The HRC thanks Marcie Charest for serving as guest author for the following entry. Marcie has worked in the education field for fifteen years, including the past eight years in museum education. Marcie is currently Director of Interpretation at the Stanley-Whitman House and Manager of School & Family Programs at the Hill-Stead Museum, both in Farmington, CT. Previously she worked as a classroom teacher and as head of education programs at the Lutz Children's Museum. Marcie is a board member of The Connecticut League of History Organizations and is co-chair of their publications and fundraising committees.

In the New England Museum Association's Winter 2010 NEMA News, Tara Young, Independent Museum Education Consultant, addresses the age-old question of using volunteer docents versus paid interpreters ("Volunteer Docents vs. Paid Interpreters: Which is Right for Your Museum?" pp.5). This is a question that museums both large and small struggle with and one that has become more relevant to many institutions in today's hard economic times. In her article, Young covers the pros and cons of both options--from training costs to staff salaries to last minute cancellations and varied educational backgrounds.

This same question, whether to use volunteers or paid interpreters, has been posed to me time and time again over the years. My answer, and Young's, is that there is no right answer, silver bullet, or formula, that works for every institution. Instead, you need to know your own institution and its culture to best determine the direction that is right for you--including a possible blend of both volunteers and paid interpreters.

I currently work for two museums and each uses volunteer docents and paid interpreters in very different ways. At the Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington, an 18th-century historic house museum, volunteer docents lead house tours for the public on weekends and at special events while the museum's paid-staff gives tours on weekdays when visitation is lower. Paid interpreters (in our case educators) lead programs for school groups. Volunteer docents at the Stanley-Whitman House need to have a strong love of history, architecture or the 18th-century and be a "people person" who is comfortable giving tours for whomever may walk through the door--but do not need a history degree or any specific type of educational background.

Our paid interpreters/educators need to possess all of these same qualities in addition to demonstrating that they have concrete experience working with children of different age levels. To date, none of our volunteer docents has ever asked to be considered for a paid interpreter/educator position and none of our paid interpreters/educators has offered to give tours for free. This echoes the article where Young describes that most docents volunteer for personal enrichment while paid interpreters are not only looking for enrichment but also the added benefit of paid employment.

Our reasons for using both groups mirror those outlined by Young in the hybrid model in her article. Similarly, the shortcomings we experience with our volunteer docents and paid interpreters at the Stanley-Whitman House are also those highlighted by Young.  While our small group of docents are very dedicated, we have far more cancellations from them and challenges with scheduling them than with our paid interpreters.

At the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, an early 20th-century historic house with an extensive art collection, all of the guides that lead tours for the public or school groups are paid. The use of paid interpreters at Hill-Stead evolved over the years as museum attendance grew and the need arose to have someone available throughout the day to lead tours. Due to the museum's unique arrangement of artwork displayed in a fully furnished historic house, staff could not take the approach used by many art museums: open galleries staffed by docents to answer questions.  And, unlike many smaller house museums, Hill-Stead could not rely on the limited availability of volunteer docents either. That being said, the guides at Hill-Stead exhibit many of the pros and cons of both docents and paid interpreters including a strong commitment to the museum, strong educational backgrounds, limited schedules, preference for touring only specific groups (adults only or children-only, etc.), and being an invaluable part of the museum team.

As Young points out in her article, managing both volunteer docents and paid interpreters requires multiple "regular" paid staff positions and many workday hours for the staff of both of my museums. Scheduling seems to take up the bulk of staff time followed by training and continued enrichment. In addition, our staff must remember to show their appreciation for both docents and paid interpreters or suffer the consequences (think of the loss of highly qualified docents and interpreters.)

The hard economic times we are in have made this question of docents versus paid interpreters timelier than ever.  Going forward, education staff and volunteer managers will also need to consider trends that may eliminate the need for human-led tours altogether--regardless of whether they are volunteer or paid. The use of audio tours and cell phone tours only requires a front-end staff person to give instructions on how to use the technology. Some historic house museums are putting up stanchions and ropes and allowing visitors to tour at their own pace--sometimes with written pamphlets as their guides and sometimes with only object labels to lead them on their way. Other museums are even creating virtual tours online--resulting in not only reduced need for guide staff but a reduced need for open hours as well!  With all of these trends considered, museum staff will have to decide what roles their current docents or paid interpreters will have in their institution's future.

Again, neither Young nor I can tell you whether volunteer docents or paid interpreters are the better fit for your museum--but I hope that this post will help your institution in its quest to answer this age-old question on your own.

What about you and your museum?  What has worked--and not worked--for you?  Does your museum use volunteer docents or paid interpreters?  And why?  Add a comment and share your thoughts on this issue.

Click the link below to read Tara Young's article, "Volunteer Docents vs. Paid Interpreters: Which is Right for Your Museum?"  The article originally appeared in NEMA News, Winter 2010.  Reprinted with permission from the New England Museum Association.