The question of whether volunteers/docents should be required to become a museum Member often comes up among volunteer service managers. And the response is mixed. Some feel that this is an important show of support from a volunteer, and a step perhaps to their becoming a larger scale donor. Many - from museums of all sizes - feel that volunteers are already contributing their valuable time, so asking them to pay for a Membership is not a good thing. In many cases a free Membership is given to volunteers as a reward for a certain level of commitment.
For those of us in larger cities who do not have a parking lot or the budget to offset transportation costs, the expense of just getting to our museum can be significant for a volunteer. Even taking the least expensive public transportation can present a significant challenge for many volunteers - high school and college students, or recent grads and adults out of work who seek volunteer experience to build their resume. Seniors who might not be able to physically manage public transportation as well as those who do not live near a public transit route are forced to pay huge parking lot fees each time them come to volunteer.
I agree with Kenneth Fenner that museums should seek as many ways as possible to give volunteers a break. For small museums especially which have little or no budget, this is particularly important in showing support for volunteers. Offering free admission to events and giving volunteers free passes for friends or family to visit a museum does not cost anything. Little things like that can be important in building volunteer commitment - maybe even cultivating a future donor. For museums of any size, insuring that people with no or low incomes are not automatically eliminated from joining the volunteer team is good practice. Just as it is to insure that visitors of all backgrounds are enabled to visit.
Lois Kuter
Manager, Volunteer Services
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
President, American Association for Museum Volunteers
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Lois Kuter
Manager of Volunteer Services
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Philadelphia PA
Original Message:
Sent: 10-29-2015 12:16 PM
From: Kenneth Fenner
Subject: fees for museum volunteers
At the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque NM we do not require volunteers and docent museum guides to pay any fees. Many of us are members of the Foundation that does have an annual fee, but nothing is required. Our more pressing question is what can we give to these Docent guides rather than what we can charge them. This appears to be common to many other smaller museums we've talked to.
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Kenneth Fenner
DOCENT
Albuquerque NM
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