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Membership/Member counts

  • 1.  Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-23-2016 04:35 PM

    When reporting membership data, do museums typically report number of memberships or number of members?

    That is, should I take my number of memberships at the Individual Plus 1 level and multiple by 2, and number of household membership and multiply by 4?

    10 memberships at Individual Plus 1 = 20 members

    10 memberships at Household = 40 members

     

    So do most report 20 memberships or 60 members?

     

     

     

     

    Tom Gull

    Director of Development

    312.994.4010

     

    INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY TO FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S CHICAGO

    FLWRIGHT.ORG

     

    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 2.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 06:35 AM

    We've kicked that one around too, and decided that we should refer to the number as "membership households". It's a smaller number, but since it's impossible to know how many people are in a family, or what makes up a family unit then all we really know is that a person living at X address paid for Y level of membership. And it's easier to track over time since there are no further calculations that could change over time or with change in staff. You can do the math to demonstrate community reach, for example, with the descriptor that we have X member households, that represent about XXXX people.

    Hope that helps! 

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    Wendy Lull
    President
    Seacoast Science Center
    Rye NH

    Original Message
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  • 3.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 08:41 AM

    Number of Memberships.

    Martin

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    Martin S. Fisher
    Executive Director
    Science Central
    Fort Wayne, IN

    Original Message
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  • 4.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 09:12 AM

    Hi Tom,

    Generally, you report the number of memberships sold, not the number of people each membership allows.

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    Shannon Stout
    Membership Manager
    Museum of the American Revolution
    Philadelphia PA

    Original Message
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  • 5.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 09:24 AM

    We report memberships and do not extrapolate X# of actual members per membership.  Our membership levels (e.g. individual = 1, family = 4 people) may self-define a number but in fact, other than individual, who the heck knows how many members of a family, for instance, use a membership.  Given the fluid nature of families today, we do not define that level with any familial precision.

    Steve

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    Steven Miller
    Executive Director
    Boscobel House and Gardens
    Garrison NY

    Original Message
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  • 6.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 10:36 AM

    We used to use a similar formula mentioned in the OP, but switched to number of memberships.  Also, we have instituted monthly renewals with one reminder before moving to "Inactive List."  As you can imagine, our numbers can change radically from month to month.

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    David Beard
    Director
    Museum of the Gulf Coast
    Port Arthur TX

    Original Message
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  • 7.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 10:52 AM

    The Museum and the other non-profits I have worked for over the years count Member Households or Memberships sold, not bodies.

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    Sarah Rogers
    Executive Deputy Director
    Columbus Museum of Art
    Columbus OH

    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 8.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-24-2016 07:17 PM

    We report based on number of households. If we need to report number of people, we multiply our number of households by four as an estimate.

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    Kimberly Roberson
    Director of Membership
    Santa Barbara Zoo
    Santa Barbara CA

    Original Message
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  • 9.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-25-2016 10:12 AM

    Thank you all. We have been reporting memberships but wanted to check just to make sure.

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    Thomas Gull
    Director of Development
    Frank Lloyd Wright Trust
    Chicago IL

    Original Message
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  • 10.  RE: Membership/Member counts

    Posted 08-26-2016 11:43 AM

    We also report membership households, but additionally, we've decided to report, at least internally, the number of paying memberships versus all (as we give away complimentary ones for our wedding couples, auction donation requests, and some other instances). When we do our next annual report, we may report out all memberships, but I've found it easier for my internal benchmarking to focus on paying folks. Hope that helps and doesn't open a new can of worms.

    Best,

    Lauren

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    Lauren Silberman
    Deputy Director
    Historic London Town and Gardens
    Edgewater MD

    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more