This can be a difficult question to answer because there are no "definitive"
definitions (was that redundant?) for any of these terms, nor should there
be. What one institution calls a friends group another may call members and
vice versa. Again, this is as it should be as each institution has its own
peculiar needs and history. From my experience, at the institutions I have
worked and those I have worked with or close by, memberships tend to be
those organizations which are administered and led by the institutions
themselves and are meant solely to foster support for the institution,
including financial, intellectual, educational, etc. I have always
interpreted friends organizations as those support groups that are managed
and led by people other than staff or volunteers of the institution, and
have little or no official association with the administrators of a site. In
many cases they are primarily dedicated to garnering support for a site,
building, or collection and only secondarily support for the institution
that has stewardship of those places or items, and often oppose the
administrators of a site on many issues. Civil War battlefields come to
mind. Many of them have friends organizations who tend the lawns and
memorials and raise money for preserving the site. However they are not
officially part of the administration entrusted with preserving and
interpreting the battlefield, even though many of the docents and other
staff and volunteers are part of the friends group. This relationship can
become strained when the steward organization (NPS or a state or local
equivalent) starts to interpret the site in a manner not consistent with the
friends groups' vision of the site.

This latter group is what I thought of when the original question was posed.
As a couple of you noted, government run sites often do not, or can not,
have a  membership organization so they use a friends organization to
fulfill that role, and sometimes there is no difference other than label for
the two kinds of organizations.

Although no one brought up the topic, I also think there is room here to
mention all of those other organizations that can glom onto a museum or
historic site that can serve as a titular friends group because they have an
interest in the content of a site. At the B&O Railroad Museum there was the
B&O Historical Society (which is a weak if accurate example), and groups
like the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, and Daughters
of the War of 1812, and institutions which commemorate the history of an
industrialist or company can have the present corporate entity as a "friend"
and can reap numerous benefits from the corporation and its employees even
though there is no official affiliation. These ancillary groups can often
wield political power within an organization, even if  they have no official
association. These groups can serve as a great source of person-power,
financial support, and community support, but they can also be a pain in the
neck if they begin to exert undue control over management and interpretation
issues and/or make noise in the community when things do not go their way.

I also know of a couple of institutions that still have Women's Auxiliaries
which function both inside and outside the institution management structure
of an institution, but still seem to have the traditional role these groups
have always had. I am still unsure what these are, but their meetings always
have the best food. : )

When you add volunteers into the mix it gets even hazier, as some
organizations require membership of volunteers, some do not, and some
institutions administer their volunteers through a friends organization to
save money.

All that having been said, I'd like to return this post back to the original
issue of Friends Association's Benefits. I would not hesitate to offer
retail benefits to any organization which is an organization devoted solely
to the support of the institution and (preferably) managed by the
institution. Whether you call them members, friends, or the  Fred Loves
Ethel Fan Club doesn't matter. What matters is that the institution gains
something from the organization. I would hesitate to offer discounts to
members of organizations administered outside the administration of a museum
or historical site, unless there is a tangible gain by the institution from
the organization AS A WHOLE!!! I emphasize the last part because most
friends organizations with which I have experience (or DAR or other outside
organization) tend to have a few active members and a whole lot of dues
paying, do nothing members, and I would hate to offer a whole organization a
discount because a small percentage of the organization is very helpful.
Maybe the outside organization can become corporate members, or maybe there
can be some sort of discount per so many hours served, etc. I am sure it can
be worked out between willing organizations.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I just think this is an interesting topic
and I don't think we are all always on the same page on this even though we
think we are. And, even though I think we should all do what works for each
of our institutions, we need to define terms, phrases, and concepts if we
want to have a meaningful discussion with minimum misunderstandings.


--
Matthew White
Director of Museums
Mount Washington Observatory
www.mountwashington.org

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