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  • 1.  When Are Volunteers Visitors?

    Posted 01-29-2016 12:12 PM

    Is there a standard museum practice for when to include Volunteers on-site in the museum's annual attendance figures?

    We track registered program attendance and general ticketed admission as distinct, but include both sectors in annual attendance.  Our Volunteers have not been included as program participants for attendance purposes when they are on-site and acting in a volunteer function. 

    We view our Volunteer program primarily as a community engagement and personal enrichment program and do track their volunteer hours.  We engage about 400 individual volunteers annually. 

    Thank you in advance for your comments and insight.

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    Robert Gutowski
    Director of Education and Visitor Experience
    Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania
    Philadelphia
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  • 2.  RE: When Are Volunteers Visitors?

    Posted 02-01-2016 09:33 AM

    Interesting question. We do not count volunteers in attendance records, but like you, track their hours and numbers (about 400 during any given year with 30,000+ hours contributed). Although volunteers are welcome to visit the museum outside of their volunteer time, I suspect that most do not make a special trip in but would take time before or after their shift to "visit" - for example, to explore a new exhibit. If they were to take a special trip in to the museum just to visit, they would get free admission by showing their Volunteer ID badge to the guard at the gate, and there would be no way for the guard to know if they were coming to do their volunteer job or just for fun. Obviously they would only be coming during public hours for a visit to the museum. I suspect that very few would make a special trip to visit the museum unless they were coming with family or friends.

    It seems odd to count volunteers as museum visitors, just as it would be odd to count employees as visitors. If a volunteer were to sign up to participate in a special program or event, then that is a different matter.

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    Lois Kuter
    Manager of Volunteer Services
    Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
    Philadelphia PA

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: When Are Volunteers Visitors?

    Posted 02-02-2016 09:23 AM

    When our Volunteers check in on arrival, they are asked to inform our Admissions staff if they are here as a volunteer or as a guest. Their entry is recorded into the database, Altru, accordingly. I think I am safe in saying that all of our Volunteers come to visit, outside of volunteering, with family, friends and to participate in workshops and performances. 

    We track Volunteer hours in a separate database, Volgistics.  

    Nancy 

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    Nancy Schomburg
    Manager, Volunteer Services
    Grounds for Sculpture
    Hamilton NJ

    Original Message