Message-ID: <012e01c8baba$2fc67dc0$4001a8c0@HP50151119617> From: "Susan McLeod" <s.mcleod@cvmuseum.com> Subject: Re: Open hours for historic house museums Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 15:43:40 -0500
Sorry, given today's discussion, but you all just received an email with no
message from me!
What I intended to say was that the Chippewa Valley Museum has the
Schlegelmilch House in Eau Claire. It is an historic house but not our main
museum facility.
Years ago (maybe early '90s), we seemed to have exhausted public interest in
general admission hours for the Schlegelmilch and stopped having them. We
open the house for general tours once or twice a year but otherwise use it
for pre-arranged tours, educational events and school tours. We also rent
the House for certain kinds of private meetings and events. Last year, we
had about 1,500 visitors (all types), which is about the same number as in
the days of regular hours but no one is sitting in the house to no response,
which happened frequently before.
We have great documentary resources for the Schlegelmilch House and are
currently working on a new master plan for its use and interpretation. I
would be very interested in knowing what attendance other groups experience
for their house museums when the house is not used for general museum
exhibits and programs.
Cheers,
Susan McLeod
Chippewa Valley Museum
Eau Claire
----- Original Message -----
From: "JAMES STROSCHEIN" <stromedia@verizon.net>
To: "Janice Dibble" <Dibble@oshkoshpubliclibrary.org>
Cc: <localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: Open hours for historic house museums
> Currently we have a very minimal budget for house tour promotion. We place
> an ad in the annual Chamber of Commerce visitor guide, we have one or two
> sandwich boards that we place near the commercial district (one of the
> boards has a small box with lid that contains brochures), we hang posters
> downtown, we send group emails to our Chamber's list, and we distribute
> both our newsletter and our brochures to downtown restaurants and
> galleries.
>
> Our hours are 1-5 Friday & Sat. and 11 am - 2 pm on Sundays. We don't
> generally invest in advertising that gets only one viewing, such as a
> newspaper ad that is glanced at once and is bird cage liner the next day.
> We used to be open 1-5 Sundays but, if you want to catch the tourist, we
> found they want to do something after breakfast on Sunday and then hit the
> road. By 2 pm the tourist is gone.
>
> But having said all that, we don't think "chasing the tourist" is a very
> good business strategy for a historical society. For us, house tours are
> currently only slightly better than a "break even" proposition. We
> generate income in other ways, including a solid year-end Annual Campaign
> that touts all of the educational and fun activities that we do throughout
> the year. We ask our members for additional gifts to support those
> activities and they come through for us. We also have a very good
> newsletter that keeps our name and activities in front of the membership 4
> times a year.
>
> One other thing that you might consider: if you have a board member who
> can deliver a good 90-second elevator speech, ask them to work it into any
> appropriate public gatherings, such as at the town ice cream social or
> during a break in a concert or between speakers. We have free music
> concerts at Orchard Lawn, called Jammin' on the Porch, (the second Friday
> of each month in summer) and before the show or during the break, one of
> our board members comes to the microphone and touts house tours and the
> historical society in general. We get good responses from this.
>
> I've even been known to ask for volunteers in this way, and then send a
> signup sheet around.
>
> I hope some of this helps, Janice. This exchange is another great benefit
> of this list serve. I think we all face similar challenges.
>
> Jim Stroschein
> President, Mineral Point Historical Society
>
>
>
>
>
> On May 16, 2008, at 12:14 PM, Janice Dibble wrote:
>
>> Our members volunteer on weekends during the summer to give tours of our
>> Morgan House.
>> It's always a struggle to find the right hours and best promotion (with
>> very low $ budget for promotion).
>> (1) What hours work for you in terms of highest attendance? Has anyone
>> found week days or nights successful and/or other times of the year
>> (excluding Holiday Season, which we also open up for)
>> (2) What promotional methods have worked best?
>> (3) We mostly get out-of-towners in the summer -- is that your
>> experience?
>>
>> Thanks for any feedback, Janice for Winn. County Historical Society
>>
>> Janice Dibble
>> dibble@oshkoshpubliclibrary.org
>> Head of Reference & Adult Serv.
>> Oshkosh Public Library
>> 920.236.5214 ph 920.236.5227 fax
>> www.oshkoshpubliclibrary.org
>>
>