Hi, I just wanted to comment on Erica Maniez's question regarding a docent's role in a museum. I deal with two museum formats - one is a new 83,000 sq ft space and science center, and the other is an observatory in a state park which offers public programs. The science center uses volunteers in the capacity of Erica's description (excluding the gift store - they are not allowed to handle money.) Our volunteer manager holds extensive and mandatory customer service training sessions consisting of four two -hour classes, with specialization classes and in-training lectures throughout the year. They are never called docents, which generally in museum lingua means someone who is trained over a (at least) six month period before being let out on the floor. The most title they are given is "explainer." In the state park setting, volunteers give the public program and operate the gift store. Before they are allowed to do this they must take a 12 hour customer service training through the park's department, then specialize training (in this case, on the telescope) before they can give a public program. Again, they are not considered docents, only volunteers. Volunteers can be a very effective public face for a museum if they are properly trained. I've seen places where you just have to be enthused to become a volunteer. You're given a speech about being friendly and helpful, before being sent out into the fray. It often makes for a confused (and demoralized) volunteer and a disappointed visitor. Again, the level of training is what makes a docent a docent vs. a volunteer. Generally speaking, unless a museum has staff/budget to spend the time training a corps of docents, well trained volunteers can make a huge impact on visitor experience. Denni Medlock Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland, CA -----Original Message----- From: Issaquah Historical Society Info [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2001 10:01 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: docents: do they have to be an authority? Hi, all, Last week I posted a query concerning open hours and I wanted to thank everyone who responded. The information and opinions given were very helpful. My question this week is - what role do you feel docents should play in your museum? I feel that that the docents should be there to greet guests, point out features of the exhibits, answer basic questions, handle gift shop purposes, and provide a public face to the museum. We offer a 4-hour training and give each docent a handbook that has facility information and FAQ sections on both museums and the city. We explicitly tell them that they don't need to know everything, they just need to be enthused and know where to find information OR be willing to take a name and address so that we can get back to them with information. We also do retrainings whenever the handbook changes (about once a year). Now that we have hired a volunteer coordinator, we're hoping to have more activities for the docents. Several board members have expressed to me that they think our docents need to know more about the history of our city in addition to basic knowledge of the museum (or that we need to find docents who already know a great deal about the history of our city). They feel that we either need to train them more or be more selective. The unspoken comment is that we are seeking out a number of docents from new arrivals in town, people who have not lived here for more than 3 or 4 years. At a time when we are trying to double our open hours at two museums, I think that being selective about our docents might be tough. As far as training them more goes - I'm a little worried about scaring them off, but willin to train them more as soon as I figure out how much they really NEED to know to be effective docents. Thoughts? Opinions? 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).