[BCMA] Family diversity, membership and beyond

Thu Jun 27 18:07:00 PDT 2013

Hello;

I think this is a great conversation.  It shows how challenging it is to
formulate an effective pricing strategy is.  And let's face it - a good
pricing strategy needs to be seen by the consumer as fair and also provide
benefit to the provider (allows them to stay in business).  At the Britannia
Mine Museum we spend considerable time analyzing our pricing and running
variations to try and get it right and to push the price up as far as we
can.  

Family units, however they are defined, are like school students - they are
subsidized within the overall pricing strategy.  Rightly, (I think) singles
and seniors are pushed slightly higher because they can be (on average).
Two adults (a couple) are not as price sensitive as a family unit.  So, is
this 'discrimination'.  I don't think so.  Pricing plays and considers the
average consumer and their thresholds.  Get it wrong and you need to adjust.
Get it right - push a bit more to see if there is benefit.  Someone from a
successful attraction once told me that if you have no one complaining about
your price it is too low.  

Family daily admission rate is different than annual family membership,
although the later is often used for one time admission (by the consumer)
because they perceive a saving.  

And finally, trying to bring the conversation back to the original topic
which was about how to ensure family diversity in membership, if the intent
behind supporting  your family membership category is understood this will
help in how it is defined (benefits) and ultimately priced and sold.

I would argue that most museums (community and mid-sized) have little
experience with setting pricing strategies.  I say this because I know how
much I have learned and how I often still hear that pricing is set based on
the a feeling of 'what can be charged' not on what it actually costs.   This
is done for good reason in museums.  Unfortunately there is a wide spread
between our actual cost per person and what we can charge or in some cases -
dare to charge.  And this - with diminishing government resources supporting
operations will be what eventually causes us to close our doors.

Thanks for the feedback on an great topic and one that is important to
define and discuss more fully.

Kirstin Clausen.
From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On
Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2013 10:31 AM
To: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Subject: Re: [BCMA] Family diversity, membership and beyond

I agree with Colin -- very supportive, Kirstin, of our society's new and
emerging way of looking at families!

However, I would like to add this comment. While I feel the way Britannia
Mine handled it by making it absolutely flexible for the parents, there
remains a challenge which I don't know how to address in a fair, equitable,
and non-discriminatory fashion. Nevertheless I will take a stab at for
administrators to ponder over.

My family consists of a mother, a father, and one child -- therefore three
admissions are need to be purchased as we tend to travel by ourselves versus
picking up other people's children to attend museums. All too often we
arrive at the admission counter seeing that the definition for a family is 2
adults and 2 children. Very suddenly my family feels discriminated on
because we don't meet an acceptable number of children to be defined as a
family. Naomi described the opposite form of this type of discrimination in
her post where she feels if you have 3 or more children in the group you are
not treated fairly.

So when we are paying for 2 adults and 1 child we find that we are paying
the same price or very close to 2 adults and 2 children. It appears to be a
societal issue that unless you have two or more children you are not in a
family.

My community consists of families where there are households with one parent
and one child through to having multi-generational households where the
grandparents, parents, and the grandchildren live under roof as a family.
Thus in just one community we have a very elastic definition of the word
"family". Meanwhile, many museums have applied a rigid definition to the
word by stating a family can only be two adults and two children -- none
less; none more. It's almost like the Chinese government applying the "one
child" policy, but without any of the severe penalties of that nation.

Perhaps a way to meet the variable sizes and definitions of families is by
avoiding using the word all together and focusing on small group packages
for children with adults. Or if two adults are present, each child receives
a 50% discount to a maximum number of children. Again, not an easy fit, but
seemingly reasonable flexible.

This is a difficult topic to formulate a family definition without some sort
of discrimination taking place. Again, I applaud Kirstin for trying to deal
with it in an effective and inclusive way. Way to go Britannia!

Cheers,
Ken Wuschke

On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
<bcma at lists.vvv.com> wrote:
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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