We are open Monday mornings when our neighbor down the street, the  
Bradbury Science Museum, is closed. Monday is generally our busiest  
day of the week.

Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society
http://www.losalamoshistory.org
[log in to unmask]
PO Box 43
1050 Bathtub Row (Note: same location, new address)
Los Alamos, NM 87544
505-662-6272 (office)
505-470-2912 (cell)

Quoting David Lewias <[log in to unmask]>:

>
>  We've always done precisely what Carol suggested -- we limit our   
> "walk in hours" in favor of more scheduled hours.  My executive   
> director likes to refer to us as a seven-day-a-week -- 24 hour a day  
>  -- operation (which has me roll my eyes but it's not too far from   
> the truth!)
>
> We are a small operation (two full-time and a handful of   
> volunteers).  We are open for walk-in visitors Thurs, Fri. and Sat   
> from 1 to 4pm.   All groups (ten or more) are scheduled at other   
> times by appointment.   Because many of these are local scout groups  
>  we're often at the museum doing tours/programs at 6, and 7pm.  Our   
> only somewhat hard-n-fast rule is no tours or programs on Monday's.   
> -- which is the rather traditional "closed" day around here for   
> museums and attractions so it doesn't seem to cause too much ruckus.
>
>
>
> - David -
> David Lewis, Curator
> Aurora Regional Fire Museum
> www.AuroraRegionalFireMuseum.org
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carol Ely <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tue, Dec 1, 2009 12:14 pm
> Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Question on Operating Hours
>
>
> I've asked this question a lot, too (we're a historic house
> museum/site). My proposed solution, which we have not yet implemented,
> is to decrease the hours that we're open for random walk-in visitors by
> closing on one or more days each week especially in the winter (right
> now we're open 7 days a week year-round), and use that staff and
> volunteer time for specific programs that happen in "after-hours" time
> slots. It seems to me that this would be more efficient and effective.
> Barriers: if we close certain days, it looks like we're offering less to
> the public not more ("but we've always been open 7 days!"); volunteers
> not wanting to work evenings and weekends (to which I say, this will
> attract different volunteers), and a the chicken/egg question of public
> demand - people don't expect this to be an option, so they don't plan to
> visit our site at, say, 7 pm on a summer Wednesday. And out-of-town
> visitors who come by on a Monday afternoon in February expecting us to
> be there are going to be upset if we are closed.
>
> So we are still examining these options.
>
> And on the other question, our attendance was up in 2008-09, mainly
> because we did offer new programs in addition to everything else we were
> doing. However, 2009-10 (our year starts in July) is down slightly so
> far. But we have major things happening this Spring, so we hope for
> better.
>
> Carol Ely
> Historic Locust Grove
> Louisville
>
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