As we enter the new year, the Move Task Force is dedicated to keeping docents and volunteers up-to-date on what is happening – and, boy, are things happening! Lots of activity all around CAF on many fronts, and in what will become our bi-weekly emails we’ll try and keep you up-to-date so you’ll know what’s going on and what to expect as we move forward.
Training has begun! As we all know, more than 300 docents are currently being re-trained for the new tours that depart from the CAC. Some of these are refresher trainings of one day’s duration; others are two-day trainings with certification required.
We began the first session Wednesday, January 10, with refresher training for Hotel Boom, the tour that visits adaptively-reused buildings now functioning as hotels. (The extremely popular tour is much more exciting than it sounds.) The second Hotel Boom refresher training will be given on Sunday, January 14.
Kudos to all the docents who came; to Lance Friedmann and Delta Greene, who are in charge of all the training that is going to continue through June; and to Jen Masengarb, who taught the Engaging Your Audience (EYA) module, on ways to interpret buildings through questioning. As we incorporate the results of Project Fresh, EYA will be on the agenda for everyone, helping us upgrade our good tours to even better ones.
Training continues twice a week for the next six months, with Masterworks next in line to begin.
The January 27/February 10 training sessions for the new Historic (still to be renamed) tour have been cancelled. The tour is not quite ready to go at this point and needs a bit more tweaking. We needed to give the Tour Directors additional time to work on the manual and the themes for this tour. We want to make sure all our tours are the best we can make them.
All docents who were scheduled for these sessions have been notified by email and offered alternative times to take the tour training. The March/April and April/May training sessions will proceed as planned.
Among other factors, we have to remember that the current Historic tour is the most popular, as measured in numbers of people who take it. This topic is of interest to so many people we must make sure we provide an excellent tour for everyone.
This week, three docents and volunteers met with staff and the CAC interior architects (Gensler) to discuss the Docent/Volunteer Library. CAF is taking all suggestions under consideration.
As you have no doubt already heard, the new library will be larger than the one we have now – it can accommodate two tables of six each with three computer workstations. Located on the ground level in the south end of the building, it will feature our bookshelves on two walls and a frosted window that backs into the Pedway. Accommodations in the library include lockers for use while giving a tour or serving a shift, as well as place to hang coats. The library will be on the same level as the restrooms.
Pedway tours are available. As you might have noticed, tours of the Pedway – from the Hyatt Hotel (standing in for 111 E. Wacker) to the Thompson Center – are being offered. These tours are designed to help us learn how to get to the CAC via many means of public transportation – L, subway and/or bus) — and is a general orientation to the Pedway “city.” Find out where you might want to eat lunch, mail a letter or just hop an express bus. These tours are for staff, volunteers and/or docents. Check on The Bridge for times or contact Caroline.
For docents who are training: If you are seeking an audience for your practice tours, Caroline has created a list of VEVs who are eager to learn about the new tours. When you want to go out, check with Caroline to find out who could go with you.
And, so it goes. We move forward with more training, more planning for the spaces we will fill and more excited anticipation.
Thanks to everyone who has been participating in all of these activities – to those who are training hard to become certifiers for the new tours; to those who are writing the manuals; to those waiting in the wings to take the training; to those who learning new tours – in short, to almost everyone. Once again, remember that “We are the Class of 2018.”