<div dir="ltr">Hi all,<div>I'll share a couple of experiences. At the Port Moody Station Museum we were open all year by donation. We used to suggest $2 per person regardless of age but that was 5 years ago. The thinking was that most people have $2 in their pocket which isn't hard to part with. In summers, we had a student greeter at the door which helped encourage people to donate. We did the calculations and if we had to pay a person to take admission and the other administration that goes with it, we would have had to charge an admission price higher than we felt was reasonable to keep our visitation numbers up. Our donations were generally strong (I don't remember the per person amount) and we were able to keep good visitation numbers which pleased our funders. Jim, please correct me if I've misspoken on anything here!</div><div><br></div><div>At the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, we charge admission in line with Parks Canada gazetted fees (highest individual fee $7.80). In 2015, we began to include fees for additional interpretation in summer months and continued to see increases in visitation with virtually no complaints. Like other Parks Canada sites we were free for 2017. We saw huge increases in visitation (I think around double the previous year but I'm not sure). Much of this increase was from passersby who otherwise wouldn't have paid because they didn't know what was offered, didn't have the time to spend, or didn't speak English or French and thought they wouldn't get much from the experience. From what I understand, there has been little to no pushback since the site has returned to paid admission this year and visitation is still strong. The verdict is still out as to whether the free admission year will result in a long term increase in visitation. If any of the Cannery folks have anything to add, please feel free!</div><div><br></div><div>I think there are a couple things to consider, 1) who is your audience and what are their expectations and 2) what are your masters (governing bodies, funders, etc) more concerned with - visitation or revenue. At the Cannery, a significant portion of visitation was from tourists who were totally amenable to admission fees. At the Port Moody Museum, visitors are mostly locals who feel ownership of the site and expect it to be free. </div><div><br></div><div>Hope that helps. Good luck with the decision.</div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Rebecca </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 5:54 PM, Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bcma@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">bcma@lists.vifa.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-CA" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="m_-1457954852848577999WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d">I meant to chime in on this last week, and it slipped my mind. Creston Museum is a small museum in a small community, and we charge admission in summer - $4 for adults, $3 youth, and $10 for a family (we’re pretty flexible on what constitutes a family). In winter, we switch to an admission by donation system, because it’s cold so visits tend to be shorter, and we almost always have part of it torn up while we change an exhibit or repaint a room or something.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d">In summer, most people pay the admission without questions, though we occasionally get people who refuse to pay admission, or who walk in with no money in any form because they expect it will be free; and on days when we do go with admission by donation (event days, for example), our per person revenues drop to less than $2. On the other hand, we also get a lot of comments that “it’s worth much more than we charge,” but if we tried charging more, I know we would lose visitors. But in winter, we regularly get people handing us $20 donations and more. The difference is that in winter, people hand us the donation after they’ve visited and in summer, they’re asked for admission when they arrive. So, if we could figure out a way to show people how fantastic we are before they’ve seen it, we could probably go to an admission-by-donation format and considerably increase our admission revenues.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d">Tammy<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">------------------------------<wbr>--------------------<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Tammy Bradford, Manager<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Creston Museum<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">219 Devon Street, Creston BC V0B 1G3<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">250-428-9262<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #e1e1e1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> <a href="mailto:bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca</a> <<a href="mailto:bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca</a>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 09, 2018 5:02 PM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:bcma@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">bcma@lists.vifa.ca</a><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?<u></u><u></u></span></p></div></div><span class=""><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Dear Museum Friends,<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Thank you for the generous response to this query around admissions policies. Responses continue to trickle in, so let’s continue to share our experience. Later on, I will do my best to summarize and report back with some takeaways from this critical conversation.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Regards,<u></u><u></u></span></p></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">Linda<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><img width="387" height="94" style="width:4.0312in;height:.9791in" id="m_-1457954852848577999_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.png@01D430BA.1833B840" alt="Linda Digby_email tags-small"><u></u><u></u></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #e1e1e1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> <a href="mailto:bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca</a> [<a href="mailto:bcma-bounces@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">mailto:bcma-bounces@lists.<wbr>vifa.ca</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.<span class=""><br><b>Sent:</b> August-01-18 3:21 PM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:bcma@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">bcma@lists.vifa.ca</a><br><b>Subject:</b> [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?<u></u><u></u></span></span></p></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Dear Friends,<u></u><u></u></p><div><div class="h5"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">We operate three museums in downtown Kelowna, with admission by donation. Our admissions policy is under review, and we would like to know what other museums have learned about admission policy. What are museums of various size categories handling admission? Does charging admission, rather than asking for a donation, increase or decrease revenues? How does it impact visitation? What else has been learned?<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Here is our experience: Kelowna Museums Society sees just under 40,000 visitors a year at our three museums. We have a long history of offering admission by donation. Last year, we posted small signs on the donation boxes stating the suggested donation is $5 per person. This worked for us, and we noticed an increase in donation box revenues. Based on recent performance, our budget reflects anticipated donation box revenues from our three facilities of $34,000. Our average donation per person is about half of our suggested donation, or around $2.50 (some of our visitors pay program fees that are not reflected in the donation box revenue line, so this average refers to casual drop-in visitors). <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The board would like to know if revenues would increase if we instituted an admission fee. Alternatively, they wonder if it would be beneficial to make our suggested donation signage more prominent and detailed, with suggested donations for individuals, families, seniors, students, etc. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">General comments may be shared with the entire listserv community. Anyone who would like to engage in a more detailed exchange may contact me directly at:<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:ldigby@kelownamuseums.ca" target="_blank">ldigby@kelownamuseums.ca</a>, or 778-478-0346<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Best,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Linda<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><img border="0" width="387" height="94" style="width:4.0312in;height:.9791in" id="m_-1457954852848577999Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.png@01D430BA.1833B840" alt="Linda Digby_email tags-small"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div></div><div id="m_-1457954852848577999DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br>
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