Getting the Message Out

Getting the Message Out How 3 museums got the message out on the importance of play. Process
(This session had a change of topic and took place at the end of the day Thursday but I had a few issues accessing my notes so I've posted it out of order)

John Robinson, Madison Children's Museum exhibit developer (we rode to the airport with John).
Madison opened a new facility in August and has room to expand in same building. Visitation could not grow in old space but business has been crazy since they opened. From 2,000 members they jumped to over 6,000 in less than a year. They do a huge number of birthday parties with little publicity. Exhibits now are more open-ended. Need to nurture the messages of the exhibits. The recent protests in Wisconsin were practically outside their doors which also impacted their business but not in a negative way. Huge level of use caused them to review guiding principals--could be called values. Play, place, critical thinking, resiliance are all important. Sounds like they have been so busy they don't even have time to think about getting their message out but just deal with what's going on inside their doors.

Nancy Plasket, Chicago Children's Museum located at Navy Pier. They reach 700,000 people annually via visitors and outreach. Foundational documents of core beliefs. Play and Learning connect. Do all staff understand your purpose? They have created position papers on topics such as Play, Learning, Corporate engagement, Roll of adult in Play, Health & Wellness, State of Play in Chicago's Communities. They did town hall brainstorming to create list of topics. Teams from multiple departments participated. They brought in experts then determined what does it mean to us as a children's museum. Began in 2007, worked on through 2009 then Health & Wellness paper was very challenging, leveraged partnerships to address this, approved in 2011 also took 2 years. Meant to be internal documents that guide their decision making. "We strive for . . . " Again the idea of core values as in Madison.

Meagan Fisher, Providence Children's museum, Communications and Marketing.
Meason focused on how we develop our message into an advocacy role. They developed a new strategic plan, reviewed core messages.
How do we ensure our core messages are shared by our staff and volunteers? We need to be deliberate in our message about play. Define play. Providence created exhibit called "Play Power" which focuses on play inself, not themed, what children are gaining, take-home material. This infused all of their work and documentation and fundraising. Formalize what they've been noticing what happens in museum, value of play, importance of our work. Feeling the mesage is shared by staff and board. Created poster that describes value of play--distributing through pediatricians offices. Also a book Play with Your Kids Strategic plan with play advocacy as focus.

I plan to contact Meagan to see if they will send us a copy of the poster.