Tag Archive for: affiliate membership

making the smithsonian-affiliate connection

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Offering the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership is a great way to connect the Smithsonian and your local audience.

This year, Affiliates and the Smithsonian have worked together to develop the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Toolbox. The Toolbox is a marketing package chock- full of Smithsonian resources and actionable ideas to make the connection between the Smithsonian and members.

What is the Toolbox?
In September, Smithsonian Affiliations launched the first annual Smithsonian Membership Drive and delivered the Toolbox to Affiliates.
The Toolbox includes:

  • Smithsonian media resources
  • Websites and program schedules from the Smithsonian to share with new and renewing members
  • Activities to engage visitors with Smithsonian loans, exhibitions and connect them through social media across the Affiliate network

SA_rack_card-Offering a Smithsonian Affiliate Membership as part of your organizational membership program is an exclusive benefit of a Smithsonian affiliation.

  • Exclusive Affiliate Benefit
    Are you one of the 100+ Affiliates attracting and renewing local members annually with the inclusion of the Smithsonian Affiliate membership in your museum’s membership package? Share the full list of Smithsonian Affiliate membership benefits with your audience.
  • Regional Ambassadors
    Affiliates are the Smithsonian’s regional ambassadors across the country – the Smithsonian looks to your organization to steward, engage, and renew joint Smithsonian – Affiliate members annually. Coordinate your Smithsonian programs and events with a Smithsonian Affiliate membership to bring added value to your membership package and build ongoing support.
  • Share your Smithsonian connection with your local members
    Your members may not make it to Washington, D.C., but can experience the Smithsonian at your organization. Joint benefits and programming make the link between the Smithsonian and your members.
  • Unique Membership Benefits
    Extend national benefits to your members who enjoy local benefits at your affiliated museum.

Want more information? Contact Christina DiMeglio Lopez, External Affairs Manager.

Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Drive Month

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More than half of our 194 Smithsonian Affiliates participate in Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live, an annual program which will take place this year on September 27th.  If you haven’t registered yet, please email: museumday@si.edu.

Many of those Affiliates offer the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program as a benefit to their museum members.  This year, we’re launching a Smithsonian Membership Drive in the month of September to provide Affiliates with ways to add new members to their membership programs.  We hope the following toolbox will help you turn visitors into new members!

  • Host an open house or behind-the-scenes tour of your collections and end the tour with a table with membership materials and staff to help visitors sign up.
  • Highlight artifacts on loan from the Smithsonian: we can help with language and images- use this information in an enewsletter with the Smithsonian Affiliate logo identifying your organization as a Smithsonian Affiliate.  Include a link to how they can become dual members of the Smithsonian and your organization.
  • Highlight upcoming Smithsonian programs and exhibitions- make the connection between the Smithsonian and your members.  (Email us if you would like to plan an Smithsonian collaboration- that’s what we’re here for!)
  • Screen Smithsonian Channel programming at an evening event; we can send free Smithsonian Magazines that you can give away  to visitors who sign up for membership.
  • Build the membership drive around already scheduled events, and host a new member raffle for a free Smithsonian membership (a one year membership courtesy of Smithsonian Affiliations.)
  • Tap into a different audience with a Scavenger Hunt, complete with Smithsonian objects that have been 3D printed.  Learn more here.
  • Set up a photo booth for new members to take a picture and use a Smithsonian Affiliate hashtag to share on social media.  On Museum Day, share these on a backdrop #smithsonianaffiliate or #museumdaylive !
  • Use our new Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program logo on your materials.  Contact us to get the files.

We will send out a Smithsonian souvenir prize package to each Smithsonian Affiliate that sells more than 50 Smithsonian dual memberships during September.  If you sell more than any other Affiliate, your organization will receive a special program courtesy of Smithsonian Affiliations!

Want to know more about offering the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program?  Here are the benefits you can offer to your members:

  • Smithsonian Magazine (one year subscription) or Air & Space Magazine (six issues)
  • 10% discount on all Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
  • Travel and study tour opportunities from Smithsonian Journeys
  • Free admission to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City
  • A personalized Smithsonian-Affiliate branded membership card
  • 10% discount on all IMAX tickets at the Smithsonian
  • iPad App for Smithsonian Magazine subscribers
  • Reciprocal Membership to other Smithsonian Affiliate members, if your organization has signed up to participate. For a full list of Smithsonian Affiliates participating in the Smithsonian Affiliate Reciprocal Membership program, visit: https://affiliations.si.edu/docs/reciprocal-members-2.24.14.pdf

Would you like to chat?  In the next two weeks, Smithsonian Affiliations staff will be setting up regional calls to discuss details for the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Drive Month.  We will follow up with an eAlert with dates and times.

For more information on the program and the membership, please contact your National Outreach Manager, or Christina DiMeglio Lopez, dimeglioc@si.edu.

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New! PAL Talks- distance learning for Affiliates

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Smithsonian Affiliations introduces PAL Talks (Partnering with Affiliates for Learning)!  Refresh your knowledge or learn something new about being an Affiliate and collaborating with the Smithsonian in webinars and video chats about membership, branding, artifact loans and more. 

Mobile App Clinic meeting

Our first Vidyo conference in February 2013 was a huge success!

Our successful pilot using Vidyo at the Mobile App Clinic last month showed us that Affiliates are eager to learn more about collaboration opportunities at the Smithsonian. We also thought Affiliates would like more opportunities to learn about each benefit of their affiliation in further detail.  

So we’re kicking things off with a Vidyo webinar about the Smithsonian Affiliations Membership Program. External Affairs Manager, Christina DiMeglio Lopez will lead the chat and explain why everyone should be taking advantage of “two memberships in one.”  

When: Wednesday, April 24, 3:00-4:00 p.m. (EST)
How: Vidyo video webinar

  • Participate with a web cam & mic- click here
  • View webcast only- click here (email questions during call to affiliates@si.edu)

Setup: Download and test the Vidyo software here. 
RSVP: bugbeee@si.edu

Questions? Contact Christina DiMeglio Lopez or Elizabeth Bugbee for more information about this new digital learning opportunity.