I’ll definitely be taking you up on that, Rik, and it will be great to see you when I do.

I was a big fan of 1st Fans from before it even launched, and enjoyed my time as a member when I lived in Brooklyn immensely. I learned so much about the museum, went to some incredibly unique events, and met lots of cool people. It was a great entry point for me, who was not in a position to become a full member at that time in my life.

All museums around the country share the same concerns and challenges as the BM. So seeing an innovative program like 1st Fans roll up is cause for reflection for many, many museum folk. I appreciate as always your honesty about the challenges and what worked and didn’t work.

Thanks so much Will and Shelly for your energy, creativity and hard work on 1st Fans over the years. The structures and names might change, but the reverberations of the positive energy, ideas and connections you created moves on. Drinks on me when you are next in the Bay Area.

When we started, one of the things Shelley and I talked a lot about was always the balance between the goals and ideas of the group and the implementation of it as a membership level. Because it was so different, in concept, than any other membership (at the Brooklyn Museum, or elsewhere), I felt like it was important, at the time, to keep it separate from the existing program. I can understand, though, how that would become more cumbersome to maintain over several years. And, as a fellow museum employee, I can appreciate the need to balance how the staff spends its limited time. In a Development office, that prioritization of time and resources is (rightly) measured by the amount of funds that are brought in. And 1stfans was never going to bring in millions! But it did bring deep and meaningful engagement with Museum constituents, which is another important goal of Development work.

As a Membership person, I believed in it because it created a channel for acquiring new members from the First Saturday audience. As a Brooklyn Museum employee, I believed it in because it made something inherently inaccessible—membership—accessible, which fell right in line with the Museum’s mission.

1stfans still looks to me, now from the outside, to be the most diverse—in every sense of the word–membership group at any museum in the country. I was proud of that when I was there, and I’m proud of it now. I follow a ton of former and current 1stfans on twitter, and keep a “1stfans” tag in my GoogleReader for several of their blogs. I had a blast with Shelley working with the group, and remain truly grateful that the Museum believed enough in its mission to let us try it.