LHS membership: is it worth it?

I’m a big fan of the Lawrence Hall of Science, and science museums in general, but is the price of membership really worth it? I wanted to evaluate what’s included and excluded in the membership dues and compare it to how many times my family would need to attend to break even.

Perks of membership:

• Admission for one year
• Discounts and priority registration for LHS classes, workshops and camps
• Invitations to members-only openings and family events
• 10% Discount at the LHS Discovery Store
• Discounts on LHS children’s birthday parties
• Free or reduced admission to more than 300 ASTC science centers and museums worldwide! (reciprocal membership is one of my favorite reasons for joining a museum)

At the basic level, you get all of the above perks. For some reason, we got the “family plus” membership (so we could bring along visiting grandparents), so our membership includes a few more goodies:

• Up to four personalized member cards
• Two additional guests anytime
• Two one-day parking passes
• Four LHS Planetarium passes
• Free or reduced admission to over 130 children’s museums through the Association of Children’s Museums Reciprocal Network! (the upgraded membership gives FREE admission to the Bay Area Discovery Museum)
  ($97 of this is tax-deductible)

What membership doesn’t get you:

• Free classes, camps, parties, workshops
• Free parking all the time

The break-even point:

Regular admission costs $12.00 Adults (ages 19–61), $9.00 Student/Senior/Disabled (ages 7–18; 62 plus), and $6.00 Children (ages 3-6; children under 3 are admitted FREE). Our fancy membership cost $125. We would need to visit the museum somewhere between 3 and 4 times in a year (excluding parking).

When it’s not worth it:

Membership might not be a great idea if you have a best friend with fancy membership since they can invite guests for free. Other times when you might want to skip it: you have a young toddler (who’s already FREE), you have a membership to another reciprocal museum, or you’re just not that into awesome science.

[Photos by me; rate information updated 12/1/12]