If you have a membership base, I would suggest you consider announcing the offering of tours to members as a part of their benefits package - perhaps offering members only time slots. That way you are getting the word out to important constituents without actually advertising publicly. I can say from personal experience that I always considered behind-the-scenes tours to be a special perk that I enjoyed very much as a member of other museums. Good luck with this adventure! Anne M. Lehmer Director of Annual Fund and Membership The Children's Museum, Seattle 305 Harrison Street Seattle, WA 98109-4695 p: 206.441.1768 x230 f: 206.448.0910 www.thechildrensmuseum.org The Children's Museum, Seattle brings to life the joy of discovery for children and their families through fun, creative, hands-on explorations of the world around them. Adventures with Clifford the Big Red Dog opens September 15, 2006! -----Original Message----- From: Jason Aikens [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 9:56 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Tours in History Museums I'm working on developing a "behind the scenes tour" provided by some of our summer staff. The tour would be on a first come first serve basis, would be free and would be unadvertised. The idea is to offer the tours 3- 4 times a day and the tour would be 30-45 minutes long. Each group would be about 10-15 visitors. The tour would show the visitors some of the "nooks and crannies" of the museum such as our library and archives and would be an added bonus for our visitors. Traditionally we have been a self-guided museum. Some of our staff is concerned that if we don't offer these tours to everyone that some will object if they learn about it after the fact. They also feel uncomfortable with the un-advertised notion of the tour. It is impractical to offer the tour to everyone since there will only be two summer staffers available daily for this project and our attendance can reach a 1000 people a day on the weekends. Does anyone have any experience in starting guided tours? Any pitfalls I should watch out for? Do people get mad if they are not able to participate on a free guided tour? Jason Aikens Collections Curator Pro Football Hall of Fame ========================================================= 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).