To Jennifer,
Hi there! I'm the Membership Coordinator at the Oriental Institute, 
University of Chicago. We're an archaeology museum focusing on the areas 
of the Near and Middle East.  I have 2 thoughts re: your earlier questions.
First of all, we see that member/other public involvement is about 
50/50. We have some members only events, and some free/open to the 
public (including members) events. Which leads to your second question.
Our museum admission is FREE with suggested donation, so our membership 
is really focused on communication, in depth learning opportunities, and 
other perks such as museum shop discount and reciprocal membership. Most 
of our members give (because our membership goods' value is nominal, it 
is considered a donation "gift") because they love and believe in the 
institution, which can make it very hard to 'sell' to folks who may not 
have been here or who just aren't into this sort of thing. Many folks 
who are asked about membership don't feel the NEED to become members 
because so many of our events, as well as our admission, is "free." We 
are competing quite heavily with museums that have  frequent rotating 
and exclusive exhibits that people want to experience once, then walk 
away from. Frequently, the cost of just one of another museum's special 
exhibits is about half or more the cost of our annual membership! 
Therefore, we find that discount programming (classes, exclusive 
lectures, annual events) is a VERY important part of our membership 
program, especially for NEW members. We always say that if we can reel 
them in with the image of a value and a great deal, then we can have the 
opportunity to get them emotionally invested in what we do, which makes 
these folks more likely to transition into lifelong donors and supporters.
My 2 cents. I'm interested to hear what others have to say!
Best,
*Sarah Sapperstein*
Membership Coordinator
Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 E. 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Ph: 773-834-9777
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
http://oi.uchicago.edu

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

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).