Hi!  We have this same issue.  We have light beams at each door which, like
your clickers, count staff and visitors.  They also count people leaving as
well as arriving.  In order to estimate the number of actual visitors each
day, we do a turnstile count once or twice a year.  As people enter the
building, we ask them where they are headed (exhibits, cafe, library,
stores, meetings, etc) or to identify themselves as staff.  Once an hour, we
record both the turnstile count and the light beam count.  Using those
counts, we are able to estimate an equation which we can use the rest of the
year to take the light beam count and convert it into the number of
visitors.  If you want any more information, please let me know!

Andrea Cutting
audience research specialist
Minnesota Historical Society
(651) 297-3341
[log in to unmask]

> ----------
> From:         [log in to unmask]
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Tuesday, August 3, 1999 4:00 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Counting visitors
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions, or proven models, on how to get an
> accurate attendance count in a museum where the entrances cannot be
> accurately monitored for visitors? We have staff at our entrances who
> "click" every person who enters (when they are at their station), not
> distinguishing staff from actual visitors. Any thoughts would be most
> welcome - feel free to reply off-list, unless there are others who are
> interested in this issue.
>
> mmcarr
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed
> information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail
> message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should
> read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
> [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).