Sfep Local Groups

SfEP local groups: A geographical investigation

How the project arose and was organized

West Anglia group's 2003 events included an interesting visit to a local printer with a Cheshire head office. We wondered if there was a Macclesfield-area group. SfEP's then local-groups co-ordinator, Bridget Jones, suggested I did some research. Questionnaires were sent out to co-ordinators asking about their groups. (Thanks to all the busy people who answered my questions.)

The results

Once the data were tidied up, a number of problems emerged.

·  SfEP membership changes: membership lists are out of date as soon as they are produced. My data relate to SfEP in late summer 2003.

·  This survey does not differentiate between Advanced, Ordinary and Associate Members.

·  Some groups were unstable. New groups were being formed; others had ceased; and one existed without a co-ordinator, so I have no data.

·  Often, SfEP members belong to more than one group. I requested numbers per postcode area, so such duplications don't show up in my data.

·  A local group reflects a small area. Yet those who live just outside the postcodes a local group considers its limits, are potential members. SfEP makes such potentials known to co-ordinators, and invites them to undertake 'marketing'.

Displays

I drew postcode maps of the UK and plotted the data. For each postcode area, one figure is given for SfEP membership and another for the relevant local group membership (see illustrations below). However, a postcode map is surprisingly unintuitive; its boundaries run between centres of population, and often do not follow any other boundaries. Without knowing the postcode map of the UK well, it is quite difficult to answer questions such as the one that started this whole project.

The maps reveal one anomaly: sometimes the local-group attendees in a postcode area actually exceed the number of SfEP members registered within that area!

Statistics

The following data emerge. Total UK SfEP membership: 1249. Local groups - active: 18; forming: 1; leaderless: 1; no longer functioning: 3. Local members on groups' books (not all attend meetings): 468. Mean local members per SfEP area: 37%. Mean members per group: 27. Greatest potential no. of local members (Oxford): 54. Smallest (Truro): 1. Largest group (Kent & Sussex): 55. Smallest group (Guildford): 4

Contact for more data and conclusions.

SfEP local groups: A geographical investigation 1