When I first read this thread, a line from America's "Tinman" popped
into my head:

But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have

So pardon me if I wax a bit lyrical this AM. I haven't had all of my
caffine yet.

I think both Jay and Indy are right. A lot is being done and we need
to get creative about what we do. There are tons of untapped audiences
out there that we aren't reaching. One of the main comments I got at
the historic house where I used to work is, "I've been here 10+ years
and I never knew this was back here." Our attendance increased
dramatically when we started putting signs up on the road advertising
our programs. These were hand-lettered and painted by staff so they
were relatively cheap to produce.

I bet if museum staff sat down and started listing all the community
groups, school groups, scout groups, church groups, seniors groups,
Masons, Rotary club, Elks, after-school programs, recreational
programs, etc. etc., you'd have a huge list of target audiences.

For each target audience, come up with an audience profile that
describes the average person in the audience, what their income is,
what their interests are, how much free time they have, what their
educational needs or wants are, etc. and start coming up with programs
and advertising for those audiences.

I also think we need to bite the bullet and start doing more "for
profit" programs to help fund the educational programs that aren't
going to make as much money. Afternoon teas and murder mysteries were
relatively easy to put on and they made several hundred to over a
thousand dollars. Hands-On-History programs took significantly more
time and made only a couple of hundred. Frustrating. I'd like to do
more Hands-On-History but it doesn't pay the bills. So you have to
find the balance between making the money and doing "worthwhile"
programs. Hopefully, you'll be able to combine the two together and
have an "educational" money-making program. (And if you do, please
share because we'd all like to know. :)

And lastly, I think museums need to work together. It's hard when
everyone is competing for the same audiences and volunteers but unless
there are a bunch of museums in a small community, I think there are
plenty of audiences and volunteers to go around. Not every museum
needs to do a cub scout program. Get together with the local museums
and work out a series of programs where one museum does weebelos
(sp?), another does cub scouts and one does boy scouts. The same can
go for girl scout programs.

So, basic info. If people have developed such museum partnerships or
have good program ideas, please share with the list!!

deb

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