More than 130 docents attended the Town Hall on Tuesday evening to learn about the many new initiatives swirling around the organization. Docent Council president Constance Rajala emceed the evening and helped set the stage for the changes coming to CAF and the docent community.
CAF Docent Statement of Purpose
Although CAF docents were instrumental in the founding of the organization, we have never had a guiding statement focusing on our work and goals. The idea of creating one came out of the 2016 Docent Council retreat. Docent Council commissioned a group of docents to create a statement to focus on the docent organization’s work, both present and future. The team included Jill Carlson, Leslie Clark Lewis (chair), Mike Cohen (moderator) Rebecca Dixon, Susan Frost, Judith Kaufman, Roy Slowinski, and Joan Winstein.
Leslie Clark Lewis introduced the statement to the Town Hall audience. She noted that elements of the statement relate to the reasons for creating it: nurture docent energy and dedication; serve as a foundation for the docent culture; gain clarity into docent roles vis-a-vis the CAF organization; meet competition head-on; adapt to new opportunities; and set the CAF docent organization apart from others. The statement will be used as an internal document to guide the work of the docent organization.
CAF Docent Statement of Purpose
Chicago Architecture Foundation docents, a select corps of self-governing volunteers, create and conduct tours
and programs in support of CAF’s mission. We make Chicago’s architecture and built environment
come alive by inspiring wonder, enthusiasm, and the thrill of discovery.
New Location Information
The big news of the evening is that there is no big news yet, at least in terms of the location of the new Chicago Architecture Center, our new home. CAF CEO Lynn Osmond reported that lease negotiations are in the final stage, but because there are still some details yet to be ironed out, she is unable to share the location with us. However, when the location is ready to be shared, docents and staff will be invited to CAF for the big announcement. Lynn also said that although our current least expires at the end of March, we have been given a two-month extension for our first-floor space in the Railway Exchange. This gives us a bit of leeway as we make ready for the big changes to come.
Long- Range Planning – Docents Look to the Future
In December 2016, current docent council members, incoming docent council members, and standing committee chairs met for a two-day retreat to discuss our current challenges and future opportunities to enhance the docent experience.
Many suggestions came out of that meeting and a Long-Range Planning Committee was appointed to shepherd the project. Committee members include: Jill Carlson, Lance Friedmann, Georgia Goldberg, Kevin Grebenow, Jack Kremers, Jeff Marcella, Bobbi Pinkert (chair), Constance Rajala, Ellen Shubart, and Lisa Voigt.
The committee found the suggestions fit into four basic categories: Governance, Leadership Development, Engagement, and Docent/Staff Interaction. The ongoing work of the committee is focused on developing specific strategies, goals and timelines for implementation.
Short-term tasks already completed include: regularly scheduled monthly meeting among major standing committee chairs, docent council president, docent at large, chair of VEVs, and Michael Malak and members of the tour department; a directory of CAF staff that is easily accessible to docents; and a list of technology and space needs for our future move.
Please watch The Bridge for news on future activities.
2017 Tour Metrics to Date
Bobbi Pinkert, chair of the Scheduling Task Force, reviewed the goals and successes for the 2017 tour season to date. Bobbi noted some challenges with the previous core tour schedule: numerous SOS calls; frequent byes; tour cancellations; upset guests and docents.
The 2017 core tour schedule was designed to be much more consistent while still offering variety to our guests. Top priorities included eliminating core tour departures after 3:00 pm; using metrics to determine the optimal number of docents needed for tours, thus reducing byes; increasing the number of tour takers per docent; reducing tour cancellations; ensuring that most popular tours go out morning and afternoons; and that tours with similar content not overlap.
Casey Crail reported that so far this year (April – July 2017), we have increased the number of guests per docent to 8, compared with 6 during the same period last year. We have had to cancel only 35 docent slots compared to 180 docent slots during the same time last year. And as you may have noticed in VolunteerMatters, core tours are not scheduled after 3:00 pm, our most popular tours go out twice a day, with consistent day and start times; and tours with similar content do not overlap.
These are preliminary numbers but the results so far are very positive. CAF Staff will keep monitoring and work with the Scheduling Task Force to make changes as necessary.
Project Fresh Update
Tom Carmichael brought us up to date on Project Fresh, an initiative to develop ideas to pump up the appeal of CAF’s core tours. Why is this important? Over the past five years, Chicago tourism has increased by 16%. Our building, neighborhood and River Cruise tours have kept pace with this or outstripped it. But our core walking and bus tours have not. There is a lot of tour competition out there now, and we must meet it head on.
To do this, the team is seeking ideas to improve tours from docents and VEVs); from recent CAF tour takers by asking them to complete a survey about their tour experience; and from competitors’ tour takers by observing their tours. All this information gathering will help us learn what satisfies tour takers and what our competitors are doing,
Project Fresh is using docents, family and friends to ‘shop”, or take, our competitors’ tours. We want to gather information on tour-takers’ pre-tour experience (searching for and booking a tour), the tour experience itself, and any post-tour communications.
The Project Fresh team will complete its work this fall, and recommendations will be made to Docent Council and the CAF executive team in early November. Stay tuned.
Project team includes co-leaders Kathleen Carpenter, Lance Friedmann, and Michael Malak; members Kersten Adams, Kathy Baker, Tom Carmichael, Dick Clark, Caroline Duda, Jen Masengarb, Janine Marino, Ed McDevitt, Lorie Westerman, and Bradlie Yaniello. Constance Rajala and Lynn Osmond serve as ex-officio members.
Move Task Force Report
Ellen Shubart reported that despite not knowing exactly where CAF is moving, but knowing the move is coming next spring, work to accommodate the move has begun already. When we find out the exact location, docents will hit the ground running, prepared to revise, to rework – to do what needs to be done.
First, a Move Task Force has been formed and it is this group that will supervise the operations between now and the move date, likely late spring 2018. Task Force members include docents Kathleen Carpenter, Tom Carmichael, Caroline Duda, Lance Friedmann, Delta Greene, Michael Malak, Jen Masengarb, Constance Rajala, Hallie Rosen, Ellen Shubart, and Lisa Voigt.
Second, the new location will be far enough away from the existing Railway Exchange Building that 12 core tours – those regularly scheduled tours that run year-round and leave from the shop – will have to be re-rerouted and reconceived.
Some good news: Neighborhood, Building, Bus tours will not be affected; neither will the River Cruise.
For these 12 core tours, the Task Force, working with the tour directors and the Tour and Education Committees, will determine which tours need revision; will develop the tour revisions; and will train and certify docents for the revised tours. Meetings have already begun on these ideas; even without knowing the new location, docents know how to create and re-create tours.
By the end of September, we should have the new tour routes completed; during October-November the tours will be revised, and beginning January 2018 we will start training for the tours. Training may range from quick refreshers for those tours which are simple re-routes to more complete training for practically-new tours. We are committed to helping every docent learn or relearn whatever tour they would like to give, so they can continue to serve CAF and our guests.
An important reminder: there will not be a new docent training class in 2018. Uncertainties about exact timing and the work to be done revising tours and training current docents make a new class unfeasible.
Watch The Bridge for the updates; we’ll keep them coming. Thanks for all your support and effort.