I think it is generally considered unethical for museum staff to accept personal benefit from doing your job, especially if you are paid a salary. In the example of giving tours it may seem a little heavy handed, but curators could really get in trouble when dealing with donors and collectors if they recieved some sort of personal remuneration for their work with collections. And you need one rule for all staff and volunteers.

My rule of thumb when dealing with tips, honoraria, stipends, etc for me and my staff at a couple of institutions is that if you are "on the clock" the money belongs to the museum. If you are not claiming the time on a time sheet, the money is yours. There is also some consideration of whether the extra cash was earned for doing a task that is part of your regular job or not.

Back in my (paid) docent/tour guide days I recieved infrequent tips from patrons. I almost always put it into the donation box, and always out of the tippers sight.  To do so in front of them might hurt their feelings. Once two of us were on duty and a wealthy Board Member tipped us both $20 and promptly left. We figured a) He had already given thousands to the museum so whats $40 more or less and b) If he were to tell anyone associated with the museum (which we doubted) he would tell them we kept it whether we put it into the donation box or not and who would believe a couple of punk, part time docents over a wealthy patron? So we bought ourselves a nice lunch with it. I am not sure it was ethical but we were poor graduate students at the time. We reported what we did to the Director and Ass't Director and they were fine with it.

We also encouraged tippers to leave good comments about us in our comment book, write letters of support to the museum or to their elected representatives. Good reviews are more valuable than a few dollars anyday.

Another solution is to put the money into some sort of "social" or "party" fund for the floor staff to pay for an end of school season party or an appliance for the lounge.  This would allow the floor staff to benefit from a job well done without crossing any ethical gray areas.

Sorry for the rambling thoughts.

Have a good day,

Matt White



-----Original Message-----
>From: Cyndi <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: May 2, 2006 10:39 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Tipping after a tour
>
>A tip is a personal gesture of the patron's appreciation of your work.  I think it is discourteous not to accept the gesture.  If you feel uncomfortable keeping the tip wait until the patron leaves, then put the tip into a donation jar.  My feeling is the patron may have already put money in the donation jar, so putting into the jar with the person standing there is a little rude.
>  C. Miles
>
>Pamela Silvestri <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
>      There have been several times when visitors to our museum have given me a tip, rather than or in addition to placing money in our donation jar. It's easy enough for me to tell them that I cannot accept a tip and that I appreciate the gesture.
>   
>  Sometimes it's a little more difficult - a few days ago a visitor placed a $20 in my hand said, "this is for you." I immediately placed it in the donation jar, and gave him a few patches and a decal (that are free with a donation).
>   
>  Should I have waiting until after he left before putting the money in the donation jar? I didn't even consider keeping it for myself - should I have? How do you handle tipping?
>   
>  Pam
>   
>   
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