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Family of Museums

The Time Travelers Program Is Expanding!

The Virginia Time Travelers Program is expanding to include a long-term souvenir passport book. VAM has designed a program to help museums expand their market to adults as well as children, and drive additional revenue during this difficult economic climate. The new passport book will be long-term and contain a fixed number of museums who have signed up for the program. This new passport book will be sold in museum gift shops, Visitor Centers and other possible venues such as Bed & Breakfast inns, other tourism destinations, and book stores.

A Proven Marketing Concept

The new Time Travelers Passport book will borrow from the National Park Service’s "Passport to Your National Parks" concept, where visitors may purchase a small, pocket-sized, spiral-bound book containing information on each of the national parks divided into regions. Each park Visitor Center has a "Stamping Station" where visitors may get their passports stamped in the appropriate space provided in the book. The idea is for people to keep these books as souvenirs and encourage them to visit more parks to fill in their stamp "collection."

The new TimeTravelers Passport to Virginia Museums can accept 210 museums, historic sites, and other cultural attractions interested in participating in the program. A high-quality, 72-page book will be produced featuring three museums or sites on each page, with space for a stamping area, a picture of the museum, museum address and website, and a brief description of the site. One page will be reserved for an introduction and description of the program, acknowledgements, etc. The back cover of the book will fold out in three sections, containing a map of Virginia with major highways and roads clearly marked, as well as the locations of the listed museums and sites indexed and color-coded by region for easy location.

The initial run of 50,000 books will be pre-sold to participating museums and sites for sale in their gift shops. VAM will administer the program, coordinating production, shipping and marketing, and books will be provided to museums at a cost of only $3 per book. The museums and other sites will sell the book for a suggested $5-6 per book, keeping the profit.

It is requested that participating museums purchase a minimum of 240 books for this initial run.* At $3 per book, this means an initial investment of only$720 by each museum, for featured advertising in a guidebook that will be sold statewide and an initial print run of 50,000 – with more penetration through reorders. Remember that this book will not be dated and is intended to be kept and reused often for years – extending the shelf life and impact of this marketing tool.

Market research shows that colorful, informative books in the $5 price range are high-volume sellers in museum shops. We know that the National Park Service passports have been popular with adults and children alike, and based on the response to the TimeTraveler passports over the past thirteen years we believe that there will be a demand for the new version as well. Many adults without children have requested the TimeTraveler passports in the past because of the listings and contact information of the museums broken down by region, making it a handy travel guide.

*It may be possible for smaller museums to order fewer than 240 books, if interested please contact Margo Carlock at mcarlock@vamuseums.org or 804-788-5821.

Themes

The new passport books will not feature annual themes, but will be timeless and therefore perfect for ongoing exploration of Virginia’s museums. However, VAM will still promote an online program that utilizes annual themes to keep the program fresh – especially for children. One of the best features of the traditional TimeTraveler Program is the educational aspect, and the way the annual themes make yearly participation and repeat visits exciting for families. VAM will continue to develop annual themes for the online program for additional promotion of the museums and sites in the book. A theme patch will also be available for those visiting two or more theme sites.

Website and Fulfillment

The current features of the website will continue, including resources for parents and teachers, reading lists to accompany the themes, searchable lists of museums and sites, games, and links to other resources. Rather than sending in the passports for redemption as in the past, parents would simply go online to register their child, indicate the sites visited, and download a certificate. Theme patches and Master Traveler gold seals will be mailed to the parents by VAM. T-shirts will also remain available to anyone who would like to purchase one from our linked Café Press sales site, along with other logo items.

Having the parents enter the information previously collected on the paper passports will allow VAM to automatically capture the data necessary for program evaluation without having to rekey it.

Single Line Mention for Smaller Museums

One page at the end of the book will list "Other Museums To Visit." This will be a single line mention of the museum name, city and website. This option is available for $100, and although it does not allow for museum description or photo, it will enable small museums to participate in the program and be part of the annual themes. Museums choosing this option may purchase books for resale in smaller quantities, but it is not required.

Timing of Production and Shipment

Space in the book is available on a first come, first served basis. We only have 210 slots in this first edition. The deadline for signing up and getting us your description and photo is December 20. We will need to get the final text and photos to the publisher by mid-January in order to have the books by March 1, in time for the Spring Break travel season.

Payment

A deposit of 50% is due at signing up, with the balance to be paid after you receive the books. A museum can pay for the whole amount due at signing. If you have a special circumstance that requires us to invoice you at a certain time, just let us know.

Shipping

As we have in the past, VAM is going to make every effort to help you save on shipping costs. There will be three options for shipment of the books:

• A museum may pick up their book order at the VAM office in Richmond, or at the VAM annual conference in Richmond March 13-16 (no charge).
• A museum may pick up their book order at a regional drop site (no charge)
• A museum may have the books shipped directly to them for $15 per box of 60 (for the minimum order of 240 books, that will amount to $60)

Reordering Books

The publisher will produce an overrun of 3,000 books to service initial reorder requests. When this supply is exhausted, sites will be contacted with the opportunity to participate in a reprint.

Advantages of this Model

• Expands market to older adults, singles and couples without children
  TimeTravelers has always been a popular program for families with children and school groups, but the new Passport to Virginia Museums will specifically target older adults and members of the general traveling public. The Passport will encourage people who visit one museum to visit many more as they collect stamps in the book. This will expand the cross-marketing benefits that the Virginia TimeTravelers Program has always provided for participating museums.
• Drives revenue
  Instead of distributing a free, printed-paper passport, museums will now have a passport which they can sell at a profit. Visitors who already have a passport purchased at another site may visit your museum to add your stamp to their collection – a visit that may never have taken place but for the book! Admissions from this cross-marketing will add to revenue (no discounts required!), and placing a stamping station inside the gift shop will encourage more traffic.
• Provides a self-sustaining model for the TimeTravelers program
  The Virginia TimeTravelers program has been very popular with both visitors and museums – many of which have witnessed an increase in visitation as a result of this program. In 2008, over 540,000 TimeTraveler museum visits were recorded. However, the lack of consistent funding for this free marketing service has hampered the program over the past few years, leading to the program being offered only online in 2009. While still popular, the lack of a physical passport for stamping has drastically reduced TimeTraveler visitation (this program has always drawn the great majority of its participation from passports picked up at sites, schools or visitor centers, and with an online-only program a family must know about the program ahead to download and print passports before visiting a museum). A high-quality, durable passport book that can be kept in a car or easily carried when traveling will once again encourage one museum visit to become many more. The small amount that VAM will receive per book (75 cents) will provide the funding to oversee production, marketing and fulfillment and continue the program well into the future.

Questions, Requests, Suggestions

Don’t hesitate to contact VAM if you have any of the above – we are excited about this expanded TimeTravelers program and want to help any of our museums who want to participate do so. Contact Margo Carlock at 804-788-5821 or mcarlock@vamuseums.org

2010 APPLICATION (PDF file)
Print and fill out the application form and mail it to the address below.

Mail the completed application to:
Virginia Association of Museums
TimeTravelers Program
200 S. Third Street
Richmond, VA 23219