National Docent Symposium Council

Every Cultural Institution in the United States and Canada which has docents may send delegates to the National Docent Symposia. Each Institution may send four delegates; only one of which can be staff. If more docents and/or staff want to attend, they will be put on a waiting list to see if there is room after the registration is closed. (One does not have to be a member of the National Docent Symposium Council to attend. There are no dues.)

The Docent Council comprises a board of directors whose purpose is to provide education and the exchange of ideas, as well as to give support and help to all docents. A major part of this is through the National Docent Symposia. We also sponsor sessions at the American Association of Museums, as well as local venues. We have published The Docent Handbook and are currently working on other publications. If you would like to become a member of the Council, please click on recruitment to find out more. New Directors are chosen at every Symposium. One must be present at the symposium, to be chosen.

Send your question to our website (Click here). Our webmaster will then forward your questions to the board member who can best answer your questions or give you help.

First, you must let the National Docent Symposium Council know that your institution is interested (Click here). This information will then be passed on to the Council’s site selection committee. If the site selection committee has not already committed to another institution and the council is interested in pursuing this idea, they will contact you. If everyone on both sides agrees that this looks promising, the NDSC will then invite your docent representatives to the next NDS to make a bid presentation to the board of directors. The bid must include a written invitation from the institution's Director, as well as information about both your institution and your community and explain why you think it would be a wonderful location for a Symposium.

Please remember that we get many inquiries every year. If you do not get an invitation to submit a bid at one symposium, try again the next time.

First, there should be one institution that will be the host institution. This host institution should be the one that contacts us. The host institution must have a strong docent program. We also look for locations that have many different kinds of cultural institutions and an indication that these institutions have or can work well together. The NDSC also looks to have a variety of locations all over the United States and Canada. (For example if the last Symposium scheduled is in the Midwest, it is unlikely that the next site to be chosen would also be in the Midwest.) We have not repeated locations, as yet. We would like to give as many locations as possible the opportunity of hosting a Symposium.

We offer discounts when a case (30) or more is ordered. The discount is substantial: $13.50 for each handbook with $20 flat shipping per box or partial box.

I cannot attend the Symposium. Do you record the sessions? Is there any other way to get some information?

We do understand that not everyone can attend our Symposia. Our best resource is our docent handbook. It is excellent. We are also working on another publication that we hope will be ready for the 2009 Symposium. We can tell you more about it when it is completed.

The NDSC does not record sessions, at this point, because of the cost. We are a non-profit organization and it is very expensive. We do plan to publish, on our website, the results of our roundtable discussions at the NDS 2007. These are the topics that will be discussed:

“Recruitment of Docents”

“What To Do When Your Museum is Closed”

“Docent Training”

“Working With High School Students”

“Asking the Right Questions on Your Tours”

Touring Controversial Exhibits”

“Touring With Disabled People”

“Recognition of Docents”

“How to make Tours More Interactive”

“Dealing with Change”

“Docents and Technology”

“Working With the Very Young”

“Docent Evaluation”

“Docents in the Community: Outreach Programs”

“Ways to improve Docent and Staff Relationships”

“Dealing with Problem Docents and/or How to Retire Docents, Gently”

“New Touring Strategies”

“Ways to attract Families to your Museum”

“Being a Docent in a Small Museum”

“Retention of Docents”

The NDSC Directors will be leading the discussions and will record the results. These results will be published on our website. It may take a little time to get everyone’s results published. Please keep checking our website.

The NDSC also sponsors sessions at the American Association of Museums Annual Meetings. The AAM does record these sessions. Since 2003 NDSC Directors have presented sessions on Docent training, docent evaluation, docents dealing with change and other sessions. You can go on the AAM website to purchase them. The website is: http://www.aam-us.org/ .

Also, go to the Symposium registration and see the sessions that are being presented. If there is something that you are very interested in you can contact the institution that is presenting it and they may have some handouts that they can send to you.

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