Designed to provide IASA members with insight into their peers'strategies, the organization's Industry Pulse poll is beating evenstronger this year, say IASA officials overseeing the process.

Recent modifications to the poll should expand input and driveup IASA membership, officials say. On the heels of thesuccessful introduction of poll data in sessions at last year'snational conference, poll data again will be incorporated invarious sessions during this year's event.

While the Industry Pulse poll results do not generatescientifically valid measures of membership activity and opinion,that's not the intention, explains Scott McEntee, the new chair ofthe Industry Pulse subcommittee of IASA's publishing group.

“The intent of the polls is to get the heartbeat of membershipon what is coming at them at any particular time and then kick thatback to membership,” explains McEntee, the assistant treasurer atFarmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. of Iowa. “It's reallyinformation-sharing on how members are wrestling with [an issue] togive you some insight on how you might want to deal with it.”

The more poll responses IASA generates, the more information itsmembers will have available to consider. To that end, IASA thisspring began polling non-members in the industry, too, “in hopesthat it will give up more perspective on the questions we'reasking,” notes Tricia Stillman, director, member and volunteerservices, at IASA.

IASA officials say they also hope this invitation to non-membersencourages them to join the organization. The potential membershipboost to the current 12,000-member roll could be significant, asIASA now is reaching out to about 6,000 non-members, according toStillman.

It's not unusual for professionals to maintain ties to IASAwithout formally joining the organization, says Victoria Pruitt, amember and former chair of the Industry Pulse subcommittee. Forexample, some non-members are colleagues of IASA members, and someattend meetings at IASA chapters, which do not require membershipin the national organization, says Pruitt, vice president, sales,at industry services vendor KeyMark of Liberty, SC.

The Industry Pulse also is expanding its social networkingfootprint beyond Linkedin and Twitter by reaching out to membersand non-members on Facebook, McEntee notes. IASA's new Facebookpresence, which at press time was expected to become active by June1, is another move designed to draw non-members to theorganization, McEntee says. In addition to the social mediachannels and email, poll participants can respond via theorganization's website.

During IASA's annual national conference this week, attendeeswill be polled daily, from Sunday through Tuesday. Poll resultswill be available the following morning on social media channels.That is the same schedule followed two years ago, the first yearconference members were polled. The polling schedule shifted toMonday through Wednesday last year, but the response rate sufferedsomewhat, Stillman explains.

The one-question polls will be issued through Twitter, Facebookand the IASA's smartphone conference application, which is backagain this year by popular demand.

Tuesday's question, for example, asks attendees to explain theirprimary reason for attending the conference, such as networkingopportunities, the keynote speakers, the continuing educationcredits they can earn attending sessions, the exhibitors or thehost city. Industry Pulse polling results will be postedprominently at various spots at the conference as well.

Like last year, some sessions also will likely incorporatepreviously collected Industry Pulse polling data. Stillman notesthat the roundtable chairs who used poll data last year indicatedafterward that “they found it a valuable addition to thediscussion.”