climate Change | Communications | Community | Conference | Education | Fisheries Management | Recreational Fishing | Resource Assessment | Sustainability | Tourism | Workshop

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