Deborah Fuller, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Facilitator

(No record of the participants sitting at this table)

I. Who has organization with rules or codified regulations?

• Seven of the eight participants in the discussion belong to organizations that have rules or codified regulations.
• The group recommended that Docent organizations should have written bylaws that stipulate what the members will and will not do, as well as how infractions will be handled.
• Docents should participate in creating these documents.
• An annual recommitment letter or form should be signed by the Docents.
• It was agreed that the penalty for not meeting touring commitments should be not being scheduled for tours or ejection from the Docent body.
• The group felt that the idea of “earned vacation time” determined by service was a good one.

II. Implementation.

• Many of the participants’ organizations use the Volgistics web based software to log in from home to check schedules, updates etc.
• They also used this system to record time donated to their organizations.
• This helped generate more grant money for their museums.
• It is quite inexpensive and works very well.

III. Recognition stratagems.

• Common recognitions are pins, dinners, teas.
• Reduced prices in museum shops paid for by the museum.
• Also, there are many Docent groups who pay for their own dinners or luncheons.