The ballot enclosed in the May newsletter included a survey of preferences and expectations. In all, 33 households, consisting of 43 members, responded. What follows is a rough summary of responses. (Numbers sometimes don't add up because some people didn't answer a question or gave more than one answer).

Twenty-four respondents said they were vegan; of these, 12 listed "animal rights" as their primary interest in vegetarianism, 9 listed "health," 4 listed "environment" and 1 "spiritual." Sixteen respondents said they were ovo-lacto vegetarian. Of these, 6 gave animal rights as their primary interest, 6 gave health, 4 gave environment, 1 gave world hunger, and 1 gave spiritual reasons.There were 2 non-vegetarians; one gave health as his or her primary interest, the other gave all the reasons.

Of all respondents who answered the question, 27 said that at RAVS meetings, dinner and program were "both about equal in importance." Nine said dinner was more important and none said that the program was. Respondents were given an opportunity to rate the importance of RAVS functions on a scale of one to five. Keep in mind that respondents may have given a low ranking to a function that they don't use or need (e.g., a longtime member doesn't need the phone line), yet that function may be important to others. Here is a list of the items ranked from most to least important, with the total number of points awarded by respondents given in parentheses: Newsletter (170); Monthly dinners (153); Programs after dinner (150); Outreaches (130); Hunger relief (128); Sale of books, etc. (117); Phone line (97); Web site (80)