The Goldfish Society of America (GFSA), as a hobbyist organization devoted to the appreciation of goldfish, has a strong interest in understanding how we can best serve the needs of the US and international goldfish keeping community. This includes an understanding of how technologies, like the Internet, are changing our hobby and how the demographics of hobbyists shift over time.
To further this effort, the GFSA ran a survey from April 1, 1998 through May 15, 1998. We placed an on-line survey on the Internet and also offered a print version in the GFSA publication, the Goldfish Report. The results were very encouraging! We received hundreds of responses from GFSA members and those who were not members at that time, both in the USA and further a field. Many took the time to offer additional comments and insights beyond the survey questions.
The results of this survey, along with analysis, were published in the Goldfish Report and provided to the society's Board of Directors as a formal committee report. We offer summaries of the raw results here, as we think they will be of interest to all goldfish hobbyists, not just those who are GFSA members. While the results are probably not surprising, this effort was unique in its attempt to systematically gather opinions from a large number of goldfish enthusiasts. Much of the survey was aimed at understanding what the GFSA should do on the Internet, but there were also many questions about general goldfish interests and activities.
We received 349 surveys:
68 from GFSA members (44 on-line, 24 paper mail-in)
281 from nonmembers (all on-line)
The big question was whether the GFSA should have an on-line presence. The results were quite overwhelmingly "Yes":
273 nonmembers thought the GFSA should (8 said no)
59 GFSA members thought the we should (1 said no, 4 "no opinion/don't care")
How international is the goldfish hobby? The "where do you keep your fish" question gave some insight. All the paper forms from GFSA members were from the USA. For the on-line surveys, we saw the following distribution:
| Where | member | nonmember |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | 11 | |
| Australia & New Zealand | 1 | 5 |
| Canada | 24 | |
| Europe | 16 | |
| Latin America | 5 | |
| South America | 2 | |
| USA | 43 | 218 |
Overall this tells us that about 18% of the survey participants came from outside the USA. This rises closer to 22% when we focus just on the on-line nonmember group. Considering the other criteria that this implies (on the Internet, read English, etc.), this is an impressive international turnout.
Since you are reading about these results on the GFSA Web site, obviously the results of the survey have had an effect on the society. We hope, if this is repeated in the future, that you will support the effort by taking a few minutes to fill out an on-line questionaire.