Do you not have a standard list of benefits for each membership level, and
if so, why is there a "gray area"?  Typically there are different levels of
membership with each higher level costing more and getting additional
benefits.  Your basic membership generally consists of discounted (or free)
admission, a member newsletter, invitations to special members-only events
(which may or may not be free for them to come to), and maybe a gift shop
discount.  Most museums also have a membership brochure where the benefits
at each level are spelled out.  I don't know of any museum where they
restrict the levels of membership to the point where a "policy" is
necessary.

For ideas on what benefits to offer, try surfing the websites of a variety
of other historical societies to see what they do.  As far as the board
being confused about what your membership is, why don't you just give them a
stack of your business cards so that the potential members they meet can
contact you directly?  Then try to dedicate money to printing a membership
brochure,and give your board members stacks of those to hand out.

Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Kim Olsen-Clark
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 6:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: membership guidelines


One of my board members requested that I write up guidelines about our
membership so both the board and staff will be in sync
about the perks offered and those pesky grey areas that tend to be solved on
a one-to-one basis.  The former is no problem, but I
am mystified on how to write up the latter since I tend to concentrate on
details a little too much.  In my years working and
interning at museums, which is still pretty limited, I have never seen a
membership policy/guidelines.  If they exist, can you
please share your template with me?

Kim Olsen-Clark
Development Officer
Evanston Historical Society
Evanston, Illinois
[log in to unmask]

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