Subject: naming opportunities

The Canadian War Museum has in the past recieved large donations of money,
two of these donations were recognized by having something named after the
donors, and yes the is a "concrete" acknowledgement of their donations. The
first donation resulted in the courtyard in front of our museum being
renamed and a granite stone plaque was set in the yard, this also resulted
in an addition to our mailing address. The second large donation was for our
library, the library was renamed and a plaque placed on the wall
commemorating this donation. In the case of the library it was originally in
the museum building when the donation and renaming took place. The library
has since been moved to our collections storage facility (in order to
increase our exhibition space), but the name remains and the plaque was
re-installed at its new location. We have plans to move to a brand new
facility in (hopefully 2004), the library name will move, but I do not know
about about the courtyard address.

Another thing we have done is with sponsers of exhibits, is that we have had
acknowledgement panels, usually at the end of the exhibit, to list sponsers
and donors. The one exception (and I think there is only one) is for the
Fire Boss company. We have a diorama for the gulf war and the oil fires in
Kuwait, the Fire Boss company gave us a video of the fires of Kuwait being
put out, equipment, and money, the display has an acknowledgement in the
form of a business card for the company mounted under the text.

Carol Reid
[log in to unmask]
www.warmuseum.ca

From: Georganne Sisco <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: January 12, 2001 06:10
Subject: Re: More on Naming Opportunities


Thanks for the lengthy response. Perhaps I need to clarify the original
query. The museum has a development staff, a non-profit friends group
and an endowment. We are currently beginning our second capital
campaign. We are specifically interested in finding out how other
historic sites have dealt with the issue of naming galleries, rooms,
parts of their grounds, etc. as recognition for significant gifts.
Essentially, do you put a company name on a gallery wall in a historic
structure?
Thanks in advance for all advice you can pass along. You can respond to
my address or you can e-mail my director directly at this address:
[log in to unmask]

Thank you.

subject: behind the scenes tours

Originally we (the regular staff of the Canadian War Museum) were doing
collections tours, each tour lasting at least 2 hours. Over time we found
that this was taking collections staff away from their regular duties. (this
is a problem when you only have 32 employees, counting secretarial staff).

Our Friends of the Museum came to our rescue. The Friends have been offering
guided tours of the exhibit galleries for a number of years, the tours are
conducted by either veterans of the military or by interested persons - all
on a volunteer basis. Our volunteer guides (as they are know) all have to
participate each year in training/referesher sessions given by our education
staff with additional lectures by various appropriate museum staff. They are
refreshers on canadian military history, the permanent exhibits, the current
temporary exhibits, and any upcoming temporary exhibits for the year. They
also do their own research and reading. The requests for tours are filtered
through the secretarial staff to the Friends volunteer guide co-ordinator.

A couple of the guides expressed interest in giving tours of our warehouse
facility, or at least tours of the vehicle and artillery collection (which
is what many people requesting tours of the warehouse want to see). Now they
conduct almost all the tours for the warehouse. These tours are handled in
the same manner as those for the museum galleries - people write, e-mail or
call in, the request is sent to a coordinator, who contacts the head of
collections for the warehouse to confirm the tours of the warehouse (this
ensures that tours are not given on days when heavy Tanks are being shifted
in the warehouse or when military vehicles are being delivered to the
building). and vice versa when we get a request we send it off to the guide
coordinator.

We do make seperate arrangements for tours of our art collection, on I
believe a monthly base, and they are given by the curator of war art. And
occassionally there are specifically requested tours of the other sensative
and secure collections - uniforms, medals and weapons etc. When there is a
tour of all of these areas, the group is usually conducted by trained
Volunteer guides, to each of the collections, where the head of that
particular collection will be on hand to talk. As most of our requested
tours are usually for the vehicle collection this arrangement has freed the
collections staff to carry out their regular duties, and it has given our
volunteer guides a greater feeling of belonging and of doing something
usefull and important for the museum.

I hope that this has been of some usefull information. In many ways we could
not function with the Friends of the Museum or our Volunteers.

Carol Reid
[log in to unmask]
www.warmuseum.ca

Date:    Fri, 12 Jan 2001 14:27:47 -0600
From:    Dawn Scher Thomae <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: behind-the-scenes tours

This question is really directed toward medium-sized and larger
institutions.

Our museum is offering an increasing number of behind-the-scenes tours
as prizes at auctions, for higher-level donors, new employee
orientation, to cater to future facility rental clients, visiting
dignitaries, etc.  Most of these tours last from one to two hours.
There are currently two curators being asked to do these tours quite
regularly.  I would like to propose to administration that a small group
of long-term volunteers, maybe five, be trained to lead these tours to
each department and then the staff in that department would give a five
or ten minute introduction to that area. All requests would be filtered
through the volunteer office and scheduled just like a docent-led tour
in the exhibit halls.  (I know there are a few volunteers who would love
the opportunity to lead special tours to the upper floors).

What I would like to ask is this: Who does them in your
museum/institution and how is it coordinated?  Any additional comments
or suggestions on this topic appreciated.

Dawn Scher Thomae
Milwaukee Public Museum

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