I'm interested in the same topic regarding sick persons entering the museum as well. In the Hands-On-History Center in the Education Center at Mount Vernon, we keep antibacterial hand sanitizer, tissues, and Clorox or Lysol disinfectant wipes available at all times. I don't feel we can ask them to leave although we would like to. A question I have falls into a similar category - parents feel that our Hands-On-History Center is the ideal place to breastfeed and change diapers. We nicely encourage parents to use the changing tables in the men or women's restrooms and we invite mother's into our first-aid facility or an office to breastfeed for their privacy. Occasionally a parent becomes outraged even though we're trying to assist for their convenience. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, a parent can breastfeed openly if the building stands on property owned by Virginia, but Mount Vernon is not government property. Any suggestions? Thanks, Diana Cordray Education Center Manager/ Special Projects Coordinator George Washington's Estate, Museum & Gardens P.O. Box 110 Mount Vernon, VA 22121 703.799.8602 From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathy DiPhilippo Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 6:56 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Policies for sick patrons Dear fellow listers, I'm wondering if any of you have had encounters with sick people visiting your museum, and if you have a formal policy dealing with this that you would be willing to share? We recently had a quite visibly sick person visit our museum, who stayed for about 45 minutes while coughing, hacking, clearing sinuses, blowing the nose repeatedly, etc., which made everyone in the building quite uncomfortable. We have no written policy to deal with this, so she was not asked to leave, especially since we suspected from the way she was talking to her family (who left and waited outside for her) that she would not have left without making a scene and demanding to see our policy. If you have a similar policy dealing with patrons who appear to be under the influence, we'd love to see that, too. Many thanks! Kathy Kathryn DiPhilippo, director South Portland Historical Society 55 Bug Light Park South Portland, ME 04106 (207) 767-7299 www.sphistory.org<http://www.sphistory.org/> ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 ========================================================= 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).