Jennifer,

As the only part-time staff member at a small museum, I have been struggling 
with this problem and we are only open 1-2 times a week, depending on the 
season.  We too have an aging docent group. During the school year this is a big 
concern and we are looking to get college students in intern roles for course 
credit as many of them need internships and we cannot afford to pay them 
anything.  During the summer months we have had success recruiting local 
teachers who have actually been more than happy to volunteer once a month.  The 
former director was a school teacher so that helped us with identifying teachers 
who might be willing, but it might not hurt to send out some requests for help 
to local teachers.  Teachers that I do classroom visits to are also more than 
happy that we provide this programming free of charge to them and if they can't 
volunteer as a docent usually have a suggestion for someone who might.  Since I 
am also only part-time, I don't have a lot of time to work on getting docents, 
let alone scheduling and training them so having the teachers help recruit is a 
big help! 


Sara Phalen
Director/Curator
Warrenville Historical Museum & Art Gallery



----- Original Message ----
From: Jennifer Fondren <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, May 9, 2011 12:19:21 PM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Volunteers

We are having difficulties getting volunteers to serve as docents.  We have a 
group of retired volunteers who are aging to the point that they are no longer 
physically capable,  and we have a group of younger (college age) volunteers who 
only want to do special events every once in a while.  We are about 10 miles 
away from the local colleges and universities, so the college students don't 
really seem to want to drive down here very often. I can understand with gas 
prices hovering around $3.80 in our area. 


The present economy in our area (Mobile, AL) seems to have made the problem 
worse.  Now, there are fewer retirees who are available.  Some of our volunteers 
have gone back to work at least part-time and are unavailable when I need them.  
We serve mostly school groups in the 9 am - 1 pm time slot. 


We are a museum in a medium to large sized building with a small sized museum 
staff.  It is just me and my part-time volunteer/tour coordinator in Education.  
We don't have funds for anyone else. 


We had a successful program through which college students were paid to intern 
at the museum.  They served as specially trained docents and worked in other 
museum depts. when we didn't have tours.  This program was funded locally 
through a grant, but the funding is no longer available.  I have thought about 
other grants and even the Americorps program, but am not sure if we are able to 
do something on the scale that they seem to look for.  


My questions to the community are, 

Are your museums having trouble finding docents?
How and where are you finding new volunteers to replace the retiree volunteers 
who are no longer able to volunteer?

Any advice or knowledge of grant opportunities would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Sincerely, 
Jennifer Fondren
Museum of Mobile

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