I've asked this question a lot, too (we're a historic house
museum/site). My proposed solution, which we have not yet implemented,
is to decrease the hours that we're open for random walk-in visitors by
closing on one or more days each week especially in the winter (right
now we're open 7 days a week year-round), and use that staff and
volunteer time for specific programs that happen in "after-hours" time
slots. It seems to me that this would be more efficient and effective.
Barriers: if we close certain days, it looks like we're offering less to
the public not more ("but we've always been open 7 days!"); volunteers
not wanting to work evenings and weekends (to which I say, this will
attract different volunteers), and a the chicken/egg question of public
demand - people don't expect this to be an option, so they don't plan to
visit our site at, say, 7 pm on a summer Wednesday. And out-of-town
visitors who come by on a Monday afternoon in February expecting us to
be there are going to be upset if we are closed.

So we are still examining these options. 

And on the other question, our attendance was up in 2008-09, mainly
because we did offer new programs in addition to everything else we were
doing. However, 2009-10 (our year starts in July) is down slightly so
far. But we have major things happening this Spring, so we hope for
better.

Carol Ely
Historic Locust Grove
Louisville 

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