[BCMA] Family diversity, membership and beyond

Tue Jun 25 16:57:05 PDT 2013

Well done Kirstin!

Sent from my iPhone

Colin MacGregor Stevens, CD
Richmond,
British Columbia,
CANADA

On 2013-06-20, at 5:28 PM, "Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv." <bcma at lists.vvv.com> wrote:

> Hi E Wright from Port Hardy.  You are on the right track.  Maybe consider
> going further with your thinking.  
> 
> The Britannia Mine Museum spent considerable time on examining our values,
> fears, and assumptions about memberships and how they are used and their
> benefit to the Museum.  We used the work done by the Royal BC Museum on
> their membership program as a source of ideas of new ways of thinking about
> membership.  
> 
> We are proud of how our family membership category has developed.  We sell
> it as a "Flexible Family Pass".  We kept the word family - as it is
> understood - but we are not worried nor care in the least how people choose
> to apply their definition of family when using the membership.  
> 
> Flexible Family Membership offers unlimited use for two adults (19+ years)
> and up to 3 youth (6 - 18).  Children under 5 are free.  Additional child
> pays a reduced rate.  
> 
> The flexibility allows for two primary adult members (who list themselves on
> the membership form and who are recorded in our system).  One of the primary
> adult members must be in attendance (show id) when the membership is used.
> In other words, the membership is not transferable.  If the two primary
> adult members are not both in attendance, we do not care who the second
> adult guest is.  We do not care who the children belong to.  
> 
> We see two neighbor moms who bring their 'collective kids'.  We have two
> adult sisters who bring their joint kids (cousins).  We have two dads who
> bring their sons for a 'boys outing'.  We have a grandma who brings her
> daughter and the grandkids.  Childless couples who have nieces/nephews they
> want to bring.  As long as one of the adults in attendance is listed as one
> of the primary adults for the membership, any combination families/friends
> can dream up is good with us.  
> 
> We wanted to encourage our members to bring their friends and family to the
> Museum and to do so on their terms as much as possible.  That is how
> families/neighbor/friends do things today.  And, since members are our
> greatest ambassadors we want them to come repeatedly and help us expose our
> museum to their network of friends and family.  The membership pass is seen
> as a great deal, and often the 'guest' of a member purchases their own
> membership because they have their whole own network they want to share the
> museum experience with.
> 
> So far we are having good success with the strategy. Our front of house find
> it very easy to sell the membership and renewals and retention is tracking
> positively - not where we want it but better than before.  Only in rare
> exception do we find anyone 'abusing' their unlimited access.  Our family
> membership is different than family day admission - in that it is unlimited
> visits.  
> 
> Kirstin Clausen
> Britannia Mine Museum.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On
> Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
> Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 2:17 PM
> To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
> Subject: Re: [BCMA] Family diversity, membership and beyond
> 
> Our family memberships include up to two adults + children in one household.
> 
> Seems to me that a simple change from "Mom and Dad" to "adults", "parents" 
> or "caregivers"  is the easy and smart thing to do and would include 
> families of all types.
> 
> 
> E Wright
> Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre
> Port Hardy, BC
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv." <bcma at lists.vvv.com>
> To: <bcma at lists.vvv.com>
> Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 3:17 PM
> Subject: [BCMA] Family diversity, membership and beyond
> 
> 
>> This posting from a Childrens Museum list-serve should prove interesting 
>> to
>> many other museums.
>> 
>> Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 4:58 PM
>> Subject: Re: [CHILDMUS] Family diversity, membership and beyond
>> 
>>>> Hi colleagues,
>>>> I'm sure you're all following the story out of Jacksonville this week in
>>>> which a lesbian family was denied a family museum membership:
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.inquisitr.com/696424/same-sex-museum-membership-denied/
>>>> 
>>>> and the sketchy way the museum handled the situation:
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/22457-museum-with
>>>> -anti-gay-family-policy-responds-to-protest-by-raising-all-membership-fe
>>>> es.html
>>>> 
>>>> I'd like to think this is an isolated incident in our field, so I'm
>>>> seeking inspiration. Please share what your membership departments are
>>>> doing to make sure something like this never happens at your museums.
>>>> Beyond membership policies, what steps have you taken to make your
>>>> museum a welcoming place for all kinds of families?
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> 
>>> Colleagues,
>>> We, too, were shocked to read this story, and hopeful that it does not
>>> reflect badly on children's museums in general, most of which I think
>>> have very welcoming policies for all kinds of families.
>>> 
>>> In this case, it sounded like a front desk person was enforcing a
>>> reasonable rule to prevent multiple families from 'sharing' a
>>> membership. We all know that there are some families that take advantage
>>> in this way.
>>> 
>>> What I was surprised about was that the ED did not override the front
>>> desk person when it was made clear that the women in question were *in
>>> the same household *(which is the criteria we use for memberships)*.*
>>> The museum's solution to raise the price of membership for everyone was
>>> a very clumsy one.
>>> 
>>> At Habitot, we try to meet the needs of all of our potential audience
>>> including LGBTQ parents. We have a "Best of the Gay Bay" designation
>>> from the Our Family organization. We have gay staff members and board
>>> members. We have a free, monthly "Mamas and Papas" program for LGBTQ
>>> parents. They meet for facilitated parent support while their
>>> (supervised) children have the run of the museum.  A couple of times a
>>> year, we have a free Open House for the LGBTQ community. We just had our
>>> Family Pride Day event fro 91 families this month. These efforts have
>>> repaid themselves many times over in community connection and support.
>> 
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