Are any of your board members available to take a shift at the museum to greet visitors? Sometimes board members are a little bit out of touch with the day to day reality of operations. There are some grant sources that require a certain number of open hours -- i.e., CAP and MAP grants require 120 days a year. Other than that, I think that if you publicize the hours you are open and fully staffed, it should be sufficient. Most small historical societies are open during limited hours, similar to yours. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Issaquah Historical Society Info" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 3:08 PM Subject: query about open hours at small museums > Hi, > > I'm the director of a small historical society museum. I am here full-time > and we have a part-time assistant (20 hours a week) as well as a number of > volunteer docents (who mostly do not have keys to the buildings). We operate > two museums. Currently, one museumis open three days a week, from 11-3 > (Thursday-Saturday). The other is open Sat and Sun, 11-3, with the hope we > can increase the open hours to Fri-Sun. We are waiting until we have > sufficient docents to increase open hours any more. > > My board is wondering why we cannot have one museum (where my office is > located) open from Monday through Saturday since the office is staffed the > whole week. I shudder to think of how I can get anything done if we have > visitors here all week long. I'm also not thrilled with the idea of being > stuck in my office and not being able to leave for other functions, etc. > > So the point of my e-mail is - how many hours are museums of similar size > open? What rationales can I offer my board for not increasing open hours > until we have the volunteers to support that? > > Thanks for your help, > Erica > > Erica S. Maniez > Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society > [log in to unmask] > > ========================================================= > Important Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . 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://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . 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).