Who can participate?

All organizations that find benefit in the system and data collection instrument process that COVES is built around are welcome to join!

Currently, COVES has North American science centers, natural history museums, and children’s museums as members. We recognize the importance of having a cohort of similarly focused institutions gathering data through COVES, as the ability to compare data is a valuable aspect of participation. As of December 2018, COVES is not currently supporting organizations such as art or history museums, zoos, aquariums, planetariums, nature centers, or botanical gardens. If you would like to chat with us about pulling together a pilot cohort of similar institutions, or if you would like to be contacted as members expand, please connect with us!

What does COVES cost for participating museums?

The membership structure is based on institutional size (annual operating budget per IMLS standards), which are broken into the following categories:

• Very Small, $1,200 annually (annual budgets below $1 million)
• Small, $2,000 annually (annual budgets between $1 million and $3 million)
• Medium, $5,500 annually (annual budgets between $3 million and $10 million)
• Large, $9,000 annually (budgets of over $10 million)

The cost structure will evolve and change, and eventually drop for each member level, as more museums participate in COVES.

Are there other opportunities for involvement?

If your institution does not meet the above criteria, please contact us about joining COVES as a thinking partner, or to provide feedback on future survey items and instrument development.