We conducted a feasibility study about a year ago when we were thinking
about planning an expansion. The job really seemed too big for us to do
ourselves and we were uneasy asking the community, our audience, our
partners, etc. questions about us ourselves. It seemed most appropriate to
have an objective party conduct the study so that interviewees felt they
could be really honest. We learned that there are many museum planning
groups that offer this service. We ended up using a local company called
Gyroscope (based in San Francisco) and they did a great and thorough job.

They held focus groups with teachers and families.  They arranged and
conducted one-on-one interviews with our board members, community members
(such as our Mayor and city council members, and school district
superintendents), and partners to gauge how the community feels about us
now and whether there is room and desire to see us grow.

They also assessed a variety of land possibilities for us and looked into
future growth plans for the city to see where we might expand.  They looked
at our financial situation and compared us to other museums our size to
guage our capacity for growth.

Overall, it was very informative to have an outside group do this for us. I
don't think we could have looked at ourselves as honestly as they did. I
highly recommend going to the professionals and paying to have it done
right.

Good luck!
Jessica Ruskin
Program Director

Explorit Science Center
3141 5th Street
P.O. Box 1288
Davis, CA 95617
(530) 756-0191
FAX (530) 756-1227
http://www.explorit.org

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