Sunday, April 10

Day Forty-One

I've compiled all the things I need to fix for the second draft and made a schedule. I told Jean I would give her my second draft on 4/18, which gives me 8 days. This schedule is for 6 days. Today is Day One.

Day One

·         First Chapter: This is a good example of a museum that saw a direct and clear benefit due to adding an RMP.  While outside the scope of your thesis, you might suggest that creating a method for tracking these benefits could be an area for further research.

·         First Chapter: NARM is the largest. Does this appear to make them more or less desirable for museums to join?  Is their list large or small; obscure or prestigious?

·         First Chapter: Whitney and Met. Do they each run their own, or is there one RMP that these two prestigious institutions belong to?

·         First Chapter: Why do some do no price point requirement? Do you want to explain briefly the rationale for the lower price point requirement?  I assume this means that museums such as the Whitney and MOMA do not participate in this RMP?

·         First Chapter: Better explain why museums would want to join two types of programs. So one museum might belong to several RMP programs?  If one has a high price point and another a low one, how would that benefit the museum?

·         First Chapter: Connections. Were you able to learn whether this complexity affects the extent to which the program is used? In other words, if people aren’t quite sure what benefit they’ll receive, does that make this benefit less attractive or less used?

·         First Chapter: Does the RMP manager typically charge participating museums for management, or is this done as part of the operating expenses of the managing organization?

·         Go through Form Analyses and add more specific examples.

·         Guide to RMPs: Reformat. Finish filling out.

·         Guide to RMPs: Send to managers to check.

Day Two

·         Second Chapter: For example, when a new museum is added to a reciprocal membership program, program managers can use the central source as a way to spread the word and ensure everyone updates their information accordingly. By “everyone,” do you mean other museums participating in that RMP?  So if I’m the Oshkosh Art Museum, I need to know when the Athens Art Museum has joined my RMP so my staff know to honor their membership, right?

·         Second Chapter: This incorrect information can mislead members and cause problems for them when they visit museums they believe to be reciprocal museums. So a museum member might look up ahead of time whether a particular museum is part of her home museum’s RMP, but that info could be wrong?

·         Second Chapter: They must know what programs the museum participates in, what museums are included in those programs, how reciprocal members can be identified, and what benefits reciprocal members receive. Did you ask about this in your survey?  Is it common for RMP information to be readily accessible to people at ticket desks/information desks etc.?  Or do they typically have to hunt for it?  This has been my experience when visiting museums out of Philly when I’ve asked whether they accept any of the memberships I have from home.  They typically have to call someone and don’t have the info at the front desk.

·         Second Chapter: First, the central, easily-accessible, and up-to-date information source about reciprocal membership programs that has been discussed throughout this thesis will make the information available. The way you’re referring to this, it sounds as if it actually exists.  Does it?  Or are you saying that it should be created?

·         Second Chapter: I think the most important thing you have to say is to set up the central information resource, but I wonder where you think it belongs – AAM?  On their website?  Should this be something that’s interactive, that each RMP manager would edit/update him or herself?  You can suggest one or more possible ways to set this up. Your recommendation about an RMP awareness day sounds less convincing.

·         Second Chapter: Other overarching organizations that currently run reciprocal membership programs for their members, such as the Association of Science-Technology Centers, can be looked at as models. Can you provide one or two sentences to explain what this model looks like?

·         Second Chapter: This tool will help ensure that busy staff people focus on this topic at least once per year. Who would decide what this date is, and who would publicize it?  Would this need to come from AAM?

Day Three

·         Conclusion: Instituting a central, easily-accessible, and up-to-date information source can have a positive impact on the museums that participate in them. I know this is really important to your thesis, but it’s not quite here in your paper yet.  Do you want to offer a template for what might be included in this database?  Is it a database? It’s not quite clear what you’re suggesting ought to be created. 

·         Conclusion: Since this thesis is focused on laying the groundwork for a basic understanding of reciprocal membership programs, there are many more opportunities for research in the future. This is a good example of where it doesn’t sound like you’ve already started on one of your key suggestions.  You’ve done more than what you’re describing here.

·         Conclusion: Your conclusion should clarify what you found out, what your key recommendations are, and should make it clear that you’ve already started on establishing the central resource you propose – you just need a place for it to go and a method for gathering/updating the info.  You need a host!

Day Four

·         Introduction: When you first describe your surveys, you should indicate that your survey questions are available in Appendix A (or whatever is the right label), and summarize what you asked about for each survey.  What you asked is really important because it helps your reader to know what you were trying to find out, and what you would not have been able to find out.  If there are types of issues or questions that you thought about but deliberately left out, that you think a lot of readers might have questions about, you should mention them in the section where you explain the limitations of the study.

·         Introduction: So early in your paper, you need to state that in fact one of your results is the beginnings of creating a database (if that’s the right word for what you have) that you believe would be a benefit to the field and help to improve practices as you suggest at the end. 

·         First Chapter: Concluding paragraphs-Your concluding paragraph should summarize the preceding discussion and highlight what you think are the key points from that section or chapter. Can you provide a better summary of the preceding section?  You might summarize key distinctions among RMPs, key benefits, etc. You can also provide a transition to Chapter 2.

Day Five

·         Introduction: Lit review-As I read through your lit review and your paper, it looks as if there is almost nothing written at all about museum memberships – you could certainly cite recent books and articles about changes in museum practice and explain that while many of them discuss membership, none focus on the particular issues you want to explore regarding RMPs.  Right now you have so little it doesn’t look as if you’ve actually done a search.  I’m sure you looked at a variety of sources in your search.  Summarize what areas of museum management they DO cover so it will be clear you’ve covered your bases.  The summary can be very brief, lumping a group of texts together under a general description of the kinds of things they do cover.

Day Six

·         Write abstract (less than 150 words) and AAAE abstract (700 characters).

·         Write acknowledgements.

·         Get rid of List of Tables and List of Figures or incorporate some into the document?

·         Separate sections of the introduction.