Open Forum

What type of tours are offered for groups visiting your museum? Guided? Independent? Do guided tours have to be pre-scheduled or are they offered daily at set times?  Are guided group tours free, included with admission or an additional charge?  Any and all details that you are willing to share are welcome.  

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Beth Erikson
Museum Educator | Nature Lab
The State Museum of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
300 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0024
Phone: 717.705.7312 | Fax: 717.783.4558
merikson@pa.gov
www.statemuseumpa.org
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We offer a customizable group experience.  Guided tours of 45-50 minutes are available led by pt. time Lead Educator staff.  Tours are offered in Galleries or Gardens, group leaders can chose one or both.  If they are not interested in a guided experience, they can self-guide.  It's split on the number having guided vs. self guided. We also offer a $2.00 ticket discount for groups booking ahead, and 2 complimentary admissions.  The incentive to book ahead provides a streamlined entry, personal attention, and experience. Guided tours are not offered for large drop in groups or during free admission days.

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Deborah Price
Guest Services & Volunteer Manager
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
Winchester VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-01-2020 08:19 AM
From: Beth Erikson
Subject: Group Tours

What type of tours are offered for groups visiting your museum? Guided? Independent? Do guided tours have to be pre-scheduled or are they offered daily at set times?  Are guided group tours free, included with admission or an additional charge?  Any and all details that you are willing to share are welcome.  

------------------------------
Beth Erikson
Museum Educator | Nature Lab
The State Museum of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
300 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0024
Phone: 717.705.7312 | Fax: 717.783.4558
merikson@pa.gov
www.statemuseumpa.org
------------------------------

Guided tours are offered during hours we are open to the public.  Except for those groups scheduling ahead and full payment in advance, groups are not offered guided tours on free days. If a group has additional numbers, they can pay for them with check, cash or credit card through iPad, that I take care of. Group leaders are always happy with this feature, especially if they have late sign up's for a trip.  Our group tour numbers/revenue are not recorded at the admission desk point of sale.

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Deborah Price
Guest Services & Volunteer Manager
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
Winchester VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-02-2020 12:14 PM
From: Deborah Price
Subject: Group Tours

We offer a customizable group experience.  Guided tours of 45-50 minutes are available led by pt. time Lead Educator staff.  Tours are offered in Galleries or Gardens, group leaders can chose one or both.  If they are not interested in a guided experience, they can self-guide.  It's split on the number having guided vs. self guided. We also offer a $2.00 ticket discount for groups booking ahead, and 2 complimentary admissions.  The incentive to book ahead provides a streamlined entry, personal attention, and experience. Guided tours are not offered for large drop in groups or during free admission days.

------------------------------
Deborah Price
Guest Services & Volunteer Manager
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
Winchester VA

Original Message:
Sent: 04-01-2020 08:19 AM
From: Beth Erikson
Subject: Group Tours

What type of tours are offered for groups visiting your museum? Guided? Independent? Do guided tours have to be pre-scheduled or are they offered daily at set times?  Are guided group tours free, included with admission or an additional charge?  Any and all details that you are willing to share are welcome.  

------------------------------
Beth Erikson
Museum Educator | Nature Lab
The State Museum of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
300 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0024
Phone: 717.705.7312 | Fax: 717.783.4558
merikson@pa.gov
www.statemuseumpa.org
------------------------------

Pre-COVID-19, we offered a weekly guided tour with a docent that is inquiry- and dialogue-based and lasts about 40 minutes. The docent generally remains in the gallery afterwards to continue conversations and answer questions. We also request that groups of 10+ let us know in advance of their visit through a form on our website. By doing so they can request a Guided Group Visit or Self-Guided Group Visit depending on their interest. For Guided Group Visits we assign a museum educator, docent or Education staff to facilitate. Of course, not all groups give us advance notice that they are coming and we do our best to accommodate.

We offer free admission and do not charge for Guided Group Visits.


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Julie Delliquanti
Visitor Services Manager
UCI Institute and Museum of California Art
Irvine CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-02-2020 12:14 PM
From: Deborah Price
Subject: Group Tours

We offer a customizable group experience.  Guided tours of 45-50 minutes are available led by pt. time Lead Educator staff.  Tours are offered in Galleries or Gardens, group leaders can chose one or both.  If they are not interested in a guided experience, they can self-guide.  It's split on the number having guided vs. self guided. We also offer a $2.00 ticket discount for groups booking ahead, and 2 complimentary admissions.  The incentive to book ahead provides a streamlined entry, personal attention, and experience. Guided tours are not offered for large drop in groups or during free admission days.

------------------------------
Deborah Price
Guest Services & Volunteer Manager
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
Winchester VA

Original Message:
Sent: 04-01-2020 08:19 AM
From: Beth Erikson
Subject: Group Tours

What type of tours are offered for groups visiting your museum? Guided? Independent? Do guided tours have to be pre-scheduled or are they offered daily at set times?  Are guided group tours free, included with admission or an additional charge?  Any and all details that you are willing to share are welcome.  

------------------------------
Beth Erikson
Museum Educator | Nature Lab
The State Museum of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
300 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0024
Phone: 717.705.7312 | Fax: 717.783.4558
merikson@pa.gov
www.statemuseumpa.org
------------------------------

We offer a variety of tours at The Museum of Flight.

Public Tours - These happen every 30 minutes (ish) from 10:30 AM - 4:00 PMand depart from our lobby. They are advertised as free, half-hour, Docent-led tours, but Docents are empowered to keep the tour past the 30-minutes if the group is really engaged and wants to keep going. We have an electronic sign in the lobby where the tour titles are displayed. I update the sign twice a day with the tour titles. Docents create their own tours and let me know the title.

Private Tours for Groups - These are scheduled ahead of time. Our Group Sales/Private Events folks take the reservations and feed the information to me, which I then assign Docents to. These are free of charge to groups if they book more than 2 weeks out, but if they book within 2 weeks there is a $2/person charge. We do not allow school groups to book private tours (see below).

Private Tours for Private Events - Admission is included in a Private Events group's fee, and if they want to add a tour it is an additional $2/person charge. Same as above, this goes through Private Events dept.

Education Tours - These are one-hour Docent-guided tours for upper-Middle/High School students. We attempt to discern what the teacher's purpose for bringing their class is and build a tour that fits what the students have been learning in class (ex. if they're learning about World War II, focusing on our World War II stories). We also have self-guided explorations for Middle and Elementary School-aged kids that aren't tours, but get them going throughout the galleries. This is on top of the two dozen or so other group field trip options we have for schools, these are just the 'tour' type trips.

Add-on Tours - We have two tours that are available seasonally for additional fees, a tour of our Space Shuttle Full Fuselage Trainer Crew Compartment and a bus tour on the field of the local airport. Both are led by volunteers, with staff as backup when volunteers aren't available. The tours are about $20, with a discount for members.


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Sean Mobley
Docent Services Specialist
Museum of Flight
Seattle WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-01-2020 08:19 AM
From: Beth Erikson
Subject: Group Tours

What type of tours are offered for groups visiting your museum? Guided? Independent? Do guided tours have to be pre-scheduled or are they offered daily at set times?  Are guided group tours free, included with admission or an additional charge?  Any and all details that you are willing to share are welcome.  

------------------------------
Beth Erikson
Museum Educator | Nature Lab
The State Museum of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
300 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0024
Phone: 717.705.7312 | Fax: 717.783.4558
merikson@pa.gov
www.statemuseumpa.org
------------------------------