We just had our Volunteer appreciation night at the end of March, it's a
REALLY big deal for us.  We went all out with a catered dinner and a speaker. 
We have already begun planning next years shindig and have contacted the
speaker we want.  For next year, we have decided it would be nice to give a
small gift, also.

I'm with Jill, almost all of our docents are at the stage of giving things
away,  not collecting more...but they LOVE pins to where on their name badge
or jackets having to do with the collection or the museum.  This is what we
plan on giving.

I have been a volunteer, a docent and I can tell you I loved receiving a
little token of appreciation that had to do with the collection. 

Trish McDougall
National Air and Space Museum


"Jill P. Dixon" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Elizabeth.

We've done several volunteer appreciations (usually in April/May) since I have
been here.

One was a 'Victorian Tea' and we gave away tea items - the door prizes were
decorative tea pots. We also make it a practice to visit something related to
our exhibits/programs but that is off-site (so our volunteers get to be
visitors somewhere). This year we will be  visiting a
house museum, last year we went to a chocolate factory (we had done a very
successful chocolate school program), when we had an apron exhibit our
volunteer coordinator made an apron for each volunteer....

One thing that we have noticed is that with an older population of volunteers,
many of them are at the stage where they are giving AWAY trinkets rather than
wanting more. Ours, at least, seem to appreciate the lunch, the recognition
awards (we have a program so that at a certain #
of hours or at certain 'year' levels, volunteers are awarded at the annual
festivities) and going somewhere new, so we have tried to cut back on actual
things.

If you are interested in more details, let me know! We have a very talented
Volunteer Coordinator and she is always brimming with ideas.

Jill Dixon
SMC Museum

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