Saturday, January 8

Day Five

Came in to the office today to work on my thesis. What beautiful snow outside!

Deadline for first draft to Jean: Monday, March 28
Deadline to apply for June graduation: Monday, June 6 (this seems awful close to the actual commencement day which is only 4 days later, or do I have to do it by March 14?) Tuesday, February 18 on this website http://www.drexel.edu/src/academics/graduation/dates/ [Thanks for chiming in Elizabeth and Ria!]
Commencement day: Saturday, June 11
http://www.drexel.edu/provost/calendars/quarter/

So far to date this has been my process:

• Create query for each reciprocal membership program.
• Create form for each query.
• Pick a program to analyze and using the form, go through the information I have collected on each museum. Revisit each museum's website Type up notes on each one in an "analysis" doc. Enter each museum onto a google map I've created for the program. Note the price point of the program for each museum and enter it into an excel doc to create a bar chart.
• Using my "analysis" doc, I write up something that is a *little* more fluid as a readable document, so I am closer to having a first draft. (Although it's been hard for me to do this. It doesn't seem to flow very well and it's difficult to avoid writing a handbook.)
• Repeat on the next program... and the next program... there are 18 programs in all. Some of them are quite large and will take me a long time to analyze.

To help organize my analysis and hopefully make it easier to turn my notes into a draft, I've created a document I will create for each program.  It will help me map out all the information I am trying to collect on each program. Here is the layout of the doc:

Name:

*This is the name I have chosen to call it. That does not necessarily mean the alternate names are incorrect.

Alternate names:

Contact person (Program manager):

Type:

Participating museums:

*May or may not be part of the program

Number of participating museums:

How many participating museums responded to the survey?

How many of those are ONLY part of this one program?

Number of participating museums according to the language used by participating museums on their websites:

What museum(s) get left off the list of participating museums most often?

Location of participating museums:

Link to Google Map:

Rules:

Card/Sticker:

Sample obtained?

How many people are allowed in?

Does anyone keep data I can ask for?

According to survey responses and other collected data, does it seem like everyone follows the rules?

Price points:

Price point table and chart:

How is this program used in conjunction with other programs?

Questions to be answered / Inconsistencies to be clarified:

Has the program manager responded? If so, what did they have to say?

I can amend this as neccessary, but hopefully it will help me meld my notes into a draft. Perhaps I can even keep certain aspects of it "as is" in my thesis? Or is that too "hand-bookish"?