Carla,

We used to have the same problem at the Museum of Mobile, but in August we implemented a new policy that has had great success.

Ours is a relatively small museum, but we are expanding into a larger facility in a couple of years.  We rely heavily on our docents to lead all tours.  You may want to think about how large your docent corps is and how you use your docents. With our new policy, we have more than doubled our number of participants.

We introduced a "block schedule" where each docent signs up for a 2 hr. time slot per week (10-12 or 1-3 so far).  This has been wonderful!  Docents we hadn't seen in months signed up and come in regularly whether there is a scheduled tour or not.  When there is no tour scheduled, they use this time to lead small groups of tourists or spend time in the galleries brushing up on new exhibits, etc.  The docents really seem happy about this arrangement and it saves me the time and trouble of having to call everyone when I need a docent for a tour.  The number of docent hours has increased dramatically and we have seen a greater participation in our monthly meetings and other docent activities.

Hope this might help you.  Please feel free to contact me further if you have questions.

Anne Guy
Volunteer Coordinator
Museum of Mobile



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