Date: July 2nd 2009
I subcribe to this list because I work at a small local house
museum. Our museum is a local institution - almost anyone who visits us
knows that
1. we are housed in a small building; and
2. If a group is bigger than 12 or 14 I will break them up
into smaller groups.
A local kindergarten has visited us for the past couple of
years and it was well established ahead of time that we would be breaking
the students up into groups of 10. The school understood this from the
outset and made sure they brought enough chaperones to accompany each
group. Because we are such a small museum, most of our arrangements are
made via e-mail or telephone, but I have always established before a group
arrives how many people will be in the group and whether or not the group must
be split up because it is too big for everyone to go on tour at the same
time.
But this post mainly got my attention as a parent. I
have two children, now 11 and 14 who have gone on school field trips since
preschool. Almost always, when the field trip permission slip comes home
we also receive a solicitation for parent chaperones. And in that
solicitation the "rules" of the field trip are spelled out, i.e. we need X
amount of chaperones because the museum or site being visited requires one adult
per 8 or 10 or 12 student visitors. In other words, all the schools
I've been involved with always knew what the situation would be before they
arrived at the site. It seems to me that
the groups/schools you are dealing with should have established when they
made their plans what the arrangements would be for "taking the
tour," especially if they feel so strongly about keeping the group
together. You'd think they'd ask questions about this before they even
made an appointment to visit!
As Claudia says, if this is a continuing problem for you,
maybe you need to put your policy in writing and make sure all groups
booking a tour appointments see it ahead of time.
Terry McDermott
Curator
Wilmington Town Museum at the
Col. Joshua Harnden Tavern, c.1770
430 Salem Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
978.658.5475
htavern@town.wilmington.ma.us
http://www.town.wilmington.ma.us/old/hist.htm
The Wilmington Historical Commission can also be reached at the above addresses and phone number.
Wilmington Town Museum at the
Col. Joshua Harnden Tavern, c.1770
430 Salem Street
Wilmington, MA 01887
978.658.5475
htavern@town.wilmington.ma.us
http://www.town.wilmington.ma.us/old/hist.htm
The Wilmington Historical Commission can also be reached at the above addresses and phone number.
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