Blog

By Emily Clott, Class of 2012

If you’re like me, you enjoy a good sausage, but you probably have no clear idea of how it gets made. Similarly, everyone likes a good docent and admires the training program that produces one, but few understand the complex process involved in turning candidates into docents. The secret recipe, perfected by the Education Committee working closely with CAC staff, is about to be revealed.

We redesigned the Docent Training Program and rolled it out with the class of 2015. Prior to that time, we had too many docents certified for the Historic and Modern tours while other core tours sorely needed reinforcements. Solution: divide the training into three segments.

• Part 1, six weeks of Fundamentals of Architecture, intended to provide all docents with a common foundation of basic principles of architecture using 10 buildings as the basis of study.
• Part 2, training in a single core tour for the entire class.
• Part 3, training in a second tour selected from 2-4 additional tours that need certified docents. The Ed Committee worked closely with Jen Masengarb and Hallie Rosen to develop, implement, and evaluate the new approach.

Last spring as CAF was moving and morphing into CAC, everyone was busy rewriting tours and retraining current docents to lead tours from the new Center. It was impossible to train a new docent class. That didn’t stop the intrepid Education Committee from looking toward the future. Clearly, when the dust from the move settled, we’d be needing lots of new docents. A huge backlog of applicants had formed since we had no training in 2018.

At the May 2018 Ed Committee meeting, we debated whether to stick with the same case-study buildings, and decided that with so much change (new location, Erin Carlisle replacing Hallie, and Adam Rubin replacing Jen) it made sense to keep the case study buildings. Too much change can be too much of a good thing. Soon after the move, in Sept. 2018, we made plans to train a new class in Spring, 2019.

Before applications to join a class are accepted, before interviews of potential candidates are conducted, the Docent Training subcommittee of the Education Committee formed and started planning. Donna Gabanski is the leader of this herculean effort, assisted by docents Delta Greene, Kathy Baker, Lisa Voigt, Robin Bauer, Emiy Clott, Jill Carlson, and Dave Utech  and joined by Erin Carlisle and Adam Rubin from the staff, with Hallie Rosen as a resource person. It was decided that the whole class will learn Treasures of Chicago’s Golden Age as their first walking tour.

Between November and mid-February, a dizzying number of jobs needed to be done:

• the application process that includes interviews, selection, and notification of candidates. (The Polar Vortex tried, but failed, to throw a monkey wrench into that whole process.)
• the training protocol, including review and updating of the curriculum (readings, syllabus, certification documents etc.)
• Sponsor/Reader/Certifier selection, training, and assignment.

The final step was to plan the training schedule week by week, hour by hour, including reviewing every reading and homework assignment, engaging speakers, and scheduling docents to coach trainees in the classroom and on the street.

The 2019 batch of docents is in its 4th week of Fundamentals training. Like every docent class, trainees report feeling both exhilarated and overwhelmed by the process. As always, many docents have generously stepped up to coach, read, sponsor, and certify the docent class. Kudos to us for keeping the torch lit for this new group of colleagues, and especially to Donna Gabanski, our intrepid leader and keeper of institutional memory for the Education Committee. This is truly a labor of love, ensuring that the caliber of CAC docents will remain a source of pride for the Center, continuing to provide quality ambassadors for Chicago.