Deb,
You raise a number of questions, which are discrete but interrelated. It
may even be that an attendance of 30 is good at "Hands on History Day". It
is definitely not that much off from the Easter egg hunt which had an
attendance of 80 over two days. While 30 is a 25% drop from the 40 average
of the Easter egg hunt that is not an unreasonable drop, especially given
the different nature of the two events.
Some of the factors that need to be considered are:
1) Overall demographics. If your market area is around 50, 000 people then I
would not expect more than 5,000 people in total, who would be interested in
history. My own informal guesstimate is that only 10% of people in any given
population is interested in history.
2) Age demographics. While there are more people interested in history in
the age bracket over 45, the prime childbearing age is between 20 and 35.
3) Range of age in the population. In my experience, on the East Coast, a
large percentage of kids have been brought to our museum by grandparents. If
your area excludes grandparents you may be missing a significant number of
kids.
4) Traditional activities vs. special interest activities. There are more
folks who know, and are interested in egg hunting than in history therefore
you will have larger attendance at such an event everything else being
equal.
5) Marketing. Sometimes simple marketing changes can have significant
differences in affecting outcomes. Fro example, everyone knows, or has an
idea about Easter egg hunts but it is very difficult to figure out what
"Hands on History" is, or means. A more concretely descriptive "Help Grandma
Make Bee's Wax Candles" (or whatever your main activity was) could have had
a better impact on possible participants.
6) Personnel. Attitude towards audiences by staff is a much neglected an
underappreciated element in long-term success of museums and their programs.
While some folks are primarily interested in facts, knowledge or data, most
folks are happy when they are treated with consideration, love and respect.
For example, my wife loves little kids. She took over a moderately
successful "Mother Goose" program at a local library as part of her job.
Because of her love for little kids and the way she approaches them and
their parents she has developed a very loyal following over the past 18
months. The program grew from one weekly session to three sessions that get
filled-up the first day spaces are made available. At holiday times the kids
and their parents shower her with little gifts, and one kid who graduated
out of her program, and who entered the room he associated with her, and
when he saw a different adult, stopped and started bawling "Where's
G******?" Today, if my wife were to give a program for kids entitled
"Parametology of Molar Extractions" she would have a full house because the
kids and parents would have faith that the program would be something that
the kids and parents would enjoy.
In short, all the above criteria need to be examined to see if the numbers
can be increased. In the end, however, the attendance of 30 may be the
maximum possible, and that is not bad if the funds are there to continue the
programs.
Cheers, -Nicholas
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Deb Fuller
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 11:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Attendance at "fun" events v. "educational" events
Okay, I am now officially a bit frustrated. This year my historic house got
about 80 kids for the two days we held the Easter Egg Hunt. Relatively easy
money since the event itself doesn't take much prep (other than stuff candy
into over 2000 eggs which volunteers do) or effort to actually work it. So I
know the kids are out there.
We handed out flyers about our Hands on History Day to all of the kids at
the
Egg Hunt, did a mass mailing of 600 postcards for the event, I took flyers
to a
Boy Scout event I went to earlier in the year and we had big signs on the
road.
I thought attendance would be at least as good as the Egg Hunt. Nope. Only
about 30 kids showed throughout the day, a lot of them came towards the end
of
the day as well.
Granted, our advertising didn't get put in the papers this time like they
usually do which was a bit annoying. But you would think that with the
flyers
and mailing, we would have at least 40 or 50 kids.
So how come 80 kids will come out to an Easter Egg hunt on a rainy and cold
day
but won't come out on a nice, warm day (okay a bit too warm for this time of
the year but certainly not stiffling hot) for a Hands on History Day that's
a
cheaper price? Everyone who came had a great time so it's not like our
activities were lame.
I have to admit that I'm starting to agree with our director about doing
"educational" programs that take more effort and bring in less money than a
tea
or a murder mystery. And we aren't looking for scads of money off of
educational programs but when we can get 50 reservations for a tea in 36
hours,
it's a bit frustrating to do hours and hours of work planning Hands on
History
for a smattering of kids that come through - not to mention sweating all day
long in a period outfit. (Note, do not wear a Victorian outfit lined in
acetate
on a hot day. Big oops there. I should have done Colonial. Oh well.)
Any marketing suggestions? Programming suggestions? Goon squads we can
borrow
to get people through our doors?
Thanks in advance!
Deb
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