Although im usually in the minority, our historic site allows a Haunted House annually.It has drawn a tremndous amount of individuals who normally do not come to our site for whatever reason. As for not being a museum standard per se or associated with museum etal, I disagree. Many Historical Sight s have ghosts and the beyond associated with them.(ours has nine). As for being within your mission, well most have a goal in mind and thats to get people to their site, so with crafty wording one can make it part of the mission very easily( and just as easily not). We do require the group to hold liability insurance, however we have the same. This has been a wondeful attraction to us and a service to the community. Yes it may be offensive or not appropriate for some folks esp the younger, but all Hallows is a feast and celebration work it in . I say be crafty.( ok now hammer my grammer again) I'll be waiting. ----- Original Message ----- From: Santa Fe Trail Center To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 2:38 PM Subject: haunted house Our staff has been approached by a local organization which wants to run a haunted house on the museum's grounds, NOT in the museum proper. I have been asked to see what others in the museum field are doing about non-standard use of the facilities. None of the activities will take place in historic structures and, at this time, we are not considering details such as insurance. What we would like to know is, do other sites allow the use of their grounds like this? What happens when items such as "tombstones" are left on the lawn for a week? Does the idea of scaring children conflict with our mission as an educational facility? We would get lots a free publicity and, hopefully, lots of people to the museum that might not otherwise come. BUT, this is not what a museum stands for (the organization has already rejected our suggestion of a historical themed fun festival). Even though this would not be our event, we would be connected with it. Of course, this all has to go through our Board of Directors but we on the staff would like to have some idea of what we think is appropriate. Thank you in advance. Sincerely, Betsy Crawford-Gore, Curator Santa Fe Trail Center Larned, Kansas ========================================================= 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).