Rhody Ramble: A Road More Traveled

Guest post by Morgan Devlin, Marketing Manager for Historic Sites Coalition of Rhode Island, Preserve Rhode Island

This summer, my son and I have a new way to explore Rhode Island. We are following in the footsteps of a colorful, cartoon rooster named Rhody the Rambler. It just so happens that I also spend my days at work with Rhody. He is the mascot for a new summer adventure for families at historic sites in Rhode Island.

Historic sites, like all museums, need to engage younger visitors with programs that will attract them and their parents. The good news is that many sites are already doing programs and events for families. The challenge is that most sites have limited staff time and budgets to market these events to their prospective audience. Enter Rhody the Rambler.

Rhody was born out of a desire to increase the reach of members of the Historic Sites Coalition of Rhode Island. The coalition, a program of Preserve Rhode Island, is open to all historic sites in the state which are accessible to the public. The sites range from large oceanfront mansions to historic farms to smaller historic homes. Formed in 2007, the Coalition has worked together on collaborative marketing projects in the past such as joint open house days, but this is the largest marketing initiative it has undertaken to date.

The Rhody Ramble did not require participating sites to create new events. Instead, we asked them to submit all existing summer events for children 5-12 and their families. We anticipated 8-12 places would participate in this new program. So, we were delighted when we ended up with 21 sites! Despite our familiarity with the organizations, it was eye-opening to see how many were offering programming for kids. During the process, some did get inspired and added new events. The resulting activities range from Breakfast in the Barnyard to a Favorite Doll Tea to a Concert under the Elms to a Civil War Re-enactment Weekend. For a complete list, visit www.RhodyRamble.org

From small to large, the participating organizations were all enthusiastic about being part of this new program. As so many in the museum field know, the collaboration model is a wonderful way to expand your traditional audience and cross-market with other sites. Since the programming was already in place, the sites’ role was primarily to help market the program by sharing it with visitors and members, as well as assisting with program evaluation. The centralized marketing relieved the burden from individual sites of taking a piece of the project in addition to their list of other responsibilities.

Rhody is based on the iconic Rhode Island Red rooster. He is truly a representative of his home state and its unique historic treasures. However, both the graphics and the name Rhody Ramble were designed to conjure up a playful, family program. While we do not hide the historic nature of the participating sites, we chose to create a look that is very different from most historic house marketing. By creating a brand that did not present history first, but focused on the family theme, we could leap beyond the perceived boundaries of those who do or do not ‘like’ history.

We need to be clear that not all historic sites or museums are a good fit for young children. Simply repackaging those experiences in a ‘family-friendly’ brochure will not change the visitor experience. Instead, we need to focus on what works for families and offer them good ways to visit our sites and engage with them. Visitors who come to a family concert in the garden and get to peek inside the house may decide to come back for a tour. They may become members. They will most likely tell their friends about their experience.

So, how do you connect with families? From Facebook and ‘mommy bloggers’ to libraries and neighborhood coffee shops, the network for reaching families is there. With a very modest marketing budget, the Rhody Ramble had to focus on the most cost-effective ways to spread the word. Working with talented graphic designers and a web developer, we created a passport-style brochure and an event web site. We reached out to local media, tourism partners, and family web sites. We put up posters and dropped off brochures. We talked to friends. We posted on Facebook and we even Tweeted about it!

As I write, we are one month into our three month summer program. There is still much work ahead of us to spread the word, raise awareness and build future partnerships. However, the response has been great. At a recent weekend concert, I walked around handing out brochures to families. Some had heard of the program and many had not. But the response was almost uniformly enthusiastic. Parents are always looking for fun activities to do with their kids. Most of us would like share meaningful experiences with our children, where we can both learn about our culture and our community. We often just need someone to point us in the right direction. Who better than a cartoon rooster named Rhody?

Join the ramble this summer at www.RhodyRamble.org.

A few logistical details…

• Preserve Rhode Island (PRI) secured a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to cover most of the administrative costs of the project.
• PRI hired a marketing consultant and an evaluation consultant to manage the new program.
• Each site joined PRI as an institutional member to support the joint marketing effort.
• A steering committee reviewed site event submissions and provided guidance on the program.
• A unique identity based on the program concept, and not the group name, was selected to help broaden the potential audience.
• A graphics set was developed that could be used for all materials. The marketing campaign includes a ‘passport’ brochure, a web site with event calendar, a poster, email communications, a Facebook page and Twitter account.
• Each site was surveyed about their experience with evaluation and the data they collect about visitors. They are responsible for recording data about the events participating in the Rhody Ramble.
• The evaluation consultant and a summer intern are traveling to a sampling of the summer events where they are conducting brief surveys about visitors’ familiarity with the Rhody Ramble and the site.
• At the conclusion of the campaign, each site will be surveyed about their experience with the marketing collaborative.
  

Small Site, Big Reward? “Successfully” Managing Functions with a Staff of One

Guest Post By Craig Tuminaro, Regional Site Manager for Maine and New Hampshire, Historic New England

Gov. John Langdon House Gardens with a tent
that is used during events, Historic New England

A little over a year ago, I started in my current position as a Regional Site Manager with Historic New England. Having spent most of my career working with historic sites, I was excited about working with an amazing and varied collection of sites in programming, marketing, and operations. One aspect, however, that had me less than enthused was that one of the sites I was to manage hosted a number of rental functions, and I was expected to work with and develop this earned income endeavor. Up until this time, I had successfully avoided working with weddings or corporate events, and had seen them as potentially at odds with the traditional visitor experience, or at best, a “mission-enabling” enterprise whose earned income potential allowed for “mission-driven” programming.

After talking and meeting with several potential clients, I began to realize that the success of weddings and other functions at a historic site abided by that often quoted maxim of “attitude, not just aptitude.”  If one went into offering functions seeing them only as “a necessary evil,” then undoubtedly that would influence the result. However, if functions could be seen as another avenue for visitor engagement, albeit not the one most tried-and-true museum folk saw as ideal, then there could be a different result.

So, in my one long year of working with functions, these are some Rules of the Road I’ve discovered that have guided me in my effort to make functions successful, with a staff of one:

•  If You are Going to Do It, Then Do It! Don’t go into the process kicking and screaming. I’m a big believer of doing something all the way, not half way, so if you decide to offer functions as part of your overall program, then make the commitment to do it right.
• Remember the Importance of Customer Service. Potential and actual clients are visitors to your site, and your dealings with them—on the phone, via email, and in person—are a reflection of both you as a professional and your institution.
• Streamline the Process As Much As Feasible. Have easily customizable responses ready to go when inquires or common questions come through. It’s also important to figure out what information is best to share when.
•  Set Limits, Both Realistic and Reasonable. I am fortunate that the number of functions offered each year is limited by the city in which my site is located. But if you are doing functions and feel overwhelmed by the number, or are just getting started, consider a limit—by month, season or year. Be careful though, not to “no” yourself into getting no business—by making it so difficult or costly to have a function at your site, potential clients look elsewhere.
• Know When to Be Flexible, and When Not to Be. Sometimes rules can be broken, especially if doing so poses no harm to visitors, the site, or the collection. For example, we have a “no limousines down our driveway” rule but when I looked up to see a limo, with the bride and bridal party inside, halfway down the driveway, I decided to just let it roll. Sometimes towing the line just to tow the line isn’t worth it.
• Learn As You Go, Adjust, and Evolve. I see the guidelines and policies for functions at my site as a constant work in progress. In my first year alone, I changed things around five or six times, many as a result of things I observed or experienced during a function that I thought should have been clearer. It doesn’t help in the moment, but does help from making the same mistake twice.
•  If You are Going to Do It, then JUST DO IT!  Again, I would stress the importance of not just making the commitment, but following through on it as well. Not all brides are the scary “bridezilla” and not every wedding is going to be as over-the-top as Kim Kardashian’s. The best result we can realistically work toward is a wonderful event that puts a spotlight on some of the best features of your site and creates an experience that lives long in the minds and hearts of those that attended. And isn’t that the best we can hope for in all of our visitors?

AAM 2012: “Debaucherous Museuming” at its Best

Guest post by Zerah Jakub, Visitor Services and Program Assistant at Old South Meeting House

AAM’s Annual Meeting is akin to an initiation ceremony for museum professionals. Navigating the hundreds of sessions, numerous networking events, and finding time to visit the cultural institutions of the host city requires shameful amounts of caffeine and true dedication to all things museums.

I arrived for AAM’s Annual Meeting with an impressive 18 point check-in on foursquare and my last paper of graduate school to write; luckily, I also arrived two days early and had plenty of time to finish that paper.  Over the next five days I attended 7 sessions, focused mostly on mobile interpretation; visited 6 museums; rode the roller coasters at the Mall of America; attended networking events all over Minneapolis; and even made it an old fashioned kegger and silent auction fundraiser hosted by the team at Museum-Ed.  It was a busy week and it took a few days to mentally get over the information overload upon my return to Boston.  When I finally sorted out the benefits of attending the conference a few key take-aways emerged:

“You Look Digitally Familiar” – Networking does not have to begin with a face to face interaction.  I started networking before I even showed up in Minneapolis using Facebook and Twitter.  This provided me with ample opportunities to have much more meaningful conversations with people I was meeting for the first time in person, but had interacted with digitally, and garner introductions to others which expanded my network tremendously.

Gustav, Paul, and Babe the Blue Ox – Every city has its must see museums and Minneapolis is no exception.  Along with finding my way to the Walker Art Center, Mill City Museum, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, and the Minnesota History Center I also found time to go to a few out of the way places and it really paid off.  Both the American Swedish Institute and the Paul Bunyan Logging Camp Museum (which required a road trip to Wisconsin) had amazing interactive exhibits ranging from a Dala Horse you could ride for a quarter to Paul Bunyan’s snack skillet you could grease with bacon “skates”.  The time spent away from the conference was just as effective as the time I spent sitting in sessions, and in some cases more so.

Platforms of Exchange – The conference as a whole was an experience in effectively exchanging ideas.  Whether this was done in a session, with a Tweet, in a museum, or over a pint at the local watering hole, the opportunity to speak to a wide array of museum professionals was an extraordinary way to find new approaches to what we do in the museum field.  I attended sessions armed with my iPhone, iPad, and an extra battery – no pen and paper for me.  My mode of communication was Twitter and I found the experience to be more immersive than passively taking notes.  Friends unable to attend sessions were able to participate in the conference in real time, and those in other sessions were able to connect themes they were hearing about to ones I was.

AAM’s Annual Meeting allowed me to expand my business card collection, gain 30 more followers on Twitter, and add 6 museums to my lifer list, so now what?  Maybe it’s time I write a proposal for next year’s AAM in Baltimore…..

Click.

Guest post by Michelle Cheng, Director of Education, New Haven Historical Society

 

Once an innocuous sound, the click now conjures up images of computer mice, computer screens and websites. Our technology and world are constantly changing now, and so must our museums. Though adopting the newest technology is important, doing it well is of far greater importance. The question is: what does adopting new technology well look like? Right now, we are seeing how social media can build a community, how crowdsourcing can change fundraising and how digitized collections showcase an organization as a vital resource. This year’s NEMA conference theme, Pushing the Envelope: Innovation and the Future of Museums, furthers the discussion.

In an increasingly wirelessly connected world, we are driven more than ever to seek a sense of place, a sense of belonging, be it within a city, a historic site, or on social media. It’s just that we now have more ways of connecting. We seek a sense of place to ground ourselves, searching for connections through the built environment, art history and science, for example. The projects common now are ones that break down the walls of the museums, sometimes literally, as new structures like the Arts of the Americas wing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s new wing are built.

When the opportunity to be a part of the 2012 Conference Program Committee for NEMA, I couldn’t say no. I was humbled to be invited to be a part of a committee of esteemed individuals from the museum and art worlds.

With 98 proposals, the most ever, the theme for the 2012 NEMA conference clearly generated great interest within the museum community in New England. Some of the current hot topics include emergency planning, crowdsourcing, addressing audiences with special needs, from Alzheimer’s to autism to vision impairment, and developing a coherent plan for social media.

A full day of discussion about the session proposals was not only invigorating, but also very telling of the new ideas emerging within New England museum community. Though we may have some techniques that work well in our respective settings, there is always great interest in seeing what other organizations are doing. After all, change can be good. More importantly, we ask ourselves these questions: What are other organizations doing well? How are they doing it well? How can we adapt these to fit our cultural institution? With ever-changing technology, we are constantly going through the process of observation, adaptation, implementation and evaluation of strategies for teaching and learning, fundraising, and community engagement, just to name a few.

We are living in a truly exciting time, when innovation can mean the beginning of an entirely new way of living, playing, working, learning, teaching, making art and much more. I look forward to continuing to be a part of such a vibrant museum community, and I hope to learn more about what innovation means to you and your museum.

Pushing the Envelope: Innovation and the Future of Museums
November 7-9, 2012
Burlington, Vermont 

2nd Regional Summit brings Cultural Heritage Institutions and Emergency Management Together

Submitted by Martzahl, Veronica, Records Archivist, Digital Collections and Archives, Tufts University

On Friday, March 23, 2012 representatives of multiple Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness (COSTEP) groups in New England had the opportunity to meet with each other and with representatives of both state and federal emergency management agencies. This summit, the second of its kind, was held in conjunction with the New England Archivists Spring Conference (the first summit was held in conjunction with the NEMA conference last fall).

Representatives from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were able to share their experiences of reaching out to local cultural heritage institutions at the local level and provide each other with tips and advice regarding their most successful approaches to increasing disaster preparedness amongst this constituency. COSTEP CT has been focusing on collections care and assessment, and will be conducting a workshop at an upcoming Connecticut Library Association meeting. In Massachusetts, COSTEP had been awarded a grant from FEMA to conduct a series of local meetings about hazard mitigation, conduct multiple risk assessment workshops, and work with Regional Planning Agencies to raise awareness of cultural institutions in the process for planning for and mitigating of disasters. COSTEP RI is focusing on a series of trainings in conjunction with the Northeast Document Conservation Center covering disaster planning and preparedness as well as wet book recovery. 

FEMA representatives were available to answer questions, particularly around federal grant money that is available after a disaster declaration for mitigation programs. Additionally, the group heard from special guest Fiona Macalister, a Winston Churchill Traveling Fellow, who is researching various aspects of disaster recovery. Ms. Macalister provided the group with her insights on disaster preparedness from an international perspective.

Each of the COSTEP organizations is actively seeking participants. If you would be interested in getting involved, or if you are just interested in learning more, please contact BJ Larson at 781-641-0013 or bj.larson@nemanet.org and she will direct you to the appropriate state contact.     

Advocacy Day Adventures

By Leslie Howard

The American Association of Museums recently held its fourth annual Museums Advocacy Day in our nation's Capitol. Over 300 people attended the two day event. There were over 20 people representing New England museums. NEMA's executive director, Dan, attended last year and I was excited to be able to attend this year along with my YEPs PAG co-chairs Kate Laurel Burgess-Mac Intosh and Zerah Jakub.

Our first day was a full day of training- learning more about the issues like funding for the Office of Museums Services at IMLS, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and charitable giving. We learned advocacy etiquette, like not to bring your pets with you on your visit to the Hill, and to expect to meet with staff members, not the Members of Congress themselves. We had time to meet with other advocates from our state and districts and plan our strategies.
Monday night we headed to Capitol Hill for a reception where AAM honored members of Congress for their service to museums and the field.

The next morning, we woke early to head back to the Hill for a breakfast with remarks from several members of Congress, and NEMA's own Dan Yaeger. After breakfast we headed off to our meetings.

The Massachusetts advocates met first with Senator John Kerry. We all received calls the night before informing us that our meeting location had changed. Little did we know that, because there were so many of us, we were going to meet with a member of Senator Kerry's staff in the Committee on Foreign Relations hearing room! That was the first cool "wow I am really here doing this" moment of the day. We had a terrific meeting with Megan, snapped a quick picture and we went our separate ways.



New Hampshire was under represented at advocacy day, so Dan offered to visit those offices. Knowing Massachusetts was in good hands, I gladly accepted Dan’s offer to join him visiting New Hampshire's members of Congress. I grew up in New Hampshire and much of my immediate family lives there, so I felt like I was an honorary constituent. We met with staff from Senator Jeanne Shaheen's office and took a picture with Oscar the Moose in Senator Kelly Ayotte's office. After a quick lunch break, Dan and I met up again for a meeting with Representative Charlie Bass. We were both excited for this meeting because our schedule indicated we were going to actually meet with the Congressman himself.

I arrived a few minutes early and waited outside the office for Dan to arrive from his other meeting. Now, to back track a bit, we were warned during training that not all of our meetings will happen the way we think they will. They could be five minutes long, they could be much longer, or they could happen while walking down the hallway while the member of Congress or staff was en route to a vote or another meeting. It was important then, they stressed, that we knew exactly what action we wanted the representative to take. Fast forward, then, to our meeting with Charlie Bass...

...I was minding my own business standing outside his office when I caught a glimpse of him in the hallway. I got a little star struck, I admit it. I overheard that he was in the middle of a meeting. Rep. Bass then walked right up to me and asked if I was waiting to meet with him. I said, "Yes, I am! My name is Leslie Howard and I work for the New England Museum Association. I also grew up in Bedford." He apologized that he was in another meeting, that I would meet with a member of his staff and asked that I sum up why I am here to talk about museums in two minutes.

This was my shot! I had two minutes! What to say?! I said, as clearly and as succinctly as possible that we would like him to sign onto a "Dear Colleague letter" to support funding for the Institute of Museums and Library Services. He said he'd love to take a look at it and he disappeared back into his office.

Just a minute later, I saw Dan walking down the hall, right on time for our 1:30 meeting. I said, "You just missed our meeting with the Congressman!" I explained to him what happened and that we were still going to meet with someone from his office, but our meeting with the Congressman himself happened just outside in the hallway, just like we were warned, and I had to give the quickest presentation that I have ever given.

The rest of the day's meetings went very well. With Neil Gordon of the Discovery Museums and Kate, I visited the office of Rep. Niki Tsongas, representing the 5th Massachusetts district, and my town of Westford. I ended the day at Rep. Frank Guinta's office.

It was whirlwind two day experience that I will never forget. I often found myself singing "oh I'm just a bill..." and played scenes from West Wing and The American President in my head while taking in the sights and sounds of being on Capitol Hill. It was fascinating to see each member's office, the Committee on Foreign Relations Hearing Room, Oscar the Moose, sketches of Jack Kerouac in Rep. Tsongas’ office, and my quick solo meeting with Charlie Bass.

I eat, sleep, and breathe museums and sometimes forget that not everyone else does. I don't think a day goes by when I don't think about or talk about IMLS with my colleagues. It is an acronym we do not have to define when speaking with them and they automatically know how vital the organization is to the field. Of course, I will take away one very, VERY important thing. I was shocked (naively), when we asked during every meeting, if the person knew what IMLS was. Of the New England advocates that we spoke to, only ONE office had ever heard of IMLS before. If we only raised awareness about museums by letting our Congressmen and women know that the language of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act harms museums and that the Institute for Museum and Library Services exists and is the only source of federal funding for museums, I will consider my trip a success. And that is why what we did in Washington, D.C. was so important and why it must continue year round.

Operation Pinterest

by Dan Yaeger

It started with Leslie a few weeks ago, who said that the new social media site Pinterest might be a good tool for NEMA to make connections between its member museums and the general public. Like many things in my life, the suggestion didn’t connect with me right away. So Leslie gave me a gentle reminder about her suggestion last Thursday, and added that, were we start a Pinterest presence, we’d be the first museum association to do so. Again, I was interested in a sort of, kind of, maybe way, but with everything going on in the NEMA world, it was a momentary distraction, momentary being the operative word here.

The next morning, driving in to work, it hit me: What a perfect team-building project for a February Friday! Though I didn’t know Pinterest from patchouli, I decided to lay down a challenge – create a credible NEMA presence there in one day.

0900 hours

The staff gathers for a typical Friday. I tell them we need to meet in five minutes. They look at me suspiciously, wondering if this is one of those corporate end-of-week staff purges. It isn’t.

0905 hours

I unveil the big idea, Pinterest in one day! Still, they eye me suspiciously. Now they aren’t afraid of a staff purge, but that I’ve lost my grip. I’ve gone from luddite to early adopter overnight. Exhilarating!

But, after they see I’m not dangerous, we settle in for some enthusiastic brainstorming. We go over the basics of Pinterest, the audience, potential “pinboards” we can create. Then I say, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right: we need a consultant. We resolve to conference with the redoubtable social media guru Kate Laurel Burgess Mac Intosh at 1030 hours.

1030 hours

We connect with Kate Laurel Burgess Mac Intosh via teleconference and give her the skinny on what we’re up to. Kate is a font of ideas, almost giddy that NEMA is taking the lead on the latest craze in social media. After helping us devise a list of 25 or so potential pinboards, she advises us to keep it simple for our launch. We agree to create 5 – 10 boards with 15 – 20 “pins” each (pins being a graphic pulled from a web site and inserted onto your pinboard, with a link back to the originating site). We decide to create a pin for each of our member museums and organize them by state – this, we reason, will be the most useful way for the general public to find them. We thank Kate for her wisdom, then get cracking.

1200 – 1530 hours

The NEMA office is like Houston Mission Control. Intensity. Collaboration. Gazes fixed on computer monitors. Focus on a singular objective: a successful launch.

Sample dialogue:

Heather: I have Connecticut done! I’m on to Vermont.

Leslie: That’s great! I’m halfway through Massachusetts and people are already re-pinning us!

Dan: Who wants more pizza?

1530 hours

Our Pinterest site is almost complete. Now we turn our attention to getting the word out. I mean, what’s a social media site for, if not getting the word out? I write some copy for an email and turn it over to Heather.

1600 hours

Five… four… three… two… one. The email’s out. We’re live! Within seconds, we see that our NEMA community has opened their email and clicked through to Pinterest. Just like that, 100+ followers. Immediate gratification never felt so good. It’s been a long, exciting day, but we did it. I give the staff a big pat on the back and tell them I’m proud. Amazing work. NEMA’s the world’s first museum association to engage the world of “Pinheads.” We’ll see where that gets us.