Katherine: in response to your questions:
1. 300 people last year in one evening program; this year we could
double that ( our limitation was the number of seats in the
Planetarium theatre) since we will offer two showings
2. No; this year we will offer it on Oct.28 & 29. Last year we offered
it on Oct. 27.  We'll likely offer it on Oct 30 & 31 next year.
3. Program is roughly 2.5 hours long
4. Last year our fee was $5 per child ($4 for members) and $1 per
supervising adults (because they don't get a loot bag or other
prizes); family cost was $15 ($12 members).  What we discovered was
that instead of 2 or 3  kids coming with one adult, we had a lot of 1
or 2 kids coming with 2 adults, so there were many more adults taking
up vital seating and space.  This year we are charging everyone
(except the wee ones) $5 ($4 members).
5. Last year we nearly broke even (not quite), but this was because 1.
we were unsuccessful getting any corporate donations (for the loot
bags, advertising, etc) and 2. we had all the decorations to buy in
the first year, which we can re-use.
6. Your question about satanic correlation is a good one.  We
discussed this at length (52% of Winnipegers believe in UFO's, so we
have an interesting audience) and we decided to go ahead with the
Halloween celebration, even though we expected some backlash along
these lines.  However I don't think we heard any concerns at all, so
it really became a non-issue.

Also, 7. We recruited volunteers to help out (mostly older kids who
are too old to go trick or treating, but are still interested in
Halloween
8. this year we will be hiring local performers (Marianna Banana)
rather than have staff do all the programming
9. Our gross feely boxes will be different (the spaghetti noodles
didn't stand up too well to 300 hands squeezing them, for example)
10. the Planetarium show will be more canned (it was partially
live-acted last year)
11. As I mentioned before, we are making the darkened gallery tour
more "purposeful" this year. Rather than just a flashlight tour, we
will have clues to find the mystery objects and will work this into a
word search game.
12. We hope to be much more successful with our corporate donations
efforts.

Regards,  George Wurtak         [log in to unmask]
********************************************************************
"Katherine E. Baker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Hi Everyone,

>I've been away from the computer for the last week, so my thank yous
>are overdue, but I really appreciate all the responses to my query
>about Halloween programs.

>Of course, now I have some other questions concerning the nuts and
>bolts of the programs going on in your museums.  How many people do
>you accommodate at one time?  Do you offer your program only on
>Halloween?  What is the length of your program?  Do you charge a fee?
> If so, does the program generate enough revenue to break even?  Has
>anyone received any negative feedback concerning Halloween as a
>"satanic" event?  (No, I'm not kidding.)

>Now that I sound like a three-year-old with all of my questions I
>think I'll just say thank you again for everyone's help.
>Katherine E. Baker, Director of Education
>Box 967 WTAMU
>Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
>Canyon, Texas, 79016