Project ID: 1093

DescriptionA survey to explore the reasons for non-renewal of membership in Canterbury and District u3a 2025 Aim: To explore the reasons why members of Canterbury and District u3a did not renew (or considered not renewing) their membership in 2025. This was prompted by the observation that a considerable number seemed to fall into this category for 2024. Method: An online questionnaire survey, based on findings of similar studies run by other u3as. Findings: Figures obtained from the membership team revealed that 192 (16%) of c.1200 members failed to renew by an extended cut-off date and 49 (25.5%) of these responded to the online questionnaire survey. The most common reason for joining the u3a was interest in a particular course and the most common reason for non-renewal was being too busy/having other commitments (41%), followed by finding travelling to venues difficult (18%), health issues and courses not being available (both 14%) and moving away (12%). A minority (1 to 3 respondents) reported other reasons. Free text comments which respondents were invited to make were overwhelmingly positive of the u3a in question. Possible implications of these findings are discussed. WE repeated the survey in 2026 with similar findings.
TopicsResearch
U3A
TypeU3A-led research (not an SLP)
U3ACanterbury U3A
Organization/partnerN/A
Year started2025
Output

Reports available (see documents below).

DocumentsNon-renewal survey report
2026 non-renewal survey