Only about 20% of ICON's members (59) completed the survey. This relatively low response may have been the result of the survey being online, and many of our members may not be comfortable online; or it may be simply that many members had no desire for input. Regardless, the 59 responses received were revealing, and the comments insightful. Draw your own conclusions from the following information.

Demographics
Ten of the 25 questions were primarily demographic in nature.

80% of the respondents have been using a personal computer longer than 3 years; 56% of the respondents have been using a personal computer longer than 5 years. 48% of respondents rank themselves as "Beginning Intermediate" users, while 50% rank themselves as either "Advanced Intermediate" or "Advanced" users. 41% of the respondents use Windows 98 (or 98 Second Edition), and 36% use Windows XP. Windows 95 and Windows ME users totaled 8% and 12%, respectively. 63% of the respondents own a CD-RW drive.

100% of respondents use Internet/e-mail software, and nearly 100% use word processing software. The next most frequently used software was "creative" and "games". 33% of the respondents use personal financial software.

31% of respondents have high-speed access to the Internet; 69% have dial-up access. Nearly 80% use Internet Explorer as their primary browser, with the remainder using AOL, MSN, or another browser.

Respondents were asked to rank in order of importance, ways they use the Internet. The top 3 tasks were e-mail, research and surfing, with shopping a fairly distant 4th place.

34% of respondents would be interested in having their own web site.

ICON Events
The next 10 questions dealt with ICON events, locations, topics, etc.

70% of respondents attend an ICON event at least once a month, with 45% attending two or more events per month.

14% of respondents said meeting location was a reason for their attending or not attending an event. Respondents were asked to rank preferred meeting locations in order of importance 1st - 4th. The Library Center was ranked #1 by the most respondents, with Brentwood Library being the second most preferred location.

Respondents were asked what they would like to see at monthly meetings. The most frequent answer ranked #1 was "speakers", followed closely by "software demos". The most frequent answer ranked #2 was evenly divided between "speakers", "software demos", and "Q and A".

Saturday afternoons are the preferred event meeting times by a 2 to 1 margin, with Saturday mornings and week nights being an equal second choice. A slight majority (52%) said 9:30 a.m. Saturday was too early for a SIG.

A slight majority (56%) prefers "informal group discussion" to "structured classroom/lab" for SIG meeting format. For the Windows SIG, 80% prefer a combination of "prepared program" and "question/answer".

Services
The final 5 survey questions are loosely grouped for summary purposes as services, though they encompassed much more.

77% of those who have borrowed an item from the ICON library felt is met their expectations. Regarding the newsletter, respondents would like to see more "how-to articles" and "tips and tricks" and about the same "hardware/software reviews" and "articles from outside sources".

Regarding the ICON web site, respondents want more links to computing sites, online tutorials, tips & tricks, and links to other users groups.

The final two survey questions were: How can we expand our programs to better serve your needs and interests? If you could change one thing about your ICON Computer Users Group, what would it be? The answers to these questions were varied and detailed.

If you are one of those who completed the survey, we thank you. If you did not complete the survey, for whatever reason, feel free to submit your answers to the two questions in the paragraph immediately above to our president, Terry Roberts. We truly seek and value your input.

Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Marshall