Client Comments

My first opportunity to work directly with Mark was in the development of a survey he conducted for the Federal Lands Hunting and Shooting Sports Roundtable in 2008. Mark designed a survey and conducted focus groups of shooters to determine what issues were of concern to them and how they thought behaviors of shooters could be improved. From the results of Mark’s research, the Roundtable launched the “Respected Access is Open Access” campaign, which is being implemented in partnership with Tread Lightly! Inc. Mark’s research was critical in fashioning a campaign that would address the challenges associated with recreational shooting without being perceived as an attack on shooting. The campaign has been going strong for over 5 years and we have received great support from the shooting community.

More recently, Mark participated in the NRA’s first symposium that was held to address the challenges to the future of hunting in the 21st century. The NRA has created a Hunters’ Leadership Forum of influential individuals in the hunting community. Mark’s participation in the symposium was acknowledged by all participants as invaluable. His presentation on “What the Data Tell Us” provided the kind of critical information that is necessary to properly guide the NRA and the Forum in expanding NRA’s existing programs and influence in areas that provide critical support to hunting and the hunter. We in the NRA look forward to future collaborations with Mark on the issues that are of importance to our organization and members. It has truly been a rewarding experience to work with Mark who is so talented and skilled in the field of public opinion research.

On behalf of the Freshwater Fisheries Division of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, I would like to thank Responsive Management for the outstanding job that they did on the recently completed survey of licensed anglers in South Carolina. Under your innovative guidance, we were able to ascertain public opinion on many fishery management issues. Your competence in assisting our staff to develop the survey in the most cost-effective manner was extremely important in these times of restricted funding. I was especially pleased with your staff’s ability to work with colloquial names of places and species during the survey. In past surveys with other firms, many errors in data analysis occurred due to lack of training of the interviewers. Our requests for additional cross-referencing of data were handled promptly.

The product you provided fulfilled our needs and will play a major role in taking our department into the twenty-first century. It provides the catalyst for the department to recognize and adapt to change, to meet the needs of our constituents.

I want to sincerely thank you and your staff for producing a most informative document. The professional quality of the work, coupled with the personal approach of your organization, made the project most enjoyable to facilitate. I can think of no one that I would rather have do future surveys than Responsive Management.

The Georgia Game and Fish Division was extremely pleased with the high-quality products produced by Responsive Management… Mark and his staff worked closely with us from the early planning stages of our two surveys through the interpretation of survey results. They were very competent, courteous and comfortable for our staff to work with.

I am writing to extend my appreciation to you and your staff for the exemplary job you did with the development and production of Saving Lives and Preventing Boating-Related Accidents: An Assessment of State Recreational Boating Safety Needs for the Aquatic Resources (Wallop-Breaux) Trust Fund.

The needs assessment has been very well received, and we anticipate utilizing the document as the primary educational tool for conveying our state resource needs to members of Congress and the Administration. The content, format and ‘look’ of the publication are first rate.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you personally for your commitment, involvement and contribution to NASBLA’s research agenda over the last few years. You have been a part of some of our most exciting and significant trend analysis and policy development to date.

The extensive Future of Fishing study conducted by Responsive Management provided the basis for the formation of RBFF and was the impetus for the strategies we employed to increase fishing participation. Sound research provides a firm foundation on which to grow, and RBFF’s successful programs and marketing efforts would not have been possible without it.

I would recommend Mark Duda to anyone wishing to assess public views. His style was interactive in the development of the instrument as well as during the assessment of the results. His knowledge and experience nationwide were tremendously helpful in framing the questions on the survey, and provided a basis to further understand not only what our citizens thought about our performance and what our priorities should be, but how it compared on a national level. Mark provided a professional presentation to our Wildlife Commission, and answered their queries from a technical expertise concerning the survey and what it meant that would have been difficult to manage on our own. I have utilized his graphs which he provided in Microsoft Power Point to develop programs for training of employees and presentations to public groups. In the final analysis of his services I would say that when it becomes time to do another assessment, Mark will be the first one contacted to see if he can do the work. I’d hire him again.

I’d like to say a few things about our survey contractor, Responsive Management of Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Responsive Management has grown to be the nation’s premier survey research firm on fish, wildlife and natural resource issues.

When we began to look for a survey contractor for the wolf survey, we knew we needed good information, and we needed it fast. We contacted the University of [name withheld]. They couldn’t meet our timeline. We contacted other potential contractors. They either couldn’t do it the way we wanted, or couldn’t meet our timeline. Responsive Management could. In fact, they have consistently been ahead of the timeline we were told was ‘simply unrealistic’ by other survey researchers.

Their timeliness and efficiency is only one thing we’ve been impressed with. They have been very cooperative, taking great pains to address the concerns of the Commission and staff in developing a set of survey questions from our objectives, then repeatedly refining those questions to reflect our comments. Their cooperation has been outstanding.

From a technical standpoint, Responsive Management is simply the best. They have the best computer-assisted telephone interviewing system. Their interviewers are the most thoroughly trained, according to industry standards. They only conduct surveys on wildlife and natural resource issues. They always pre-test their surveys, something no other survey contractor has ever done for us. Their sampling is the most painstaking. They produce reports from the perspective of an unbiased third party, with full statistical analysis.

We’re very happy with the work Responsive Management has done for us, and we’re not alone. It was a pleasure to work with them on this survey.