If you are part of a group or organization, at some point you will probably wonder if what you have been doing has been successful or if the people involved are satisfied with the group.  There are many different ways you can go about evaluating this, from getting the group together and asking for feedback to conducting an online anonymous survey with questions that people can respond to.  However you decide to find out if you're doing well, you'll need to make sure that you carefully plan out what you want to ask.  Few things can be more frustating than asking a group questions with the intent to evaluate performance, only to end up with answers that are of no help to you because you didn't ask the correct questions.  This can happen if someone is not familiar with the purpose or atmostphere of the group or organization that they are looking at.  So how do you know that you're asking the right questions?  How do you make sure that you're getting responses from the people that you want?  There are a few things that you can keep in mind that will help you to answer these questions.  

Make sure that you really know what you want to learn - If you aren't sure what it is that you're looking to find out, then you will not be able to ask the right questions.   If you don't know what it is you want, how can you expect anyone else to?

Make sure they understand why this is important - Even worse than getting answers that aren't helping is getting no answers at all.  Make sure that you convey to those involved why this is important and how it will help things to work better.  

Don't operate in a vaccuum - Run your questions by someone else in the organization.  Don't assume that you got it right the first time and instead let others to point out ways things can be worded to get better results.  

Make it work for the group -If you're looking at a group of people who are technically challenged, conducting an online survey may not make a lot of sense.  You need to big a method that works for those you are trying to get answers from.  

The Membership Committee of the Maine Gay Men's Chorus recently conducted an anonymous online survey of the singing members asking about their satisfaction with the organization so far for the 2009-2010 season.  Before sending this out to the membership, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors was consulted about the questions that would be asked to make sure they reflected the organization and what information was important.  The reason for this survey was also conveyed to the membership, letting them know what the information would be used for and how their contributions would help.  Because of these important steps, almost every member who received the survey completed it and provided valuable information that was in line with what the Membership Committee was trying to find out.  The results they have received will enable the organization to now improve for the remainder of the season and going forward in the future.