ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

If museums were such great money makers, then why aren't there more 
for-profit museums?  I think that this reality illustrates the fact that most museum 
programs require a subsidy, even if a fee is charged.  Often museums do not 
properly account for the true costs of a program -- they do not factor in the 
costs of developing a program and perhaps don't even count personnel costs when 
delivering the program, let alone calculating the overhead (office space, 
support staff, etc) needed to support the program.

The bottom line is that there are very few programs that can be truly 
self-supporting.  There are some ways that museums can increase their margin (surplus 
of revenues over expenses) by simply doing more of the same business -- 
having more paid admissions, selling more theater tickets, because the fixed costs 
are to an extent the same whether or not anyone is in the building.  

There are probably only a few programs that can be truly profit-centers -- 
those might include camp-ins, some workshops done for scouts, and some programs 
that upper middle class families can pay for, such as summer camps (assuming 
the pricing is structured to result in a significant surplus over expenses).

Bob

Robert L. Russell, Ph.D.
Learning Experience Design
(202) 997-5539
[log in to unmask]

Interim Executive Director & Science Advisor, Self-Reliance Foundation
Project Director, Celebra la Ciencia
http://www.celebralaciencia.org/
(202) 360-4117

***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]