Tacoma Art Museum Docents Blog TAM Docents Blog: Docent Meeting this morning

Hello Docents,

We had another roundtable discussion over changes to the docent program this morning. A few important items were addressed and some more questions were asked. Please email me if you have any questions or concerns.

1. Please see attached results to the docent questionnaire. Feel free to email or call me if you have any questions. I thought it best to share the concerns that were mentioned in the questionnaire, since many of you might feel the same way.

2. Starting in August all docents shifts will be from 12-4 pm. Please let me if you have questions or concerns. I understand that not every docent can work a four hour shift. If that’s the case we can amend your shift to 12-3 pm.

3. All docents will need to re-sign up for two docent shifts a month. I will email each docent (individually) to discuss the new calendar. I will ask you to pick your new dates in order of seniority.

4. Starting this fall, all docent trainings will be required. You will need to let me know if you cannot make a docent training that is listed on the schedule. Docent training types include, but are not limited to: curator lectures, docent discussions, docent presentations, book discussions, guest speaker and lectures. Docent trainings will be scheduled on Wednesdays only. I might need to schedule a docent training on a Friday from time to time, but I would give you plenty of notice. (Saturday trainings didn’t work – hardly any docents showed up. I can’t manage docent trainings on Third Thursdays, because I have programming to oversee those evenings. We can’t have evening trainings because we aren’t allowed to use the museum after 6 pm; security and visitor services would need to be staffed and we don’t have the resources.) I will try to work more closely with communications to get any and all docent trainings recorded.

5. I will start assigning mentors their mentees next week. By Friday, I will email you the list of possible mentors and all mentees. I will include email addresses for all involved. I will need your pick by next Wednesday morning. I’ll include more information in my email later this week.

6. We will begin having public tours on every Saturday at 1 pm and 3 pm. There will be a sign up procedure for these tours. The tour will be the General Museum Overview tour.

7. I will have a final docent training schedule for the month of August by this Friday and I will email it to you at my earliest opportunity. I’m currently working on some of the Lunch & Learns and cannot confirm a few more dates in September, October, November, and December.

8. Docents at today’s meeting suggested combining the docent program with the school tour educator program. Since this was suggested and more of question than anything else, I’ve created a questionnaire to gage how you all feel about this. Please click on the following link to take the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MHJN9RF

9. I welcome any suggestions for peer-to-peer learning.

Thanks!

Kara Bonavia | TACOMA ART MUSEUM

Public Programs and Volunteer Coordinator

T: 253.272.4258 x 3030

1701 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, Washington 98402