Thanks for the great points Sarah. We weren't thinking of it at all from a grant-writing point of view, just from a programming point of view, and this is the perfect time to make sure we're collecting at least the information that most useful from a development point of view. Thanks for pushing us to look at another view. best, Leslie on 11/5/04 11:51 AM, Sarah Brophy at [log in to unmask] wrote: First make sure you're asking the right questions about your visitorship - my view, as a grant proposal writer for museums, is that part of the information you collect from your visitors must be useful for describing your visitors/audience/non-visitors/non-audience members to your funders. So as you're researching what to track, include a review from your development office of what the funders are asking them to include in applications and reports - what kinds of demographics, what forms of demonstrated needs and interests...what descriptions do funders want? Then try to figure out how to collect from the visitor that type of information, as well as the information your institution requires. Zip codes give a generic description of communities origins Group tour sources (Council on Aging, boys & Girls Clubs) can give you demographics on their participants Grade level data is important .... It will be a lot of information so you'll have to make choices about when and where to collect which bits so as not to overwhelm the visitors. Cheers, SB Sarah S. Brophy, bMuse www.bmuse.net 570 West Street Carlisle, MA 978-371-7821 ========================================================= 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). -- Leslie Goddard Manager of Programs and Education Evanston Historical Society in the historic Charles Gates Dawes House A National Historic Landmark www.evanstonhistorical.org [log in to unmask] ========================================================= 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).