Sales Membership

Louisa,

We've been doing member rate free or discounted tickets for years at the Science Museum.  Our system is to have member price types for each ticket level (in our case, adult, child or senior, depending on the show), which are mapped as free tickets.  I can't swear to whether that would meet your needs, not being in a theater setting myself, but it might be a good place to start.

As for monthly memberships, we don't do that at SMM, but you could probably accomplish the monthly payments by using the pledge payment functionality in conjunction with the membership module.  In talking with my local PBS and Public Radio stations, who do a lot of this "sustaining membership" model in which people give a small amount each month, they generally recommend not using this option unless you are charging at least $5 - $10 per month, because of the staff time involved in chasing down declined or expired cards each month, etc.  Policy-wise, you'd have to think about what this means for renewals; do they receive an annual renewal in which they agree to pay for the next year, or does the membership just run month to month into perpetuity?  Also, make sure you think about whether someone would be able to pay only the first few months of the membership, get a lot of benefits, and then want to "cancel," thus getting far more benefits than they paid for.

Beth

* * * * *

Get ready for an unforgettable encounter 3,000 years in the making. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs opens at the Science Museum of Minnesota on February 18, 2011, bringing priceless artifacts from the tomb of the Boy King to Minnesota for the first time. Don’t miss this opportunity; visit www.smm.org/tut to purchase tickets today.

Elizabeth A Varro
Membership Manager
Science Museum of Minnesota
(651) 265-9829

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From: "Louisa Balch" <bounce-louisabalch7563@tessituranetwork.com>
To: bvarro@smm.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:46:58 PM
Subject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Sales Membership

We are creating a sales membership which is slightly different from a regular Package in that "Members" pay a one time Membership fee and then can attend shows as many times as they want, whenever they want for "free".  It's for our Children's theatre and we are modelling the idea after memberships at other organizations such as zoos or museums.

I'm trying to figure out a good way to set this up so it is easy for the Box Office to process and it distributes the money to the actual shows accurately for reporting and royalty purposes.

We are also exploring the idea of the membership being a monthly fee (kind of like the Netflix model).

Is anyone doing something similar and have found a good way to set it up in Tessitura?

Thanks!

Louisa

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Yes; that's the standard museum model.  I'll let you follow some other roads, but if you hit any questions about standard membership functionality, give me a holler.

Beth

* * * * *

Get ready for an unforgettable encounter 3,000 years in the making. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs opens at the Science Museum of Minnesota on February 18, 2011, bringing priceless artifacts from the tomb of the Boy King to Minnesota for the first time. Don’t miss this opportunity; visit www.smm.org/tut to purchase tickets today.

Elizabeth A Varro
Membership Manager
Science Museum of Minnesota
(651) 265-9829

---

From: "Louisa Balch" <bounce-louisabalch7563@tessituranetwork.com>
To: bvarro@smm.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 5:27:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Sales Membership

Hi Beth,

Thanks for the info and your thoughts! So it sounds like you aren't trying to "apply" the original money to their tickets, you just put all that money in a membership bucket and then allow the tickets almost like a benefit? I like the idea of using the membership module but I know we are used to seeing the package money distributed to the shows so there might be some resistance there...

From: Beth Varro <bounce-elizabethvarro6946@tessituranetwork.com>
Sent: 5/25/2011 1:30:20 PM

Louisa,

We've been doing member rate free or discounted tickets for years at the Science Museum.  Our system is to have member price types for each ticket level (in our case, adult, child or senior, depending on the show), which are mapped as free tickets.  I can't swear to whether that would meet your needs, not being in a theater setting myself, but it might be a good place to start.

As for monthly memberships, we don't do that at SMM, but you could probably accomplish the monthly payments by using the pledge payment functionality in conjunction with the membership module.  In talking with my local PBS and Public Radio stations, who do a lot of this "sustaining membership" model in which people give a small amount each month, they generally recommend not using this option unless you are charging at least $5 - $10 per month, because of the staff time involved in chasing down declined or expired cards each month, etc.  Policy-wise, you'd have to think about what this means for renewals; do they receive an annual renewal in which they agree to pay for the next year, or does the membership just run month to month into perpetuity?  Also, make sure you think about whether someone would be able to pay only the first few months of the membership, get a lot of benefits, and then want to "cancel," thus getting far more benefits than they paid for.

Beth

* * * * *

Get ready for an unforgettable encounter 3,000 years in the making. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs opens at the Science Museum of Minnesota on February 18, 2011, bringing priceless artifacts from the tomb of the Boy King to Minnesota for the first time. Don’t miss this opportunity; visit www.smm.org/tut to purchase tickets today.

Elizabeth A Varro
Membership Manager
Science Museum of Minnesota
(651) 265-9829

---

From: "Louisa Balch" <bounce-louisabalch7563@tessituranetwork.com>
To: bvarro@smm.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:46:58 PM
Subject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Sales Membership

We are creating a sales membership which is slightly different from a regular Package in that "Members" pay a one time Membership fee and then can attend shows as many times as they want, whenever they want for "free".  It's for our Children's theatre and we are modelling the idea after memberships at other organizations such as zoos or museums.

I'm trying to figure out a good way to set this up so it is easy for the Box Office to process and it distributes the money to the actual shows accurately for reporting and royalty purposes.

We are also exploring the idea of the membership being a monthly fee (kind of like the Netflix model).

Is anyone doing something similar and have found a good way to set it up in Tessitura?

Thanks!

Louisa

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