The news of how the Portland Thorns handled learning of former coach Paul Riley’s abuse hit many people hard. We continue to be awed by the strength shown by Mana and Sinead in sharing their stories, and we follow the lead of the players in designing the 107IST response.

We recently conducted two surveys to see how people feel about 107IST actions in response to the revelations. We did a members-only survey first, and then followed that up with one for the wider community.

We heard from a lot of people — and we appreciate everyone who took the time to give feedback!

• 274 members responded to the member survey, and 461 to the community survey.
• Of those 461 who responded to the community survey, 42% were 107IST members. We asked folks to only fill out the community survey if they had not done the member one, but it is possible some people responded to both.
• We ran the member survey for two weeks before the community survey, so that time gap may have affected people's opinions either positively or negatively.
• We’re breaking out results as “Member Survey,” “Members in Community Survey,” and “Wider Community.”

Respondents representing the full range of the PTFC community. Most survey-takers follow both the Timbers and Thorns, though some follow just one team.

Note: Numbers in all charts may not add up to the total number of survey respondents because all questions were optional.

Not surprisingly, folks who took the survey have been following the 107IST response to the news. Three-quarters of members and more than two-thirds of non-members have been following our actions “very closely.”

We asked two similar questions: How has the 107IST response been so far, and how hard should we push moving forward? It’s a similar question, but we wanted to ask it in both a backwards-looking and forward-facing way.

For the backwards-facing question, results were very split. Overall, around half of respondents think the 107IST response has been about right, with the rest fairly split between wishing we had pushed harder and wishing we had a softer response. Notably, members taking the more recent community survey softened a tiny bit: While 48% still said we've been doing well, 29% said we've been pushing too hard. There are many things this could mean, but without additional research, it’s difficult to read too much into the directional changes in this question.

How hard should 107IST push moving forward? The bottom line of this is similar to the previous question: Roughly a quarter of respondents think the response should be tempered, and nearly 75% think the organization should continue pushing for change. A very small portion of respondents — 3% overall — think the organization should stop all work on this issue.

Gavin's future: Like everything else, people are split. About half of folks have already seen enough and think he should be fully removed from the PTFC organization. A third want to see how the investigation goes. Timbers supporters are slightly less interested in his ousting. In the member survey, only 43% of Timbers Army folks wanted him gone, compared to 56% of Riveters and 66% of people who identified as being part of both supporters groups.

Thanks to everyone who took time to participate in the survey. We’re also looking at all the thoughtful comments you left. Your responses will help shape our future work on this important issue.