From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deana Mallory
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 10:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Membership Structure

I have been thinking about changing the way our museum approaches membership versus annual giving, since it routinely confuses the heck out of everyone.  My idea is in the very rough stages (as in, I have mostly been thinking about it during my commute for the last couple of days) but I wanted to see if anyone else has tried anything like this, or what responses you all might have.

My thought is to sort out who our members are a little more.  There are those who want free admission.  They generally purchase the lowest cost memberships.  Then there are those who want to be financial supporters of the museum.  They generally buy higher priced memberships, and donate to the annual fund.  Obviously the two groups are not mutually exclusive, but that's the general pattern.

Has anyone ever tried offering an "annual pass" for frequent visitors?  I am even thinking about a punch card style pass.  For $x, you get up to x number of free visits.  Then we could have what I'm thinking of as a "museum lover's pass" which would include the NARM sticker and be a bit more expensive and more traditional with unlimited visits to the museum for a year.  Then add what I'm calling Museum Affinity Groups to give people a way to support the museum and give us a way to discover their particular interests.  For example, the Education Affinity Group would pay $x annually, get a discount on admission and on ed programs, and get bonus information about those programs.  The Collector's group would get occasional bonus lectures from the curator, tours of collections, and so on.  You could purchase an annual pass and an affinity group, if you were so inclined.  Maybe do some kind of combo deal.

I don't know if this would just confuse people MORE or if it would help people understand that their annual fund donation is different than their membership. I wonder what impact it would have on the bottom line.  I also don't know how to transition from what we have now (traditional membership program) to this new idea, if we do.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

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Deana R. Mallory
Interim Executive Director