Hi,
I just wanted to comment on Erica Maniez's question regarding a docent's
role in a museum.
I deal with two museum formats - one is a new 83,000 sq ft space and science
center, and the other is an observatory in a state park which offers public
programs.
The science center uses volunteers in the capacity of Erica's description
(excluding the gift store - they are not allowed to handle money.) Our
volunteer manager holds extensive and mandatory customer service training
sessions consisting of four two -hour classes, with specialization classes
and in-training lectures throughout the year. They are never called
docents, which generally in museum lingua means someone who is trained over
a (at least) six month period before being let out on the floor. The most
title they are given is "explainer."
In the state park setting, volunteers give the public program and operate
the gift store. Before they are allowed to do this they must take a 12 hour
customer service training through the park's department, then specialize
training (in this case, on the telescope) before they can give a public
program. Again, they are not considered docents, only volunteers.
Volunteers can be a very effective public face for a museum if they are
properly trained. I've seen places where you just have to be enthused to
become a volunteer. You're given a speech about being friendly and helpful,
before being sent out into the fray. It often makes for a confused (and
demoralized) volunteer and a disappointed visitor.
Again, the level of training is what makes a docent a docent vs. a
volunteer. Generally speaking, unless a museum has staff/budget to spend
the time training a corps of docents, well trained volunteers can make a
huge impact on visitor experience.
Denni Medlock
Chabot Space and Science Center
Oakland, CA
-----Original Message-----
From: Issaquah Historical Society Info [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 10:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: docents: do they have to be an authority?
Hi, all,
Last week I posted a query concerning open hours and I wanted to thank
everyone who responded. The information and opinions given were very
helpful.
My question this week is - what role do you feel docents should play in your
museum?
I feel that that the docents should be there to greet guests, point out
features of the exhibits, answer basic questions, handle gift shop purposes,
and provide a public face to the museum. We offer a 4-hour training and give
each docent a handbook that has facility information and FAQ sections on
both museums and the city. We explicitly tell them that they don't need to
know everything, they just need to be enthused and know where to find
information OR be willing to take a name and address so that we can get back
to them with information. We also do retrainings whenever the handbook
changes (about once a year). Now that we have hired a volunteer coordinator,
we're hoping to have more activities for the docents.
Several board members have expressed to me that they think our docents need
to know more about the history of our city in addition to basic knowledge of
the museum (or that we need to find docents who already know a great deal
about the history of our city). They feel that we either need to train them
more or be more selective. The unspoken comment is that we are seeking out a
number of docents from new arrivals in town, people who have not lived here
for more than 3 or 4 years. At a time when we are trying to double our open
hours at two museums, I think that being selective about our docents might
be tough. As far as training them more goes - I'm a little worried about
scaring them off, but willin to train them more as soon as I figure out how
much they really NEED to know to be effective docents.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Erica S. Maniez
Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society
[log in to unmask]
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