What percentage of people signed-up actually attend?
Hello everyone involved with EXCO,
Let's discuss participation in EXCO classes.
How many other classes have noticed
that only some of the people
who put their names on the e-mailing lists
actually were able to attend the classes?
I have now had the first meeting
of New Ways of Loving.
There were 58 people on the e-mailing list.
But only 16 (including myself) attended.
This was about what I expected,
based on e-mail correspondence
with everyone on the list.
Whatever time and place we selected
was doomed to exclude some interested people.
And even some who originally thought they would attend
were not actually able to get to the meeting.
This was not a surprise to me,
since I have been offering such classes for many years.
In the current instance, New Ways of Loving
has been on the EXCO website since September 2008,
which allowed 5 months to collect enough people
to make a meaningful discussion group.
In the future, I will expect 25-30%
of the people 'signed-up' to attend.
This means that I will wait until 50 or 60 people
have indicated their interest
before I will ask them to help me
choose the best time and place.
If these percentages hold,
this would mean between 12-18 people
will attend the first meeting.
Then, expecting a few to drop out,
we will have a good discussion group of 10-15 people.
The EXCO website tries to discourage people
from signing-up unless they are serious about the class.
But perhaps it would be better to drop that comment
and be ready for only 25-30%
of those signed up to attend.
And our course descriptions
could say something to that effect.
Some of the feedback I have received
suggests that some people did not attend
because they expected a crowd of over 50 people
to be attending.
That would have been difficult to handle.
Let's see what others have experienced.
What percentage of those signed-up
attended classes you know about?
And what should we do about this 'problem'?
If we get thousands of people
to check the EXCO website,
and hundreds to show their interest
in particular classes,
then, perhaps, we will have convenient sizes of groups
for the various activities that EXCO classes offer.
Yours,
James Park, facilitator for
New Ways of Loving,
Becoming More Authentic,
& a handful of future classes.
*********************************************************
:) James Park e-mail: PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
1829 Third Avenue South #218 | phone: (612) 871-PARK
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404-2185
Museum: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/
Bookstore: http://www.existentialbooks.com
*********************************************************
I'm planning my 10 year high school reunion, and I'm starting by looking at local venues,mens rings but I don't have a good idea as to how many people will attend. If anyone else has planned a reunion recently, can you tellruby ring me what percentage of the graduating class attended? Of those who attended, what percentage brought datesou might want to try to contact these people and see if they can help you or give you some useful advice. They'll want to charge you and do all the planning gold ring for you, but if you just ask them a few questions they might give up some valuable info
We're into the second "term" of Knit and Such and have had about a 50% attendance rate. I think that a huge part of what got people to come was sending out e-mails in the beginning and providing contact information.
Hopefully we will all have some good ways to bolster our numbers in the future.
So if you have 50 people signed up, perhaps two weeks beforehand, send out a semi-generic email- e.g. "how's it going, are you sure you want to take this class? do you plan on attending this class? why do you want to take this class?" and gauge your expected attendance on the number of replies you receive.
I teach a lot of classes on bike maintenance through EXCO and the Sibley Bike Depot and we usually get about 50-60% attendance. That's in part because we have set times and dates (so people know for sure when the classes will be) and we offer the same classes multiple times. We certainly get lots of people who register but don't show - but i think it's pretty cool that at least half of the folks who signed up come to at least two or three weeks of the four week class.
I've found that setting a solid schedule for the class is important - it's impossible to coordinate class meeting times that please everybody or even most (we're all to friekin' busy!!)
I think simply contacting people signed up for the class beforehand would be a superb step towards weeding out people who are simply interested in the idea of taking the class more than they are about actually attending the class. So if you have 50 people signed up, perhaps two weeks beforehand, send out a semi-generic email- e.g. "how's it going, are you sure you want to take this class? do you plan on attending this class? why do you want to take this class?" and gauge your expected attendance on the number of replies you receive.
There should perhaps be a way of showing "intermediate" interest in a particular class... If I see a class that doesn't start for a couple months, it would be nice to be on some sort of list that reminds you a month or so before the class starts that you should register (if you're still interested and have the time).
I just had my first of only three class sessions and only 6 of the 14 that signed up were there plus one new person. This was OK because it was a good group but I had prepared handouts for 15 so wasted a little time and money. I guess students don't recognize the implications of registering and not cancelling if unable to come or changed their mind re the course.
Just to keep you up to date,
14 people (including me) attended the second discussion
of New Ways of Loving.
Five of these were there for the first time.
And 9 attended both meetings so far.
James Park
My EXCO class called New Ways of Loving
is now in the middle of its second offering.
In the spring of 2009, we had about 15 people to start,
but it dropped off very seriously
because we took a two week break in the middle.
Never again.
Now, in the Fall of 2009,
we are having the second offering of this class.
About 100 people were on the e-mailing list.
And we had 15 people at the first meeting
and 12 at the second meeting.
So I will guess that I might expect as low as 15%
of the people on the list to attend.
This is not a problem as long as we wait until there are
enough people signed up to make a significant class.
I encourage all who wish to teach EXCO classes
to get them listed on the website as soon as possible.
It will probably take a few months to gather enough people.
Only the most popular classes
can expect to get enough people in one month.
Yours,
James Park, EXCO facilitator
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