Hi Everyone,

The Creative Learning Factory just produced a webinar on this topic, “Using Traveling Trunks for Educational Programming.” The webinar has been recorded and is now available on our website as part of our Museum Educator Series, where we examine the role of museum educators and provide relevant and applicable content for museum professionals. This particular webinar examined the Ohio Historical Society’s Museum in a Box program and some of the strategies that they have utilized. If you have any questions, or are interested in additional Museum Educator Series content, please feel free to send me an email! Thanks!

http://www.creativelearningfactory.org/programming/previous-webinars

I’m just starting to look at devising traveling trunks for our own museum. Here we are not able to send out staff or volunteers for programs due to scheduling concerns. We are in NYC so we could start with the drop-off/pick-up method, but ideally we’d like to make small trunks that could be shipped, as we’re trying to expand our Distance Learning programming nationally.

Does anyone have experience with the logistics of mailing traveling trunks? Most of our artifacts are not easily breakable (plush or paper) so the collections are less of an issue than cost/management of such a program.

We’ve taken a slightly different approach with our Traveling Trunks, which might be something worth considering to avoid fees. We have (3) trunks that we send out to schools/community groups free of charge. We do not, however, send an educator with the trunks, as the trunks are designed to be completely self-contained. They include objects, repro primary sources, etc., as well as lesson plan prompts for teachers to use if they desire. Therefore, teachers have some ready-made activities that they can easily do with the trunks. We also make the trunks available for (2) week periods of time, with the idea being that a teacher can spend (1) week with the trunk getting to know the resources and (1) week using the trunk with students. That way, if teachers want to design their own learning experiences, they can do that, too. In this way, we can reach out to schools/libraries/etc. without having to dedicate an educator’s time.

The only other hurdle is the pick-up/return of the trunk. We usually request that the teacher pick up the trunk from the museum, but more often than not we also arrange for mutually-convenient meet-up spots. For example, if a staff person or volunteer lives near a school, we’ve asked them to drop the trunk off at the school.

All in all this has worked well for us. It gets our resources out there to the schools, and there’s very little extra cost for anyone. (That being said, we do then run the risk of broken/missing objects when the trunk gets returned. BE SURE to get a principal/superintendent to sign off on a waiver that the school will be financially responsible for lost/broken objects!)

Hope this is helpful!

Best,

Margaret

Margaret Hughes | Director of Educational Initiatives

Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

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I have worked with hundreds of small, often all-volunteer organizations.  Most are hurting for cash.  Most also say that young people are less and less interested in their historical organization.  This question is not about the costs of serving school children.   It is about the very survival of these smaller organizations.  From a short-term perspective, a few hundred dollars seems like a lot on a yearly basis.  But these dollars are marketing dollars, not fee-for-service dollars.  If smaller organizations do not market themselves to school children in their communities, at the very age where positive impressions can be made, they may not have an adequate number of young adults contributing in the future to allow their survival.  Good businesses (and, yes, an historical organization is a business) plan NOT for today, but for tomorrow, twenty years down the road.  Short-sightedness has caused more business failures than any other cause.

 

I suggest that these services be offered free of charge to any and all schools that are willing either to have them brought to the school, or come to the institution's facilities.  To not do so significantly increases the likelihood the organization will not be there for the next generation.  If the relatively limited amount of funds is a problem, ask a community-minded benefactor to donate for this specific project.  Get a grant.  Ask the Board members individually to provide funding for this project.  Increase membership numbers/fees to cover the costs.  Send out a community appeal.  Looking at this from a neutral perspective, the amount of money is relatively small and the benefits of the program potentially significantly large.  It is a no brainer to send this program as far and wide as possible for the minimal expenses involved.  Heck, I have absolutely no connections to the organization or the area, and I am tempted to send in $100 to cover a month's expenses.  I am sure that local people will jump at the chance to help!

 

Marc

 

From: [log in to unmask]">Janean Mollet-Van Beckum

Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2014 5:31 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Discovery Box/Traveling Trunk Fee Question

 

Hello Listers,

 

We currently have a Discovery Box program which is taken by an Educator to schools for 45 minute programs.  The programs are currently free.  We are considering setting up a fee schedule but don’t want to alienate cash strapped schools.  Mainly we want to defray our travel costs since it came to over $100 in the last month alone (a lot for us).  Does anyone have a fee schedule set up for programs like this?  Do you charge by distance, per program or a yearly subscription service?  Is it by teacher or by school?  Lots of questions here, so any suggestions are welcome!

 

Thank you,

 

Janean Mollet-Van Beckum

Curator of Collections and Exhibits
Washington County Historical Society
320 S 5th Avenue, West Bend, WI  53095-3333

(262) 335-4678  

 

 

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