Checklist: Advisory Board and Focus Group
- Determine how many members you would like to have.
- Create contact lists for possible focus group/advisory board members.
Professional interests and memberships:
- Professional artists and amateurs who are blind or visually impaired
- Art lovers and museum goers with sight loss
- National organizations of blind people
Different relationships with blindness community:
- Parents/families of blind children
- School educators
- University programs for teachers of visually impaired students; graduate students
- Researchers and university professors
- Recreational counselors
- Ophthalmologists and optometrists
- School administrators, Special Education divisions at the Department of Education, Federal Quota trustees
- Art therapists who work with visually impaired people
- Librarians and Libraries for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
- Possible corporate sponsors
Different age groups:
- Adults and seniors with sight loss
- Veterans with sight loss
- Homebound individuals with sight loss
- Blind students in residential schools for the blind and public schools
- Write letter of introduction.
- Generate mailings: letter of introduction, meeting schedule memo (dates and times), questions to consider for first meeting, thank you letters.
- Schedule meetings.
- Reserve conference room
- Refreshments: coffee, tea, water, snacks, sugar, milk, napkins, cups
- Agendas
- Information packets: including general description of museum, education department mission statement
- Generate minutes for each meeting and send to group members within one week of the meeting.
- Write a brief summary of meeting results to discuss to education department and/or other involved museum staff members.
- Meet with involved museum staff to determine which segments of the community of blind people were strongly represented at the meeting and which were underrepresented, and if your need to "recruit" additional board members. Consider if you have advisors with diverse educational, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds.
- Write thank you letters.
