5.    Relevance of the Quakers to people's lives
Respondents were read the following statement about the Quakers:

                     'Now I would like to tell you something about the Quakers. They are a liberal religious group
                     with no set creed. They believe that everyone can have a direct experience of God and this
                     leads them to take action for change in the world.

Respondents were then asked whether the Quakers have considerable relevance to their life, some possible relevance, or no relevance to their lives whatsoever.

This showed that 2% of the sample claimed that the Quakers had considerable relevance to their lives, with a further 19% saying the Quakers had some relevance. Among those who had religious beliefs, the proportion who claimed that the Quakers had some relevance to their lives, rises to 29%.


6.    Developing appropriate communications about the Quakers
We have reported that eight in ten people are 'aware' of the Quakers. But comparatively few have a fully 'informed' view of the Quaker philosophy and beliefs. A key issue is that so many people carry in their heads a wide range of inaccurate, and arguably unhelpful, images of the Quakers, including, for some, the perception that they are a 'puritanical sect'.

It is to be expected that the proportion of the population who are totally clear on what the Quakers represent will be comparatively modest. But a worrying feature of the survey findings is that there is such a wide mix of views and uncertainty over the key tenets of the Quaker philosophy and belief structure. Of particular concern is the confusion that seems to exist over whether the Quakers are:

    *     Strict and fundamentalist or liberal / 'non orthodox'
    *     Closed and inward or open and also involved in social action

Thus the core communications challenge for the Quakers centres on addressing the uncertainty and confusion that exists about whether the Quakers is an open, liberal movement or a more fundamentalist, strict, even
'weird cult'


7.     Discussion
One communications approach for the Quakers is to continue with its traditional 'passive' style of communications, based on the critical underlying assumption that people will 'find' their way to the Quakers.
The counter view is that the negative messages and confusing 'noise' circulating around what the Quakers stands for is blocking people's path to finding the Quakers and that therefore more 'overt' communications about the Quaker message should now be considered.


DVL Smith: