Standards Committee: What It Does and How It Works

By Susan Pappas, 2005, and Pat Grund, 2001

A little history……….
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The Standards Committee has been around from the beginning of the docent program since the early 1970s. Back then there was only a very small staff of the then CSAF (Chicago School of Architecture Foundation) and it did not do any tour recordkeeping. It was completely up to the Standards Committee to keep track of the number of tours each docent, gave along with any additional service hours. At the end of each year, Standards would tally up the numbers that were kept in multiple notebooks at Glessner House and check and recheck that docents had met their requirements.

Moving forward………
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As the Chicago Architecture Foundation (now the CAC) grew and the docent body with it, more staff became necessary to keep the organization going. Over time, record keeping responsibilities were taken over by staff, and the Standards Committee with the help of the Docent Performance Review Program (DPRP) could then concentrate on ensuring that the quality of tours would continue to be excellent.

Currently there are nine Standards Committee members, including two co-chairs, Susan Pappas and Pat Grund, all working closely with their staff liaison, Caroline Duda. The Committee’s primary responsibilities are handling complaints regarding docent-led tours and Core Values issues. Rest assured, confidentiality regarding any complaint is always an absolute given!

What are some of the tour complaints that Standards addresses? Sometimes it is the lack of clarity on the part of the docent, or the docent is relying too much upon reading his or her notes. It can also be a docent remark (usually a political inference) that has offended a tourist. Whatever the complaint, the docent involved receives a copy of it and responds, giving his/her view of a given situation. The committee then discusses the situation. Sometimes a complaint is determined to be unwarranted, but if not, then an appropriate plan is created to remediate the problem. Volunteer docents of Docent Performance Review Program (DPRP) often will help observe tours and determine if a docent would benefit from extra coaching.

As for Core Values violations, they usually occur when there is a lack of collaboration or mutual respect between docents or docents and staff. These are handled in a manner similar to tour complaints. The docent involved receives a copy of the issue being raised, responds to it, and then the committee discusses possible resolutions.

The Standards Committee works hard to resolve all complaints in a timely and sensitive manner. By doing so, it significantly contributes to maintaining and promoting the CAC’s reputation of providing high-level, docent-led architecture tours!

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