· We currently have Thirty two active docents, and four docents are on an extended leave of absence.
· They volunteer on average 56 hours in a week. This does not include continuing education sessions—or extra hours spent on independent projects like the room book audit
All of the active Rosenbach docents have successfully completed their evaluations. This included a short written exam, attending at least three continuing education sessions, and finally having their tour followed.
Areas in particular we were paying attention to during the tour evaluations:
Accurate information, enthusiasm and clarity, security and conservation, mentioning other museum efforts such as programs, and the library
This is what we found:
· Our strengths:
Terrific engagement--eye contact and body language, strong story tellers, great love and enthusiasm for the brother’s biography, explaining the economics of the brothers business and financial success, inviting the public to visit the reading room by appointment, our signature programs and HOTs, defining rarity in the library, interactive questioning
· Areas for improvement:
Slowing down, things are beautiful/important, assuming a certain level of knowledge about collections, key cards and lights (about 35% still struggle with these), mentioning exhibitions
· How the education department and Docent Council plan to address these areas:
More continuing education session on touring techniques (Emilie has already led one of these sessions), schedule walk through for all new exhibitions, Docent council efforts: Room books, Library shelf guide
Since the re-configuring of our museum hours we have more overlap in docent shifts and there has been a bit of grumbling about too much down time. I am considering changing the shift schedule to match our busy hours.
· We are currently at capacity with docents and will not run training in the fall.
This report was presented at the staff meeting on April 11, 2011
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