Hi Matthew
Whether or not you pay an admissions clerk may depend on some outside
circumstances.
The Museum I work for currently has suggested voluntary donations of $2.00
for adult, $5 for families and $1 for everybody else.  We are in a fairly
small city and have a high level of return visitors.  A study done a couple
of years back suggested that it could well end up costing us more money to
staff an admissions kiosk than we would make back.  Keep in mind that we are
a government run institution and therefore our staff are all union members.
If it came to an "either/or" decision, I would personally rather pay staff
to provide programs for our visitors than to take money.  I am not sure
whether or not we would see an increase or decrease in dollars if we changed
systems.  I CAN tell you how pleased many visitors are to find that they can
decide what to give,  and that they can go through free should they choose.
Voluntary admissions have also made the Museum accessible to people who
might not visit otherwise.

Hope this helps.  Good luck

Paula Hill
Royal Saskatchewan Museum

                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Matthew White [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
                Sent:   22 June 2001 11:46
                To:     [log in to unmask]
                Subject:        Suggested donations

                A quick search of the Museum-l archives (searchable at
                http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?S1=museum-l)
shows the  subject
                of suggested donations versus admission fees raises it's
head fairly
                regularly. It seems to have been addressed, accept of course
the issue I
                need information on. We are currently facing layoffs and
"downsizing" at our
                institutions as part of a reorganization and long range
plan. As a result we
                are losing a good bit of our museum staff. (myself included,
he said
                dropping a hint to all those with a position to fill) While
trying to design
                a more self guided experience I thought that perhaps doing
away with our
                small admission fee ($1 and $2) and going to a suggested
donation system.
                Most people who have responded to this post in the past have
mentioned that
                they have seen no change in income or a possible slight
decrease. They have
                also reported that it has no or negligible impact on
attendance. In most
                cases admissions as a revenue stream "as is" was minimal, as
is ours in its
                current state. And, considering that we are now decreasing
service, I would
                think raising the admission charge is not an option.

                The one issue NOT raised in past discussions of this topic
is how the change
                from an admission fee based system to a suggested donation
system has
                effected the institution in regards to staff or volunteer
time. If the
                switch in systems has little or no effect on attendance or
admissions, then
                it seems to me that there is a net gain because a staffed
admission desk
                cost more than an unattended locked box. Even volunteers
cost money.

                Does anyone have any experience, intuition, ideas,
thoughts, or two bit
                opinions on this topic?


                --
                Matthew White
                Director of Museums
                Mount Washington Observatory
                www.mountwashington.org

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If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).