At Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the issue is not filling to
capacity, but rather, long waits in lines from time to time, especially
holidays which can have the lines outside of the building and a lot of angry
people. We have different methods to calm the crowds...
1) when we have the extra staff and volunteers, we have them work the lines,
pulling out members and getting them on their way or selling memberships to
visitors in line who are interested.
2) On the same lines, we try to have people work through and plan the
visitor's visit, i.e., tell them what shows are available, make them aware
of the different ticket packages, help them decide what they have time for,
etc., etc.
3) Education staff will work the lines with portable hands-on activities the
visitors can do themselves and learn different science topics. That's a nice
touch which is probably more on the lines of what you want, something to
occupy them, make them forget they cannot enter the exhibits yet, etc.
4) we have free exhibits in the main lobby that can distract folks but does
not solve any capacity issues, if you are concerned about amount of people
in the building at one time, since they are in there already.

I agree with Keith Hickman in saying
>>>simply
place a sign at the box office saying "We Are Temporarily Filled To
Capacity".  We have found that those in line much prefer to know exactly
what the hold up is.<<<<<
because that is a very tangible, legitimate hold-up, which involves legal
and safety issues. It's best to not make them assume your staff is
inefficient.


Allison Ruppert
Development Assistant, Membership
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 622-3392/telephone
(412) 578-2465/facsimile
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