Scott Wands and I are attending the 2009 AASLH Annual Meeting and will share some insights from the conference over the next few days.

On Thursday afternoon, I attended the Visitors' Voices Roundtable session chaired by Dale Jones.  Visitors' Voices is AASLH's newest affinity group and focuses on audience research and evaluation in history museums and related institutions.  Formed at the 2007 AASLH Annual Meeting in Atlanta, the group celebrated its 2nd birthday here in Indianapolis.

The purpose of Visitors' Voices is "to bring together AASLH members who are interested in discussing, sharing, and advancing the work of audience research and evaluation in history museums and related institutions."

Goals for the group are:

• To raise awareness of the need for audience research and evaluation in history museums and related institutions
• To raise awareness of the value of audience research and evaluation in history museums and related institutions
• To offer information to the field about existing published studies regarding visitor behavior and the value of history museums and related institutions
• To offer a network to AASLH members who are interested in audience research and evaluation
• To increase the number of people participating in this affinity group.

AASLH members (individual members or staff of institutional members) who work or conuslt in the area of audience research and evaluation--or simply work in the museum field and want to learn more about the subject are invited to join the group.  There is no additional fee to join on top of membership in AASLH.

To join, subscribe to the group's online discussion list by sending a blank email message to: aaslh-visitorsvoices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will then receive an automatic reply asking for your name, institution or company, and your AASLH membership number.

Most of the group's communication is via the online discussion list that allows members to ask questions, share information and resources, and work on group projects. Other opportunities for communication include a group event each year during AASLH's annual meeting and occasional group conference calls to discuss a topic of interest to the group.

Perhaps most importantly, the group has assembled a Resource List for Audience Research and Evaluation and has made this list available for free to everyone as a pdf on the AASLH Web site.  The list of suggested resources includes several books available to be borrowed from the HRC Lending Library including Stephanie Weaver's Creating Great Visitor Experiences, John Falk and Lynn Dierking's Lessons Without Limit, and Judy Diamond's Practical Evaluation Guide (just to name a few).

At the Visitors' Voices Roundtable session in Indianapolis, I learned that the affinity group has recently conducted a survey of its members to help determine who their members are, what areas of Audience Assessment and Evaluation people are interested in, and what help members need at this time.

The #1 need expressed was for help conducting "Evaluation on a Shoestring."  The group plans to follow up on this need and will provide assistance in this area in the coming months.

The key to all this is that we are not alone in Connecticut!  People across the country are struggling to figure out how to do evaluation and how to do it well. Groups like Visitors' Voices are out there to help us and are providing resources and discussion that are important to follow.

By Cathy Fields