In 2009, science centers and museums will celebrate the Year of Science, Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, and the International Year of Astronomy. Every year, many institutions plan programs around global initiatives like Earth Science Week and international holidays like World Environment Day. New celebrations such as NanoDays and the Cambridge Science Festival, Massachusetts, are introducing thousands of people to science. In this issue, we examine how science celebrations are advancing public engagement with science, changing attitudes, bringing in new audiences, and strengthening links among science centers.

Contents
• Year of Science 2009: Communicating, Collaborating, and Celebrating Science, by Sheri Potter and Judy Scotchmoor
• From the Origin to the Future of Species: Celebrating Darwin’s Legacy, by Katie Edwards
• Stars Align for the International Year of Astronomy 2009, by Kat Stein
• ASTC and the International Year of Astronomy 2009, by Walter Staveloz
• Challenging and Changing Minds: Emotional Learning and Physics Competitions, by Rachel Moll
• We Threw a Party and Everybody Came: A Science Celebration Sampler (Small Things Considered, by Vrylena Olney and Karen Pollard; Doors Wide Open for Earth Science Week, by Geoff Camphire and Adrienne Barnett; Cooking Up Science in Cambridge, by John Durant and P.A. d’Arbeloff; Celebrating Science, Enlightening Community in Gujarat, by Narottam Sahoo)

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A science stew
We have been excited by the positive response to the Cambridge Science Festival from the wider community. During our first festival, about 15,000 people attended 150 different events. In the second year, we almost doubled our attendance, as an estimated 28,000 people came to more than 200 events in 45 venues. Each year, the festival benefits from experience and momentum. Presenters become better at offering science to a broader audience in creative ways, and neighbors buzz about what surprises next year’s event might hold.

Highlights this year, from our point of view, included Lunch with a Laureate, a series of five lunchtime conversations between a Nobel Prize–winning scientist and the public; Powers of Ten, an oratorio about scale in the universe performed by the North Cambridge Family Opera; QED, a play about physicist Richard Feynman (MIT Class of 1939), produced by the Catalyst Collaborative (a partnership between MIT and a local theater company); and the Curiosity Awards, which honored more than 100 students for essays and artwork expressing their curiosity.

Brewing up benefits
Why would the MIT Museum—a relatively small museum of science and technology—take the lead in organizing a big initiative like this? First, the Cambridge Science Festival is an ideal flagship for MIT’s community outreach. Second, the MIT Museum is perfectly positioned to do something like this, with one foot firmly planted in the professional world of science and technology and the other foot equally firmly planted in the wider community. Third, organizing a festival is a great way to establish a wide network of partners across the community. Through the festival, our museum now works actively with several others (including the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, and the Museum of Science, Boston), as well as with dozens of civic, commercial, cultural, and educational organizations.

Our festival brings us many other benefits. For example, museum attendance more than doubles during the week of the festival. With the surge in visitation comes an increase in the number of “science inattentive” visitors, or folks who are not naturally drawn to science and not likely to visit science museums. Admittedly, the audience for our Lunch with a Laureate tended to have an established interest in science. But this was not so for the Science of Wine, or its sequel, Brewing Innovation. Sure, our full houses on those nights were enticed by the wine and beer tasting that followed the lectures, but attendees also soaked up the scientific research being done with yeast. Many of them were first-time visitors who enjoyed this slightly unusual introduction to the museum. A survey given to every visitor showed that they overwhelmingly felt that they had both benefited from the programs and enjoyed themselves.

We’re committed to cooking up the Cambridge Science Festival annually. (The 2009 festival is set for April 25 to May 3.) And we’re happy that other cities across the United States appear to be developing a taste for the same sort of thing. We’re actively collaborating with colleagues on the San Diego Science Festival, planned for March 2009. We’re also looking to the possibility of creating a web portal and resources to help other cities start their own science festivals. We believe ASTC-member institutions can play an important role in creating a strong network of U.S. science festivals. After all, aren’t we in the business of creatively communicating science to new audiences? If you can turn that communication into a celebration, invite a crowd, and have some fun, it’s icing on the cake.

John Durant is executive director of the MIT Museum. P.A. d’Arbeloff is director of the Cambridge Science Festival.

About the image: A festival participant gives science a closer look. Photo courtesy the Cambridge Science Festival

In April, ASTC committed to a new strategic direction, recognizing the responsibility of science centers to address critical societal issues locally and globally. The Toronto Declaration, presented at the Fifth Science Centre World Congress in June, underscored ASTC’s new focus, proclaiming that science centers can be “a powerful force for good.” By promoting dialogue on issues like climate change and human health, science centers can help forge the way toward a better future.

Contents
• The Road Ahead: ASTC’s New Strategic Direction, by Lesley Lewis
• The Toronto Declaration
• Leading for Impact, by Lynn Luckow
• RACE: Fostering Community Conversations for Social Change, by Robert Garfinkle, with Science Centers and Social Change: Questions to Consider
• Still in Search of Relevance, by Emlyn Koster
• Building the Future: Science Centers and the Net Generation, by Jennifer Corriero
• Bringing the Public’s Voices to the Forefront, by Luigi Amodio
• Engaging Leaders and Citizens in Science, by Nohora Elizabeth Hoyos and Sigrid Falla
• ASTC’s IGLO Initiative: An Interim Review, by Colin Johnson
• The Albedo Experiment: They Came, They Saw, They Reflected, by Lynn Lim
• Spot On: The Albedo Experiment in Italy, by Lavinia Del Longo
• The Decide Game: An Indian Experience, by Emdadul Islam
• Resources for Addressing Social Issues

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In April, representatives of the ASTC Board, Committee Chairs, and Governing Members met in Birmingham, Alabama, to review the organization’s purpose and strategic directions. As a group, we were truly representative of ASTC members, with both small and large institutions at the table. We all left enthusiastic about the new strategies that emerged, and with a renewed sense of conviction about the powerful role science centers can play in a rapidly changing world.

The new strategic direction and priorities position ASTC and its members for today’s world, addressing relevant local and global issues. ASTC’s new focus had already been a priority at many member institutions and has been increasingly evident in ASTC Annual Conference sessions, ASTC Dimensions themes, and international activities like ASTC’s IGLO initiative.

As your association, ASTC will continue to define its impact through the success of its members. Our intent is to ensure that science centers worldwide are valued by the public and regarded as essential to their communities. All of the participants in Birmingham acknowledged that science centers must no longer be seen solely as resources for families and children—science has relevance for people of all ages. The main new ASTC strategy will be to address critical science and society issues proactively, in order to expand our reach, relevance, impact, and sustainability. To achieve this, ASTC’s priorities will be to

• address key issues where public understanding and engagement with science are essential, such as climate change
• seek out and build alliances with those creating science knowledge or disseminating it to the public
• document and communicate the impact of science centers
• effectively serve the many levels of professionals and executives in science centers.

You will hear more about each of these priorities at the ASTC Annual Conference in October. Each of them—science and society leadership, alliances and partnerships, impact and communications, and professional development—has a task force already hard at work developing an action plan.

The new focus at ASTC was underscored at the Fifth Science Centre World Congress in June and through the Toronto Declaration issued at its conclusion. For the first time, the global science center community has developed a common statement of beliefs and commitment. The Declaration acknowledges that science centers and science can be “a powerful force for good.”

As chair of the Fifth Science Centre World Congress, I was honored to lead the Toronto Declaration’s development, along with Graham Durant (Australia), Emlyn Koster (United States), Per-Edvin Persson (Finland), Julia Tagüeña (Mexico), and Tuan Chew (Singapore). These five individuals are also active participants in ASTC and leaders in their own regional networks. The Declaration was endorsed by the International Program Committee and the boards of the regional networks. Science center and museum professionals are invited to add their names in support.

ASTC’s strategic direction and the Toronto Declaration both resonate with the work of the Ontario Science Centre. We use science as the lens to inspire and actively engage people in new ways of seeing, understanding, and thinking about themselves and the world. Our goal is to create science-literate citizens who will contribute to solving the very real problems the world faces.

The world is eager for trusted sources of information on global issues. Science centers have a role to play not only in helping people to learn about issues, but perhaps even more importantly, in encouraging them to engage and become part of the solutions.

Lesley Lewis is president of ASTC, chair of the Fifth Science Centre World Congress, and CEO of the Ontario Science Centre, Toronto.

In today’s economy, science centers faced with shrinking resources are challenged to find innovative ways of doing more with less. How can science centers save money without sacrificing content or mission? In this issue, directors, chief executive officers, directors of operations, and other staff share their successes with strategies such as taking advantage of free web services, creating a program or exhibition on a shoestring, becoming more energy efficient, and pooling resources with community partners.

Contents
• The Frugal Director: Leadership on a Limited Budget, by Ann Fumarolo
• Off the Shelf: How Outsourcing Products and Services Can Deliver Visitor Satisfaction, by Marilyn Hoyt
• ‘Low Budget, High Impact’: Innovative Projects from Around the World, by Stephen Pizzey
• Nine Free or Nearly Free Ways Museums Can Take Advantage of Web 2.0, by Jim Spadaccini
• How ASTC Uses Free and Cheap Online Services, by Wendy Pollock
• Big Ideas, Big Savings: A Cost-Cutting Sampler, by Robert Ade, David Kramer, Laura Davies, and Craig Blower
• Resources for Saving Money

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As the Internet continues to evolve, it seems like I hear about a new web site or software service just about every day. The vast majority of these are free to use. Many of these sites or software packages are produced by start-ups looking to gain first-time customers. Others are created by one of the giants—Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft—that are trying to achieve market dominance. Either way, they are essentially giving away their products, at least for now.

Whether you want to promote your events on the Web or expand your educational activities in social networking and file-sharing sites, there are web services and software you may want to consider. Here are nine free or nearly free ways to take advantage of these new developments on the Internet.

1. Start a blog
You can use a blog to promote events at your museum, support an exhibition, or explore an interesting topic. Try Blogger (www.blogger.com) or WordPress (www.wordpress.com) for free hosted blogs. You can also use the open-source software package from WordPress (www.wordpress.org), which is more flexible and can be installed on your own server. (Open-source software, as the name suggests, means the source code is freely available to other developers.)

Benefits: It is easy to get started. You will gain a presence in blog-only search engines, such as Technorati (www.technorati.com), Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com), and Ice Rocket (www.icerocket.com), and will likely connect with community bloggers. In addition, blogging software is increasingly used as a cheap content management system.

Who’s doing this? Lots of museums are blogging. Take a look at Museum Blogs (www.museumblogs.org), a directory of over 290 blogs.

Tips: Writing and managing a blog can take time, so make sure you have sufficient staff time, or plan to post articles and information from your existing newsletters.

Cost: Blogger and WordPress are free.

2. Create RSS feeds
Take existing content and turn it into RSS (or Atom) feeds. These web feeds are used for frequently updated content such as blog posts, podcasts, or even news headlines. Subscribers can read feeds using web and desktop feed readers. Blogging and content management software usually have built-in RSS capabilities. However, if your existing software packages don’t support RSS, try Runstream (www.runstream.com) to create a stream from scratch or RSS Calendar (www.rsscalendar.com) to make an RSS feed for a calendar of events.

Benefits: You can reach new visitors directly as new content becomes available. Because your content is “atomized,” it can appear in multiple places around the Web.

Who’s doing this? Lots of science centers have RSS feeds. You can subscribe to a feed of the online version of ASTC Dimensions (feed://www.astc.org/blog/category/astc-dimensions/feed). (Please note that you’ll need a feed reader or browser that is capable of reading RSS to view the contents of this link.)

Tips: RSS can be an alternative to e-mail campaigns and also can be used to list a calendar of events. You can use FeedBurner (www.feedburner.com) to promote and track your feeds.

Cost: Free or nearly free.

3. Start a podcast
If you have existing audio or video content or have the ability to record and edit, it is easy to post these recordings online to start a podcast. You can post your podcast on your own web site or make it available directly through Apple’s iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html) and other podcast directories.

Who’s doing this? Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts, has a weekly series of podcasts (www.mos.org/events_activities/podcasts). The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), California, has taken things a bit further and even allows its visitors to create podcasts. Take a look at SFMOMA’s Artcast Invitational page (www.sfmoma.org/education/edu_podcasts_inv.html). You can also use the search function in Apple iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes/) to find other museum podcasts and see how they are formatting and developing their episodes.

Cost: Free or nearly free. You may want to buy Apple’s QuickTime Pro (www.apple.com/quicktime/download/) for $29.99 to encode your audio and video clips.

4. Share a video
The phenomenal rise of YouTube (www.youtube.com) gives science centers an opportunity to share videos with potentially huge audiences. Short video clips of exhibitions, events, educational programs, or other activities can allow you to connect with people who may never visit your main web page. You can also embed these videos into your own web page, essentially using YouTube as a video service provider.

Who’s doing this? The Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, Canada, has over 100 videos on YouTube and has received literally millions of views. Go to their YouTube page (www.youtube.com/user/videochick770) and sort videos by Most Viewed.

Tips: There are many other video sites out there aside from YouTube. Take a look at Wikipedia’s list of video-sharing sites (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_sharing_websites). You may reach visitors more easily if you are featured in one of these sites than if you are one of millions on YouTube.

Cost: Free

5. Share photos
Flickr (www.flickr.com) is the most popular photo-sharing site. As with YouTube, you can use Flickr to share images and connect with new web visitors. The photographs can be “mashed up” with your own web site, allowing you to post images to Flickr and your own site simultaneously.

Benefits: Flickr can be a great way for your museum’s visitors to share their photos with you and with each other. You can also start a group that other Flickr members can join.

Who’s doing this? The Youth Exploring Science (YES) program at the Saint Louis Science Center, Missouri, has its own Flickr group. They have mashups of their photos, along with videos from www.blip.tv, on their own web site (www.youthexploringscience.com).

Cost: Free, or $24.95 per year for an upgraded “pro” account. You can ask for a discounted account through TechSoup (www.techsoup.org/stock), a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits with technology issues.

6. Create a museum persona
Social networking sites like Facebook (www.facebook.com) and MySpace (www.myspace.com) are now among the most popular destinations on the Web. For many, especially young, web visitors, these environments are self-contained destinations—places to explore, socialize, and connect with others.

Benefits: Having a presence in one of these sites can increase your museum’s visibility. It also allows members to become Fans or Friends of your museum—making an overt, albeit digital, connection with your organization.

Who’s doing this? If you’re a Facebook member you can check out the Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, profile (www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-Paul-MN/Science-Museum-of-Minnesota/5905048291?ref=ts). They are one of more than 40 museums that now have a presence in Facebook. There is also a group that tracks museums in Facebook (www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8173798651).

Cost: Free

7. Promote events
Event-based sites are a new development on the Web and they are resources that few museums have taken advantage of. Descriptions of exhibition openings and other community events can be posted directly on sites like Yahoo Upcoming (www.upcoming.yahoo.com) and MeetUp (www.meetup.com).

Benefits: You can let others know about important events at your museum and you can post an event in just a couple of minutes. You can also add a link to drive visitors to your web site.

Who’s doing this? The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, is posting events on Upcoming along with a few other museums (www.upcoming.yahoo.com/user/116843/).

Tips: These sites are just beginning to emerge, so set your expectations accordingly. If you’re in a smaller city or region, you might initially gain only a few attendees through these sites.

Cost: Free

8. Build exhibitions, manage collections
For those of you who might be more adventurous and perhaps more technically savvy, there are a few open-source initiatives geared specifically for museums. Open Collection (www.opencollection.org) is a collections management and online access application. Omeka (www.omeka.org) enables museums to publish collections and exhibitions online. Pachyderm (http://pachyderm.nmc.org) provides templates to help museums create multimedia presentations.

My company, Ideum, in partnership with ASTC, is proposing our own open-source initiative, called Open Exhibits (www.openexhibits.org), for interactive, computer-based exhibits. Our software will be geared for science centers in particular. Pending funding for research and development, the first software modules should be available next year.

Benefits: You don’t have to start your project from scratch. The web sites of each of these projects contain help sections and can connect you to their online communities.

Who’s doing this? A number of art, history, and cultural institutions are listed among the users of these software packages.

Cost: Free

9. Manage projects
With all these new web projects going on, you’ll need some help managing them. Basecamp (www.basecamphq.com) is an intuitive project management software package that is great for managing new web initiatives, as well as other projects.

Benefits: Basecamp allows you to manage all e-mail correspondence in one place and keep shared To Do lists, Milestones, and Writeboards (similar to wikis). The more advanced versions allow you to keep track of hours spent on a task.

Who’s doing this? Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, California, is among the science centers that are using Basecamp.

Tip: Try the free version before moving up to paid versions.

Cost: Free for one project. $24 a month for the Basic version, $49 a month for the Plus version.

Museums are increasingly using the Web to advance their organizations at little or no cost. By familiarizing yourself with even a few of the services described in this article, you can easily manage projects or reach new audiences, all without leaving your desk or breaking the bank.

Jim Spadaccini is director of Ideum, Corrales, New Mexico.

IN THIS ISSUE
May/June 2008

Science centers regularly collect data about exhibits and programs, documenting how visitors respond to what the institution offers to public audiences. But once the report is filed, what happens to this knowledge? Is it used to inform daily practice, influence future planning, or demonstrate to a funding organization that the institution is meeting both its own goals and theirs? Many museum professionals think it’s time to apply a strategy of mission-based evaluation to all operations. To accomplish that, staff must first look inward. In this issue, we explore how museums within and outside the science center field are striving to make self-evaluation an integral part of their institutional culture.

Contents
• To What End? Achieving Mission Through Intentional Practice, by Randi Korn, with Mission Evaluation: An Annotated Bibliography
• Learning from the Process: Developmental Evaluation Within ‘Agents of Change,’ by Myrica Gration and Julie Jones
• Striving for Sustainability: A Self-Assessment Tool for Museums, by Charlie Trautmann
• The Funder’s Perspective: IMLS, Evaluation, and Public Value, by Marsha Semmel
• Planning for Family Learning: Research, Evaluation, and Decision Making, by Julie I. Johnson and Kirsten Ellenbogen
• The Funder’s Perspective: Measuring Progress Toward Mission, by Ann Stone
• Scitech’s Effectiveness Review: Appraising the Present, Planning for the Future, by Suzannah Lyons
• The Three Questions, by Carolyn Meehan

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At museum conferences these days, people are talking about accountability, public impact, and relevance. These ideas are not new. A decade ago, in a 1997 keynote address for the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums’ 50th anniversary, the late Smithsonian scholar Stephen Weil spoke of the “in-your-face, bottom-line, hard-nosed questions”—the ones that museums often hope to keep under wraps: “Do museums really matter? Can and do museums make a difference?”In arguing that some museums do make a difference, and that all should strive to do so, Weil supported the notion that “the very things that make a museum good are its intent to make a ‘positive difference in the quality of people’s lives.’” He borrowed this last phrase from the United Way of America, which was then challenging its grantees to document the benefits a given program had made in their lives.

Today, museums face accountability questions from many directions. In response to the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, U.S. federal agencies began to articulate the kinds of outcomes they expected grantees to document. Private foundations followed suit, reexamining their own evaluation practices, as well as those of grantees. The effort continues. The National Science Foundation recently published its Framework for Evaluating Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects, outlining five categories of impact it expects grantees to assess. And for those who object that “you can’t measure mission-centered work,” current United Way CEO Brian Gallagher, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, has a succinct reply: “You most certainly can. The question is, ‘Are you committed to do it?’ And then, ‘Are you committed to report on it?’”

As museums begin to grapple with their intent to make a positive difference, they can start by reexamining their museum’s mission. Weil believed, as many do still, that a mission is key to an institution’s success. A museum’s mission should be a declaration of its core purpose—clarifying what the museum values, reflecting what the museum embodies, and describing its intent to affect its public and community. Establishing a clear institutional purpose, Weil believed, is the first step to being able to assess effectiveness in achieving public impact.

From my own experience as an evaluator, I would add this observation: Museums do not, in and of themselves, value, reflect, or intend. People do.

An institution’s mission will not be within reach unless everyone who works in that institution is mission-focused and mission-driven. Before museums can assess their impact, staff must collectively clarify their intent. Public impact, relevance, and value grow from what I have called “intentional practice”—the willingness of everyone in the museum to examine all operational activities through three mission-based filters: clarity of intent, alignment of practice and resources, and reflective inquiry.

• Clarity of intent. Opportunities for all staff to come together to discuss the core values of their museum are vital. Colleagues should both encourage others to explore their passions and also challenge others’ thinking as a way of clarifying what is truly of importance.

In the spirit of thoughtful inquiry, why not ask a colleague to defend his or her position? Most people appreciate being asked to explain why they think the way they do. This kind of exploration allows practitioners to voice the passion behind their ideas and learn what they, as a group, really care about. Reexamining the essence of the museum together can reinvigorate the collaborative spirit, enabling staff to further their practice with intent.

• Alignment of practices and resources. Unless the work of the museum is aligned with its intent, staff may spend time and resources on activities that are good in themselves but may not support the museum’s intent. Perhaps staff should determine—through evaluation—which programs yield the highest impact, keep those programs, and either improve or discontinue those that do not deliver impact.

Aligning practice—the activities a museum does and how it does them—and resources so they support the museum’s intent requires thinking about what you should be doing and what you need not do any more. Conversations about realignment will deepen staff members’ understanding of the museum’s intent and the ways in which their work supports it.

• Reflective inquiry. As an evaluator, I frequently see front-end and formative evaluation being used effectively to shape a final visitor experience. The same cannot be said of summative evaluation. By the time a mandated final report is done, practitioners may have little time or motivation to review it. This is unfortunate because much can be learned through reflecting on past work.

I see a strong relationship between taking the time to think about the work you have done and learning from the work you have done. Practitioners who want to be intentional in their practice can use summative evaluation as a way to gain insight and knowledge about visitors’ perspectives and experiences. The outcome of such reflective inquiry is learning about the ways in which their museum is achieving impact. I would encourage all museums to routinely set aside time for staff to use inquiry as a reflection strategy and to discuss their practice in the context of the institution’s intent.

In conclusion, accountability questions are not likely to disappear, but even if they did, museum practitioners would still need to respond to the “To what end?” question. The sustainable health of the museum depends on it.

Most of the workers I encounter in museums are passionate about their work and want to make a positive difference in people’s lives. If practitioners begin collaborating with colleagues to clarify their museum’s intent, realign their practices and resources to support that intent, and engage in reflective inquiry to learn how they can improve their efforts, they will be on their way to achieving that goal.

Randi Korn is principal of Randi Korn & Associates Inc., a firm of museum evaluation and research specialists in Alexandria, Virginia.

March/April 2008
In This Issue

Is membership the key to moving “beyond the gate”? Should we be building deeper relationships with our most loyal customers? In recent years, ASTC Dimensions has examined such audience segments as early learners, female visitors, teachers, and adults aged 50+. In this issue, we focus on a group often taken for granted: the individuals and families who join our science center as members and renew their memberships year after year. Articles highlight member audience research and approaches to membership fulfillment across a spectrum of ASTC science centers. Together, contributors examine what turns a casual visitor into someone who speaks with pride of “my museum.”

CONTENTS
• Breaking the Mold: The Science of Retooling a Membership Program, by Heather Calvin and Deborah Kulich
• Passport to Science: Member Benefits That Travel, by Diane Frendak
• The Continuum of Museum Membership: What Research Tells Us, by Susie Wilkening
• Value Added: Membership Strategies That Work, by Kelly Brault, Michael Conley, Tara Keblish and Steve Jacobson
• A Member-Shaped Museum: The New Science Center of Iowa, by Sara Scallon
• It Feels Like Home: The Core Value of Community, by Paul Tatter and Kristin Leigh
• Membership Resources

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“This is a wonderful atmosphere. Can I live here?” (Visitor comment card)

At Explora we think of membership as a sense of belonging. “Belonging” comes from an old English word meaning a close and secure relationship. Relationships of belonging are personal. They are about you, me, and the stuff of the world that is the medium of our activity.

Being a member has deep roots in belonging, trust, comfort, genuineness, safety, acceptance, and sharing resources. Developing personally meaningful relationships takes time, as reflected in these notes from visitors: “My husband and I have come here before and couldn’t wait for our daughter to be born so that we could share with her what fun we had! She’s now two years old, and we all had a blast. We’ll be back!” “Siempre estamos encantados” (“We’re always charmed”).

Perceiving membership as relationships that develop over time is different from viewing it as a commodity. We see membership as a layering of mutual commitments with other community organizations. Our local adoption exchange uses Explora as a place where children can comfortably meet prospective parents. In this example, membership also involves commitments with informal social groups, families and individuals. Collectively, all of these relationships define the membership.

Members of Explora feel they belong to something larger, like the neighborhood, and to something smaller, like their family or friends. A staff member observed, “One family set up dim sum in our picnic area, with a tablecloth, and a centerpiece they made in our workshop exhibit.”

Explora is a member of the community and, reciprocally, the community belongs in Explora. It’s not irrelevant that every staff person becomes a member when he or she is hired, and everyone in the community can be a member (because they don’t pay if they can’t*). For all of us to be members, we really do need regular visitors to develop relationships with each other, with the staff, and with exhibit and program materials. One visit isn’t enough to develop these relationships. Membership requires durable, mutual commitments. In this broad context of community life, four widely shared commitments are participation, trust, acceptance, and respect.

Perhaps the most important commitment is to participate in the life of Explora as part of the life of each person, family and the community, and, over time, to develop new relationships with the physical world, self, and others. These relationships develop in unpredictable ways, uniquely to each person, with no expectation of ending. For our visitors, this means contributing to Explora through their presence, being willing to engage in inquiry with us, honestly revealing their thinking, and making themselves at home. To ask for this participation, we must be committed to access for all the diverse members of the community; a comfortable, safe, bilingual environment; and a friendly, diverse staff genuinely interested in learning. We design programs and exhibits for repeat visitors and their recurring participation.

A staff member describes how relationships change with regular participation: “‘Rickie’ is 11 now. He and his family have been coming to Explora regularly since I started working here. As I have gotten to know the family better, our relationship has become more informal, and I enjoy seeing them—like one might enjoy having friends come over. Rickie brought a plant he’d started from a seed to contribute to the Experiment Bar. Every time he comes, he wants to check on his plant.”

Similarly, a grandmother describes her grandson: “Diego is 8 years old. He started coming to Explora four years ago. He first spent all of his time at the ball run. Later it was one or two hours in the water area, then Shapes of Sound, then Systems in Motion. Today, Diego talks about Explora as his second home. He knows the staff and every change. Everywhere he goes is his favorite. Now he brings his friends to show them around.”

Another commitment members must make is trust. We ask visitors to trust us enough to take intellectual risks, to believe that we won’t embarrass them, and to embark on explorations for which the outcomes are unknown. At the same time, we trust visitors to use our many loose materials in creating their own learning experiences.

A staff member describes such an experience: “In November families from two Title I schools spent una noche especial at Explora. They brought all the kids, from 20s to babies. There were about 350 people. Most of Explora’s bilingual staff came. Parents spontaneously helped serve food and assisted the staff. I sat down with a teenager at the Magna-cam. We magnified money. He was so interested that I gave him a dollar to examine. In half an hour, he found me to return the dollar. Later, he saw me across the room and brought me to meet his older brother.”

A child attending the same event wrote, “Querido Explora, a mi me gusta ir a Explora mucho, mucho, y mucho. Después yo voy a ir otra vez.” (“Dear Explora, I like coming to Explora a lot, a lot, and a lot. I will come again later.”)

Members also make a commitment to accept each other. Explora often serves as a meeting place. “I began coming to Explora as a mother with two children. I have many friends with children that have come to Explora for as many years as me. Now I work here. Increasingly, conversations have led to child development, what parents have observed their children doing and learning at Explora, and conversations about their families. Parents are increasingly trusting, and I have observed parents who had been ‘hands off’ begin to interact with their children and the activities.”

Many members meet the same people here each week, and this notion of Explora as a meeting place rubs off, even on people who didn’t intend to attend the meeting. Explora’s staff and environment support an inclination to see others around you, even strangers, as belonging to your community. Homeschool parents find each other and share ideas. Adoptive parents meet regularly to create peer groups for their children and support networks for themselves.

With acceptance of other community members comes respect. “I think that being here makes me feel like I can make anything” (visitor comment card). Whether it’s the grandmother who, over the years, taught all of her grandchildren to walk in Explora’s Knee-Hi-Sci area, teens from different parts of town working together in our Youth Program, or hundreds of families from underserved neighborhoods at a family night, all of these community members respect each other’s presence and the commitment manifested through that presence.

A school principal sent this note: “WOW—that was truly a wonderful, powerful, exciting, and so engaging evening. There were so many moments I observed last night—two students talking about vibrations, delighted laughter about air pressure, a little ADHD girl focusing on water flow for 20 minutes, parents and students building marble tracks together. My heart was full with the vision of what learning and exploring the world together can be.”

Membership comes back to one of Explora’s six core values, the value of community: “…We value the diverse community in which we live, to which we strive to make a positive contribution and to create an environment where all members of this community feel a sense of comfort and belonging.” Or, as one visitor wrote on a comment card, “I love this place…it makes me feel right at home.”

Paul Tatter is associate director and Kristin Leigh is educational services director at Explora, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Footnote:
* Explora’s Family Membership is available at no cost to families whose children qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. Applications are distributed through schools and selected social service organizations.