Are any of your board members available to take a shift at the museum to
greet visitors?  Sometimes board members are a little bit out of touch with
the day to day reality of operations.
There are some grant sources that require a certain number of open hours --
i.e., CAP and MAP grants require 120 days a year.  Other than that, I think
that if you publicize the hours you are open and fully staffed, it should be
sufficient.  Most small historical societies are open during limited hours,
similar to yours.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Issaquah Historical Society Info" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 3:08 PM
Subject: query about open hours at small museums


> Hi,
>
> I'm the director of a small historical society museum. I am here full-time
> and we have a part-time assistant (20 hours a week) as well as a number of
> volunteer docents (who mostly do not have keys to the buildings). We
operate
> two museums. Currently, one museumis open three days a week, from 11-3
> (Thursday-Saturday). The other is open Sat and Sun, 11-3, with the hope we
> can increase the open hours to Fri-Sun. We are waiting until we have
> sufficient docents to increase open hours any more.
>
> My board is wondering why we cannot have one museum (where my office is
> located) open from Monday through Saturday since the office is staffed the
> whole week. I shudder to think of how I can get anything done if we have
> visitors here all week long. I'm also not thrilled with the idea of being
> stuck in my office and not being able to leave for other functions, etc.
>
> So the point of my e-mail is - how many hours are museums of similar size
> open? What rationales can I offer my board for not increasing open hours
> until we have the volunteers to support that?
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Erica
>
> Erica S. Maniez
> Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society
> [log in to unmask]
>
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