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AASLH
Performance Management Survey
Learning from Visitors:
AASLH’s Performance Management Program
By Cherie Cook, AASLH Project Director
Annual attendance totals and budget growth are common methods many museums and historic houses use for gauging success. Assessing whether staff and volunteers are meeting internal goals is another way institutions often identify accomplishments. While these types of measurement may present evidence of success in its most basic form and from an internal point of view, they fall short of quantifying an institution’s value—something that many stakeholders now demand that museums do. These types of basic measurement also fail to identify weaknesses from a visitor’s perspective and are of little help when planning for an institution’s future direction and sustainability.
Photo Caption:
The Elizabeth II is a 69', fully operational representation of one of seven ships which first brought Englishmen to Roanoke Island in 1585. The ship, which goes on two seasonal sails annually, is a living history educational venue at Roanoke Island Festival Park.
In 2006, the American Association for State and Local History, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, launched its Performance Management Program offering history institutions a new way to measure and define success. The program, developed in partnership with the Center for Nonprofit Management (CNM) of Nashville, is based on measurement of visitor satisfaction and opinions, fixing problems, and then planning to re-measure three to five years later to confirm problems have indeed been corrected.
AASLH’s program provides participating institutions with a scientific approach offering a tested visitor questionnaire, professional data analysis, and a final report that identifies weaknesses in facility access and upkeep, visitor services, programming and other areas from the visitor’s point of view. Institutional strengths are also identified and serve as valuable support material for fund raising, marketing, and program development.
New Performance Management groups begin each January and June. The program starts with AASLH staff working with each client institution to add custom questions to a visitor questionnaire developed over a three-year period with the help of pilot museums from across the country. Once the client institution’s questionnaire is ready, staff and volunteers distribute it to adult visitors at specific intervals over a four-month period that encompasses two tourist seasons.
After the institution collects two hundred completed questionnaires, they are shipped to Nashville where CNM staff processes and analyzes the data. The client then receives an electronic report followed by a telephone consultation. Clients also have the opportunity to attend a one-day meeting to discuss ways in which they can work with the survey data to not only implement positive institutional change, but to also exploit the strengths visitors identified in future marketing and fund raising efforts. The entire program takes nine months to complete.
Photo Caption:
Three young Elizabethan soldiers don period authentic armor in the 1585 Settlement Site at Roanoke Island Festival Park. The settlement site, which recreates the type of camp first established by the English on
Roanoke Island in 1585, provides hands-on and experience-based educational opportunities in the areas of blacksmithing, woodworking, soldiering, camp life, and foodways.
Currently, client institutions can choose from either a museum survey or one for historic houses. In August 2007, AASLH will roll out a third option, a program to help institutions collect data and information from teachers and students who visit for an education program.
The program’s benchmarks are a valuable way for participating museums to compare their Performance Management results with institutions of similar size, scope or geographical area. Center for Nonprofit Management Director of Evaluation debb Wilcox notes,
“It’s easy to see one of your museum’s ratings and immediately form a strong opinion of its merit. That only goes so far. Only when you compare your rating to that of similar institutions can you learn that you do indeed excel, or conversely, you may learn you are actually at a disadvantage. Comparing your museum to key benchmark groups gives you the perspective you need to best realize your strengths and identify, and thus address, your best opportunities for improvement.”
Performance Management is also a great resource for institutions that share a common link (similar subject area such as military or outdoor museums, operated by one agency, or located in the same state, for example). Taking part in the program as a managed group allows a group of institutions to compare data, identify common strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps work together on a plan for improvement. Managed groups receive special benefits including pre- and post-survey meetings in a location convenient to the group, additional custom survey questions, and a special aggregate report.
For AASLH member institutions, the Performance Management package costs $3,500 ($4,200 for non-members), well below the cost of hiring an outside firm to conduct a tested and scientific survey. Recognizing the fact that funding may be an issue, AASLH’s payment schedule allows many institutions to pay the fee over two fiscal years. In addition, museums that have access to a state grant program or a community foundation are encouraged to ask whether participation in Performance Management qualifies for funding. To date, fifty institutions have taken part in the Performance Management program.
To view the complete list, go to the AASLH Web site at http://aaslh.org/perfmanagement.htm.
Cherie Cook is project director for AASLH’s Performance Management program. She can be reached at 316-721-9956 or cook@aaslh.org.
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