Hi Marilynn and others... I've been thinking about value membership a lot over the past several years and have been interviewing professionals who are taking a new approach to membership. Here are a few articles and interviews that might interest you: Rethinking membership: http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2007/11/rethinking-membership-what-does-it-mean.html Interview with Will Cary and Shelley Bernstein of the Brooklyn Museum of Art re their "1st Fans" membership: http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/02/1stfans-audience-specific-membership.html Interview with Kirsten Denner of the Whitney about their "Curate Your Own" membership: http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2010/09/curate-your-own-membership-interview.html Another question about value memberships: http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2010/02/could-you-split-your-membership.html I'd also recommend John Falk and Beverly Sheppard's book Thriving in the Knowledge Age, which talks a great deal about membership. I also focused on membership and building relationships with visitors over time in chapter 2 of The Participatory Museum, which you can access here: www.participatorymuseum.org/chapter2 I hope this helps! Nina Nina Simon Museum 2.0 - www.museumtwo.com On Apr 6, 2011, at 11:40 AM, Marilynn Havelka wrote: > A while back I wrote an email asking if other organizations were > rethinking their membership program - I got one response so I am > putting the plea out once again. We have a program that is stagnant > - we can't seem to get over the hump to encourage more members. > While thinking about membership we are revisiting some issues: why > do we have membership, why are people members, are the benefits > relevant, how can we get more, what else can we offer to attract new > members. > (With our e-newsletter and web site with newsletters posted we > cannot boast that members get 4 newsletters per year.) > One action that we are taking is to call each member and chat with > them about their membership, what it means to them, what other > benefits would they like to see and what other programs etc would > they like to see at our site. To date I have called 3 to date- each > call takes 1/2 hour and all 3 said they would get back to me > (however I did get comments and I am engaging with our audience > which I think is extremely worth the time and effort. > Do you have similar issues that you can share, advise, > resources...would love to hear from you. > thanks > Marilynn > > -- > Marilynn Havelka > Chief Administrative Officer > Ruthven Park National Historic Site > 243 Haldimand Hwy. #54, Box 610 > Cayuga, Ontario Canada N0A 1E0 > > tel- (905) 772-0560 > fax- (905) 772-0561 > cell- (905) 977-1845 > > www.ruthvenpark.ca > > ========================================================= > 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). ========================================================= 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).