Here are additional responses about passports:
From: "Liberty Hall Inc." <[log in to unmask]> Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999
The Historic Houses of Lexington (Kentucky) has a joint ticket. It is sold
by the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau. It costs $10.00 which is a
tremendous discount over individual ticket prices. It has been a very
successful project. The money is divided four ways once or twice a year. We
had to have the CVB sell the ticket because one of the sites is state owned
and we couldn't sell the ticket because of our accounting procedures. Of
course one of the benefits is that even if the visitor doesn't come to your
site you still get the money.
If you have any questions, my e-mail address is [log in to unmask] I am the
former director of one of the four historic houses in Lexington and was
chair of the "Historic Houses of Lexington" joint marketing group.
Sara Farley Harger, Liberty Hall Historic Site, Frankfort, KY
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From: Elaine Beck Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 1999
North Carolina Historic Sites has produced a passport to the 22 state
historic sites we administer. These sites are located across the state so
they were arranged geographically within the passport. They are also
grouped regionally. When a passport holder gets his/her passport stamped at
all the sites within a region they get a small reward (pen, patch, lapel
pin). When someone completes all 22 sites in their passport they may
receive $25.00 in publications from NC Historical Publications.
The passport was printed from our printing budget, but marketed
cooperatively through the Historical Publications section of the NC
Division of Archives and History. It appears in their catalog which sells
both to individuals and to book stores. The passport was introduced in
September, 1998, and has been their best seller among their new titles. The
cost of the color passport is $5.00.
As far as increasing visitation...we are not sure. However, purchasers at
Historic Sites do register their passport, so we have been able to create a
mailing list from that. We also feel that the passport has helped create
recognition of NC Historic Sites as a system. We have always had problems
with the public not recognizing that all the sites were linked together
organizationally and that they can expect the same level of service from
each one. The passport has hopefully helped us in this area somewhat.
I forgot to mention that the passport also has sites grouped thematically
in a index in the back of the booklet. If you have any further questions,
you may e-mail me or telephone me at (919) 733-7862. I will try to send you
sample.
Elaine Beck, [log in to unmask], Curator of Education, NC Historic
Sites
***My opinions may not be those of my agency.***
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Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 From: beth calamia <[log in to unmask]>
I know this only from visiting, but there is a similar program between the
Museum of Rock Hill (South Carolina) and other local historic sites, so you
might want to check them out.
Beth Calamia
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From: [log in to unmask] Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999
Check with the Museum of New Mexico office. They offer a 5-day pass to five
or six local museums.
Chandra Powell
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From: [log in to unmask] Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999
The Everhart Museum participates in a passport program developed by the
Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority - a heritage park. The visitors bureau
now administers the program. Both are county organizations. The site
selling the passport receives a higher percentage. It has it's pros and
cons. One for the museum is that we had to open additional hours and days.
We lost $$ on that and went back to the old schedule this year. Information
on the program is on the LHVA website.
Maria Montoro Quinn
Everhart Museum
Scranton, PA
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From: [log in to unmask] Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999
Here in the Chicago area I am part of a committee which organizes a summer
passport program which has grown to include six counties and more than 150
museums.
We started small with less than 30 museums in two suburban counties.
Participants receive a book containing one page listings for each
participating museums. The program is for ages 4-12. Each child visits
museums in the passport throughout the summer. At each museum they complete
an activity sheet and receive a stamp on the appropriate page of their
passport. At the end of the summer they return their passports for a prize
based on the number of museums visited.
As far as organization of the program. We do a mass mailing prior to the
program's start. This goes out to museums who have participated in the
preceding year. We do another mailing to museums in the area who have not
participated which explains the program to them and invites them to
participate.
Each museum wishing to participate submits information such as a logo,
hours, admission costs, handicap accessibility, proximity to mass transit,
address, phone number and a brief summary of their museum. All of this is
put onto their page. We charge a fee for participation ($50) and for this
fee the museum may get 200 passports to distribute.
Due to its size we have broken the museums into three geographic areas and
list the museums by region. However, although each museum has a full page
listing in only one of the passports, all participating museums from the
other regions are listed in the back of the other regions' passports
(including phone number). For example, my museum's full page listing is in
the Kane-DuPage County passport, but the name and phone number of my museum
are listed in the other two passports. We do get a number of visitors from
the other regions.
The cost we charge does not cover printing so we obtain an outside sponsor
by selling ad space on the outside back cover of the passports. This past
summer we sold the space to Big Idea Productions for $1500. They got a good
deal as their logo and name went out on more than 15,000 publications which
were in circulation for three months during the summer. We got a good deal
because for the first time in the program's 10 year history we finished in
the black without having to get money from regional museum associations.
As for administration, most museums work with their local libraries to
distribute the passport. There is no cost to the public for obtaining a
passport book. Here in West Chicago the library gives out passports to
local children as they participate in the summer reading program
(participation in the reading program is not required to get a passport).
This works well as the library is usually open later in the evenings than
we are. Prize guidelines are uniform throughout the program (5
stamps=certificate, seven or more stamps=certificate+prize). However, it is
up to each museum to determine their own prizes and to see that these are
distributed to their local participants. Some prizes include: T-shirts, ice
cream socials, gift certificates from local businesses or restaurants,
pencils... Some museums also offer additional prizes for the most museums
visited etc. In West Chicago I offer an extra prize for the first child to
visit ten museums (we get tickets to an area semi-pro baseball team donated
each summer).
Summary: a great program which is growing like wildfire, brings in a lot of
visitors and has been successful for more than 10 years now. I will send
you a copy of one of the passport books.
One more thing, this program is a heck of a lot of work. Our committee
consists of about six representatives from some of the participating
museums.
Their time is paid for by their own museums, costs of mailings and use of
computers, etc., is covered by their own museums. That is something to
consider. I suggest starting small, like we did, with a limited
geographical area and seeing where it goes from there.
My biggest complaint with my experience with passport is the politics which
have developed around it. When we began to grow from our small suburban
program, the committee took a lot of flack from others in our regional
association. But I think most people now see that the larger the program is
the better. After all, its a pretty good use of promotional budget to spend
$50 and get such massive exposure throughout the Chicago area.
The other flack we have taken is over the sponsor. Two years ago we had a
major educational toy store sponsor us and they demanded that the museums
provide programs and activities in their stores. This was a royal pain.
There were about seven stores in the Chicago area, the passport committee
members had to call participating museums and schedule store visits (again
on their own institution's time) and when we did go out to a store there
was little customer traffic. This year I found a new sponsor who attached
no such strings but because Big Idea sells children's videos with a
religious theme (Veggie Tales). We are taking some heat from the
politically correct crowd (which in the museum community is very large).
But that is an issue which I have sufficiently vented about a month or so
ago on this very list.
Well, that about covers it (sorry to go on and on and on...) If you try to
do a passport, I wish you luck with it. Call, write or email any time if
you need further help or insight.
Chris Gingrich, West Chicago City Museum, 132 Main St., West Chicago, IL
60185, (630) 231-3376
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From: [log in to unmask] Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 00:27:53 EDT
The museums in Rockford, Illinois developed a passport program this summer
in conjunction with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. It was not
incredibly successful, and I don't know if we will be repeating it. We
ended up with three passport programs this summer!
1) A Museum Passport which was a purchased pass to get into four of the
local museums.
2) A Museum Passport for children to Suburban Chicago and Rockford museums
where a child could have a passport stamp and could do an activity while
visiting over 25 museums.
3) A local "Passport to Smiles" campaign from the Convention and Visitors
Bureau to improve "local" tourism.
If you would like more info, I would be glad to send it to you.
Kim Stull, Midway Village & Museum Center, Rockford, IL 61107,
815/397-9112. x.105, [log in to unmask]
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Regards,
Lorraine E. Weiss, Education Director
Rensselaer County Historical Society, Troy, NY, [log in to unmask]
Visit us at http://www.rchsonline.org
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