Making Membership Dynamic and Relevant

By Kai Walther, Development Manager

Back in January, I was tasked with reinvigorating the Museum’s membership program. I wanted it to be both valuable for members and beneficial for the museum.

From the start, I knew I wanted to emphasize the 10% member discount at the biergarten, as it’s relevant to a huge number of people. Whether visiting the Biergarten because it’s a respite from the city, convenient happy hour spot, home of the Mini Markt, or setting for a museum program, any visitor can benefit from the member discount. Plus, funds from the Biergarten directly support the Museum’s Urban Manufacturing Incubator. Recognizing repeat visitors through their member discount is great for both the Museum and members!

During conversations at the Biergarten, I’m often struck by how few visitors have actually been inside the Museum and how many members tell me about wanting to go inside more often. To help remedy this, members have access to one (or two, for dual memberships) complimentary tour ticket(s) per year. While my own experience as a former Education Fellow may make me biased, tours are one of my favorite parts of the Heurich House. Each year, graduate students research, design, and then lead house tours based on their own interests. This means that tour guests can learn something new during each time that they visit, and members have a reason to keep coming back.

My favorite part of membership is the meet-ups. They’re a great way for me to get to know, express appreciation, and even become friends with people who have decided that the Heurich House Museum matters. I’ve also seen friendships develop between members - neighbors, colleagues, home brewers, and world travelers have all found each other. In their support of the museum, members have inadvertently created their own community of people with different backgrounds but shared interests in DC history, civic engagement, local beers, and building relationships. 

There’s three to four meet-ups each year. For this inaugural year I designed each one to loosely correspond with one of the Museum’s program areas: preservation, education, and urban manufacturing incubator. The first two meet-ups invited members to test out and provide feedback on a new behind-the-scenes Preservation Tour in March and then a new mini exhibit in June. Members enjoyed the exclusive access and opportunities to learn from Museum staff, and we as staff loved hearing their thoughts on the potential new programs.

Back in September, we had our final meet-up of the year at Right Proper Brookland. Owner and Operator Thor Cheston took us on a tour of the production house, and Taproom Manager Bri DeOrsey put together some fall-themed, historic Heurich tasting flights! We all had a great time checking out the increasingly bizarre taproom wall murals, learning about the historical revival process of Senate Beer, and catching up on old friendships while making new ones.

We’re just getting started on creating a dynamic and relevant membership program at the Heurich House, and I’m excited to see what the future will bring!