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feedback magazine and our website at mla.com.au are important vehicles for communicating with our members.
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OUR MEMBERS
Following several years of strong membership growth, we relied on ‘organic’ growth in membership throughout most of 2007–08. Late in the year, however, we undertook an email-based campaign to drive membership – ‘Make the most of your livestock levies’ – resulting in an increase of 1,497 members in 2007–08.
MEMBERSHIP BY YEAR
The percentage of members by location remained stable with the exception of Queensland, which overtook Victoria with the second highest membership. This was partly a result of growth in the MSA program throughout Queensland, which saw a number of registering producers sign up for MLA membership.
MEMBERS BY LOCATION
MEMBERS BY ACTIVITY
The grassfed cattle sector continues to be responsible for most of the growth in membership, growing almost four per cent last year. This was partly attributed to the expansion of the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) program in northern Australia. Click here for more information.
| Members by activity | 2007–08 | 2006–07 | % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cattle (grassfed) | 37,878 | 36,442 | 3.9 |
| Cattle (grainfed) | 4,847 | 4,708 | 2.6 |
| Sheep/prime lambs | 16,777 | 16,488 | 1.8 |
| Sheep only | 10,183 | 10,250 | -0.7 |
| Goats | 2,217 | 2,126 | 4.3 |
Note: Some members fall into more than one sector.
 | Launch of feedbackTV – a new and engaging look at producer case studies and industry marketing initiatives on DVD. It provides greater understanding of the results of livestock levy investment and the strategies behind it |
 | National Beef Industry Forum – 650 producers attended the MLA forum in Rockhampton in November 2007 to hear from industry experts and fellow producers on the latest in marketing and on-farm case studies |
 | MLA annual report 2006–07 – won the inaugural Australasian Reporting Award for the best online (electronic) annual report and met the criteria for a Silver Award in the general category for the third year in succession |
HOW WE COMMUNICATE WITH OUR MEMBERS
Our communication effort ensures levy payers are aware of, and value, MLA’s activities, and encourages them to take up the opportunities their investment in the company provides.
Fundamental to our efforts is a strong membership base and we strengthened it last year with an increase from 43,401 to 44,898. Our program of communications through media, online, publications and events ensured 98 per cent of our members were aware of our activities and 95 per cent valued the opportunities created from their levies investment. (Taverner Research: MLA Member Communications Survey 2007)
To continue to drive awareness and value we launched a number of new initiatives and continued to improve our current portfolio.
During the year we launched a 30–40 minute DVD – feedbackTV – which we mailed out with our member magazine feedback. This new communication channel signposts MLA members to the latest on-farm R&D, marketing and market access activities. We distributed three episodes during 2007–08 and undertook research to gauge its impact.
Of those who watched the DVD 96 per cent rated the quality as good or excellent, 15 per cent (approximately 6,000 members) had watched some, or all, of the first two episodes and 65 per cent indicated their intention to watch them in the future.
Last year’s partnership with Rural Press in the Queensland Country Life National Beef Industry Forum feature allowed us to reach our current membership in a preferred medium.* It also allowed us to demonstrate our relevance with a snapshot of key activities impacting the industry including people management, production and marketing. We will continue these partnerships with an additional three features across the Rural Press Group next year.
More than 1,300 producers attended three Meat Profit Days in Kyneton, Perth and Rockhampton gaining insights into key production issues and how to better manage them. We also targeted and leveraged established and popular community events to more cost effectively run an additional five MLA- focused forums for 600 stakeholders across the country.
We made significant investment during the year to improve the useability and relevance of our website. We continued to improve the current site through more targeted content and an improved e-newsletter management system, which increased site visitors by almost 70 per cent on last year to 42,000 unique visitors a month. In addition, our site has had consistently higher competitive rankings this year being a Hitwise Top 10 Award winner for our category for the first two quarters of 2008.
For more details on our communication policy and how it is reflected in our strategy see the Corporate Governance Statement on communicating with members.
*38% of respondents to the 2007 MLA membership survey indicated their main source of information about MLA is via rural press (ranked second highest after feedback magazine).
