I think it is perfectly fair to not allow free group tours on free days.

  Your policy can reflect that all tours regardless of date will be
charged X amount per person due to the extra staff requirements and
expense to the museum. Quality educational programming is expensive,
field trip fees help cover those expenses and allow you to sustain
your programming. We provide a reduced rate to school/educational
groups and they are quite content with that.

   A tour is an additional service provided by the museum and goes
above and beyond the standard "free" museum admission. If the group
doesn't want a tour, but just wants to come to the museum, it's handy
to have a written policy that expresses all groups of X number or more
must be scheduled ahead of time. Like most places you can have
blackout dates which include those free days. This reduces crowding
and competition amongst groups for a "free" time-slot.

Just my thoughts,

Andy Cougill
Grissom Air Museum
Peru, Indiana

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Liz N.
> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 12:30 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Free Nights at Museum
>
> Hello. This question goes out to all of you but I am especially
> interested
> in hearing from smaller museums. If you offer a free night, do you allow
>
> organized groups to schedule field trips during that admission-free
> time?
> Our educator posed the question, but we did not get a lot of responses
> and
> this has become a real dilemma for us. If you allow groups to come, do
> you
> have limit in terms of number of kids or number of groups. Finally, if
> you
> do not allow groups to schedule trips during your free times, what
> explaination do you provide? Thanks.
>
> Liz Nohra
> Children's Museum of the Valley
> Youngstown Ohio
>
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