Interesting thread indeed, all points are valid as far I am concerned. I paticularly like the thread about not having a docent go on about boring details that only interest a wacked out railfan {rivet counters, serial number chasers ect}. To a non railfan this seems "way out there". Know your audience.

As a high power rifle competitor I have attended many fundraiser matches where the idea is to bring out new shooters and juniours to introduce them the sport. Usually the new people already have an interest in being there of course, but the atmosphere is electric with anticipation of a good time. Being that many are new shooters and unfamilar with the strict safety rules and pit duties {marking/scoring targets} there is a seminar on these subjects. KISS, "keep it simple stupid" is my way of thinking about informing the new people. Many of the people who give the talk {docent} go off on history lessons of service rifles, who made them, how they work, which handloads to use and a lengthy self agrandizing history of there own marksmanship talents. It gets to lengthy and many are then lost, impatiently waiting till the boring delivery is over. Then the volunteer coaches take a new shooter and give them way to much information on how to become a "High Master Class shooter" which is overwhelming them. I agree that we need to remember that not everybody has or wants to devote there life to the same anal devotion to detail that we sometimes do. Not everybody is a historian or restorer of railroad equipment or wants to be. Just as some people like to come and shoot 1 match a year and don't care if they every become a "real" competitor. If it is a railfan convention maybe that type of delivery will go farther, but from my observation most come for a train ride. Most think this is really cool, and most have a pretty shallow interest in what the stuff really is. Not to say you can't or shouldn't nurture a shallow interest, but many people are on vacation {some more then others} and just don't have the time to jump in like we all have chosen to do.

In trying to proof real this, I thought maybe a fundraiser for railfans {model railroaders included} would be a way to go. I realize that most of our "events" are trying to do this aleady. With the focus on bringing youth/parental particiapation, model railroading folks and any body of people who might have desire for more details. So many musuems I think do get kind of stagnant in how we approach getting others to come see our museum and even more so on getting new blood to get involved.

I thank all for participating in this thread, the sharing of ideas and concepts what our community needs to do more of. Cooperation over competition, check the ego's at the door kind of thinking. Cheers, John.

Some times you need to put something into prespective to the person you are talking with. For a grade school group that went thru our museume, when I was explaning railroad comunications with the telephone systems the railroads used I used the term that they couldnt use that phone to order a pizza the phones could only be used to talk to the next depot. When the School Kids did a Thank you book, alot of them rembered and wrote about the railroad phone system.

All the postings in this discussion have been very informative, thanks to all those who are participating for sharing their views.

I recently worked on a presentation on a topic that normally would have a high nostalgia content for railfans. When I showed it to several friends who are not in the hobby, I realized that while they found it interesting, they were having great difficulty relating it to things in their own range of experience. In fact I hadn't thought much about it, but much of it took place before they were born. To try to give them a better grasp on the subject, I went back and added a segment that is a "time line" and relates the railroad topic to events in history and appropriate scenes of other industries of the period. This approach seems to have worked well, it has received some very positive feedback from the few who have seen it so far.

I recall from college days that some of the worst lecturers were those who were considered "experts" on topics, this was particularly true in the case of Electrical Engineering classes. Often the instructors who admitted that they had experienced difficulty themselves with learning a subject ended up doing the best job of teaching it.

#1 priority should be to take care of the families who come to visit - give them information of interest in your trains - who and why. Also - give them clean bathrooms and a place for a picnic - we are in the entertainment business or at least compete for the same dollar.

Now there's a very important point. Historical Recreation is believed to be on the upswing, but individual site visits are down (From an article I read in Historic Preservation--don't remember where). Part of this could be because of so many choices nowadays. BUT the important part is it is RECREATION--the majority of our visitors are not railfans or modelers checking out the rivits, etc, but families looking to entertain both themselves, and more importantly, their kids (who may be Thomas the Tank Engine fans).
So, if your facility is a looong trip from any major population center, that family's first priority upon arrive is the bathroom. Many of our facilities, by their very nature, are in older industrial buildings--the bathrooms are very basic, even crude by today's standards. Ya gotta meet today's expectations in that area. You also need to meet their other expectations; analyiz your facility, try to look at in a stranger's eyes--heck, invite some strangers over to give you their responses (no, not strange railfans!!!).
Something interactive for the kids to do, and reach the different age levels here too. If you can't have docents around to tell the story, set up visiual displays with SIMPLE TEXTS.
Ah, these are just suggestions, I'm still trying to figure it out too.
S'
David D.

Years ago, maybe back in the 1970s, I saw an article in the American Association of Museum's Museum News that reported on survey done at a large museum in one of the major Ohio cities (Cincinnati or Cleaveland). It was a report on a survey as to why people came to the museum.

The majority reason was to have a good time. It was not to learn something. The people throught that they would have a good time visiting this place called a museum.

I believe that this still holds today. We've got to give the people a good time. Make sure they enjoy the experience -- clean grounds and toilets, a "neat" time, paved walkways for the strollers or the infirm.

Then along the way maybe we can impart some historical information: Why were the railroads or street railways important to your community or region of the country. Tell how people made use of these modes of transportation.

But remember -- its the experience of the visit that counts and either brings them back, wins a referal, or on the opposite hand does not bring them back.

In examining my own twisted involvement in this crazy hobby, I harken back to 1968, when my dad through a friend brought me to the "Trolley Museum". We committed to 4 Saturdays of good old volunteerism. Frankly, as a 10 year-old I was probably bored half the time and didn't stick to my assignments very well. But 37 years later, I almost get misty reminiscing about the memories we created with me as a kid working alongside the "men" with my dad so long ago. Our museum recently deaccessioned the car we had worked on. I agreed with the decision, but found myself a bit blue upon gazing at the vacant spot left by its absence.
The realization struck me, that memory with my dad, accurate or not, will go with me to my grave. How can we make lifetime memories for people? Our family visited Portola in 1994. My daughter, 10 at the time, was the "hogger" during our rental on their F-M unit alongside the UP Main. She looked over and saw a freight waiting for a green and impulsively gave the engineer a long toot and a wave. He returned the favor much to my whole family's delight. It was another moment I will never forget.

Right! On my resume, I describe my belief that good curation is akin to subversive teaching. We invite people into our museums to have a good time. If we are successful they have that, and while they aren't paying attention--zing, we infuse some knowledge.

Years ago I attended a Western Museums Alliance convention where one of the most contriversial subjects was "Smoke and Mirrors." Debating how much entertainment we should put in museums vs traditional, "show the stuff (artifacts)" displays. Nowadays, it seems we are a lot about "smoke and mirrors" and the question is "how do we survive?" while maintaing our mission.
S'
David D.

Nice thread.

Yes - I agree - hook them with fun, and, maybe some knowledge rubs off. Those that want to learn will, those that don't will not.

Jim

All of this discussion is good and the points made have been excellent. However, as a volunteer with a family, two jobs and a life outside of railway interests a great difficulty arises.

In order to lead change, one must become the leader for that change. Many of us here see the need to reinvent ourselves. My experience has been that any suggested reinventing must be followed up with a long hard diligence that many hobbyists haven't the time or full inclination for. The battle is uphill even for paid directors, but at least they can better justify the time spent in battling the inertia of the status quo (never mind the negative energy from naysayers).

We recently came up with the idea of a rentable birthday caboose to bring in some extra income. (It's not original, but is still good.) We enlisted a volunteer to manage the project who has a passion to see the museum's income streams increased. He jumped at the chance. He was supported by several people in the scrape and paint mode. When it came to getting the thing onto its own tracks (off the museum railway), he endured having to build the track for it himself with only a bit of help though we have a track crew who never lifted a finger. Those with the best skill at moving the car never stepped forward until they realized that the project manager was gonna get it moved one way or another. Fearing disasterous consequences, the pros finally stepped in, not with an "attaboy" for trying, but a "dumb___ your going to tip the thing over!"

There are further struggles he faced within our own ranks, but he stuck with it (with some cajoling from our museum officers). He has volunteered full weeks at a time to accomplish this over the last six months. He job situation allowed it. Mine won't.

My question is: How do we invoke change without a full time effort to back our revolutionary ideas?

Recently the CFO of a minor museum in Chicago explained his organization as follows: “We have two lines of business. One is operating a museum and the other is fund raising. The two are related, but they separate activities of equal importance.” This is a good summary of how successful museums operate. The typical non-profit cultural attraction gets about half its revenues from admission related activities. This is probably true of most railway museums if you include all gifts, investment income and membership fees as non-admission revenues.

I’m always surprised that this board has little discussion of development activities. Almost by definition, the museum business as a whole has too much supply versus the demand. I personally believe the US needs another house museum like I need a hole in my head, and they probably say the same amount the things I like. The public seems to agree with us both. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need contributions to make ends meet. There is a big difference between our “supply-push” market and a “demand-pull” market. Among other things, it means that in the long run you can never price your product to insure your continued existence. Perhaps it’s time to look at what our brothers in the transit industry learned long ago. You cannot make it at the fare box alone.

I am not suggesting that we take the country club approach to development that many larger institutions have adopted. It is worth noting, however, that the gala for the minor museum mentioned above nets $350,000 per year. Golf outings for area institutions seem to net about $100,000 per year. Commentators in this string have rightfully noted that visitors demand a good time from a museum. This is also true of donors. This fact is well recognized in the museum community, but the way the typical cultural institution handles donors is illuminating. Give anything to most museums and you get a stream of mail asking you to attend lectures, wine & cheese parties, behind the scenes events and other events – usually at an additional cost. They make you feel like part of the inner circle, allow socialization with like-minded individuals and, in the process fulfill part of their educational mission. More to the point, they recognize the needs of the individual, rather than viewing donors as pots of money. A similar gift to a railway museum usually elicits a frantic letter about the dire needs for new bearings on old #7. This may raise the funds, but it also sends a negative message about how the museum views its patrons/suckers.

Just as a railway museum needs someone in charge of track and someone else in charge of locomotives, it needs a dedicated person or group entrusted with development. Like their operating counterparts, these people must have a meaningful budget. It must be more than just the cost of a membership newsletter. It must include out-reach –true development. Yes, it takes money to make money – but there are few activities with such a high return on investment. Its time we too developed our “second line of business.”

The recommended budget for development is 10% of donation revenue. For some of us that would be a significant amount. In the thousands in our case. Wouldn't that be nice to budget for something that made money instead of costing money?

While we are on this topic check out this web site:

http://www.museummarketingtips.com/

Every year we have done a fundraising dinner at one of the best resturants in the state. The theme is the CIA-trained chef/owner works off of the DL&W/Erie menus we gave him and creates a contemporary dinner based on these classic offerings. We get very few of the railfan types but we do get a lot of people who have disposable income and are "foodies" as well, many of whom end up joining and supporting our effort. We set up two or three display boards near the bar and then talk for 5 minutes tops before dessert is served. I believe we have tapped into a group of people that normally support the local hospital/symphony, etc. that operate similar fundraising events.

<shameless plug>
We are doing it again this year on Sunday, April 23. Here is the link if you would like to attend:
http://www.eldcps.org/news/andres.html
<end shameless plug>

In Regards to your link to education, I agree I think the use of local schools and colleges are a wonderful resource of an un-biased audience. In 1999 I graduated from Virginia Tech’s Industrial design program, and while pursuing the degree our professors discussed the Railroad industry works of Raymond Lowey and Otto Kuhler to name a few. Being an industrial degree we were offered near unlimited access to industrial resources to use in our education in house and out. This degree path placed us in labs with the use of our own well and modern equipped machine and wood shops, Laser cutting and cad facilities, graphic and digital arts labs as well as many others. All these tools were given to us to explore the use of materials and there use in design. The reason I mention this is that our professor and design lab had and has a close relation to the rail preservation movement in the Roanoke Valley, even as far as to setting up a studio for students at the Virginia Museum of Transportation while on site and working on projects there and in the greater down town area. I do agree that the use of students to address new ideas and seeing current problems from a new light is useful. I think the program we had in Roanoke is a good example of how you can supplement the creative juices in a preservation / restoration charged atmosphere, especially the Roanoke Valley that is oozing with the potential or both rail and historical preservation, all the parts are there we just need them to come together and work together rather than all the organizations look at each other as “That other Group”.

That is exactly what I was talking about. I wish there were more hours in the day.

BTW, Mr. Dewey... if you ever visit Chico, say "hi" to Dirk Vanderloop for me.

On another note, my sister is Supervisor Josiasson's administrative asst. if you need any favors for the temple.