When I first read this thread, a line from America's "Tinman" popped into my head: But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man That he didn't, didn't already have So pardon me if I wax a bit lyrical this AM. I haven't had all of my caffine yet. I think both Jay and Indy are right. A lot is being done and we need to get creative about what we do. There are tons of untapped audiences out there that we aren't reaching. One of the main comments I got at the historic house where I used to work is, "I've been here 10+ years and I never knew this was back here." Our attendance increased dramatically when we started putting signs up on the road advertising our programs. These were hand-lettered and painted by staff so they were relatively cheap to produce. I bet if museum staff sat down and started listing all the community groups, school groups, scout groups, church groups, seniors groups, Masons, Rotary club, Elks, after-school programs, recreational programs, etc. etc., you'd have a huge list of target audiences. For each target audience, come up with an audience profile that describes the average person in the audience, what their income is, what their interests are, how much free time they have, what their educational needs or wants are, etc. and start coming up with programs and advertising for those audiences. I also think we need to bite the bullet and start doing more "for profit" programs to help fund the educational programs that aren't going to make as much money. Afternoon teas and murder mysteries were relatively easy to put on and they made several hundred to over a thousand dollars. Hands-On-History programs took significantly more time and made only a couple of hundred. Frustrating. I'd like to do more Hands-On-History but it doesn't pay the bills. So you have to find the balance between making the money and doing "worthwhile" programs. Hopefully, you'll be able to combine the two together and have an "educational" money-making program. (And if you do, please share because we'd all like to know. :) And lastly, I think museums need to work together. It's hard when everyone is competing for the same audiences and volunteers but unless there are a bunch of museums in a small community, I think there are plenty of audiences and volunteers to go around. Not every museum needs to do a cub scout program. Get together with the local museums and work out a series of programs where one museum does weebelos (sp?), another does cub scouts and one does boy scouts. The same can go for girl scout programs. So, basic info. If people have developed such museum partnerships or have good program ideas, please share with the list!! deb ========================================================= 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).