by Janet Hewitt, Guest Blogger
Smithsonian Associates Director Fredie Adelman was the featured staff member in the Zoom for a Jan. 12th call with volunteers. It was less than a week after January 6th – that mind-bending day in Washington, DC. And for all those dialing in, there was Fredie, with her comforting smile, in front of her floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Normally, your eyes go right to the books. Is she a history buff, or into art? And what about the photos? Are there any pets? Some plants, maybe?
But these are serious times and we only had 45 minutes, so no time for snooping. Plus, we had Fredie right there in front of us. She simply radiated hopefulness, kindness, thoughtfulness and honesty. It was so good to see her.
The inquiring minds that make up the Smithsonian Associates volunteer corp dug right in and started showering the chat box with questions.
But first, Fredie wanted to say something--about January 6th.
“Having to process what happened in the Capitol has just been extremely difficult,” she said. “One of the first thoughts that went through my head was how grateful I was that none of us, none of you, were down there, or our visitors or our kids.”
Then she said, “My gratitude to all of you for staying with us and helping us and becoming so adept [at virtual programs]. I’m sure I’ll need some coaching from all of you because you’ve done such a great job of jumping in and learning different parts of technology hosting and moderating and managing chat. We could not be doing this without you. And I’m not just saying that.”
Then, after briefly surveying the little Zoom boxes showing who on the call had braved recent haircuts, Fredie added, “It’s wonderful to see all of your faces.”
Then she took her first question. When did Smithsonian Associates decide to go virtual and how did it come about?
That sparked a memorable account about what transpired when Fredie and her colleagues first got word that Covid was closing down the Ripley Center on March 13.
“We all came in saying ‘It’s Friday the 13th, what could possibly go wrong?’ Then we got word that we were going to be shutting down. We had been hearing for a couple of weeks on the news about the Louvre shutting down and other places closing. We thought we’re probably going to be closed for a couple of weeks. We’ll probably get the announcement on Monday so let’s get ready for it.”
“We literally walked out of the office and grabbed a few things, thinking we’ll be back on Monday,” she remembers.
But no, she said, “It happened immediately. And you know the end of that story.”
A pretty major program was scheduled for the following Monday with Eric Larsen, the best-selling author. It was set for George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium.
“So we spent the first 60 hours, pretty much working through the weekend, messaging and telling patrons that wasn’t going to happen. We didn’t know at the time, whether we were going to postpone, or cancel or what was going to happen.”
“We said OK, we’ll set a date in the future. I think the first date considered was in June or July.”
In the ensuing weeks, Fredie’s team started hearing from colleagues at museums around the world. She belongs to the Alliance of American Museums and the International Council of Museums and they also consulted information from a deep dive data company that looks at tourism and travel around the world.
“It became very clear by the end of the month that postponing was not the way to go. And so we started a very serious effort to figure out what was the alternative,” she said.
Smithsonian Associates does strategic planning in the normal course of business. And one element of its strategic plan was how to provide broader access to programming. One answer was probably going to be adoption of online programming. But one barrier to offering online programs had been the issue of production quality. People expect very high production quality.
But as soon as the pandemic hit, that changed.
Those watching their favorite TV shows could clearly see the change, Fredie said. “So it [became] really obvious that the audience for whatever it was, news, entertainment, education, was going to be very forgiving about production value.”
As Fredie noted, “[E]ven Stephen Colbert . . . was broadcasting out of his bathtub.”
“High production values, the standards that we had aspired to, were no longer going to be a barrier,” Fredie said.
So the decision to go virtual was made pretty quickly. “And then we experimented. We just jumped in,” she said.
“We had to figure out how to do it,” Fredie said.
“[W]e took a breath. We stopped for a minute. We didn’t put out a program guide in June. We just said we can’t be driven by the need to meet deadlines. We didn’t have the answers. So we paused.”
It was a tough decision not to publish the program guide because we “rely on that as our roadmap,” she said. It is more than a marketing tool, it helps us map out our programming and gives us a lot of guidance, Fredie said.
“So that was a risk,” she said, but it was the right decision.
But they could not afford to pause for long. “We live within the Smithsonian environment where there’s federal support that makes the museums open to the public at no charge. But we’re not beneficiaries of that. We’ve never been in that world. So we had to figure out how to make it work.”
So Associates did about a dozen or so programs for free. “And then we evaluated it and asked: Can we make this work? Can we do it well and in a way that’s financially sustainable?”
Then, an even more important decision had to be made. “We said because of our situation we’re going to continue to charge. And that [decision] was also really fraught.” But what Associates found early on was that “our first foray into paid programming was a success. We found that people would pay for our programs.”
“The value of what we do, the quality of the content, the presentational style we have, we’ve learned that has value to it,” Fredie told the volunteers.
As a result, SA’s virtual programs are “now completely national and even international” in their reach. The whole stressful episode turned into a win for the strategic plan and the staff.
Fredie was asked what has been the most difficult thing about these Covid times. “The thing that has been most difficult is the strain on the staff,” she said.
Early on, SA had to devote a lot of staff time to technical issues surrounding a switch to virtual programming. “We lost a lot of our ability to create new programming,” she said. That is why Fredie said she is so grateful to all the volunteers who stepped up to facilitate online programs. “For every hour you put in, that’s an hour a staff member can put into scheduling new programs.”
Now programming is back on track, with programs being scheduled currently for June, July and August.
One volunteer asked when Fredie thought the Smithsonian would open its physical buildings back up. She said that answer would require a crystal ball and she hadn’t been able to find one. The bottom line is “I don’t know,” she replied.
She said, “[O]f the Smithsonian’s public buildings, the Quad is one that will, for the longest time, remain open only to staff and visitors by appointment.”
Whatever happens, she noted, “It will be a very slow and deliberative process.”
“I’m telling staff that they should plan on doing streaming programs forever. This is not a business that’s going away,” Fredie said.
Has Smithsonian Associates considered getting into streaming or on-demand sales of its recorded programs? Fredie says they are doing some of that today, when a person buys a ticket and then finds they have a time conflict. They are given a link, but that approach is staff-intensive because it has to be tracked and it requires a lot of behind the scenes work.
Recorded programs also capture the audio and video glitches of a typical Zoom program, so they’re not perfect. Selling individual recordings would require intensive post-production work to boost that quality. Associates will continue to test the concept, Fredie said, but to run with it will require more staff.
Fredie was asked: How does Smithsonian Associates pick its programs? For the record, it’s one of her favorite questions.
The first requirement is you need “an engaging presenter,” she said. And then they look for programs that support the Smithsonian’s commitment to prioritize education and digital experiences and that broadly represent Institutions’ five content ‘grand challenges:’ 1) understanding the American experience; 2) valuing world cultures; 3) magnifying the transformative power of art and design; 4) sustaining a bio-diverse planet; and 5) unlocking the mysteries of the universe. These guide our work in collections and exhibitions, research and learning opportunities.
The final factor in weighing new programs is their ability to generate ticket revenue. Just on the strength of membership dues, ticket sales and gifts, Associates has been revenue neutral for the last five years, Fredie said. “I’m super proud of that.”
But she concedes, “The revenue piece is front and center,” balanced with program quality.
But in order to grow, we can’t be making the same revenue that we made last year, Fredie said. “There are programs we’d like to offer at no charge and we can’t do that yet.” But she’s working on it.
She told volunteers, “I’m really proud of the fact that our entire staff has stayed whole.” Many other cultural institutions have had to lay off staff during the pandemic, but Associates has not. Even a few Audio Visual technicians who had served as intermittent staff now serve as tech hosts for virtual programs.
Someone asked what’s her six-word memoir. “I’m not sure if this is a memoir, or just a credo, but it’s this: Everything is temporary and never say never.” Sounds like the perfect mindset for a pandemic.
Then Fredie closed the call by sending some of her signature kindness right back at the volunteers. “Thanks for all your great work. It is so, so, so appreciated.” And you knew she really meant it. What a great presenter.
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