Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2016 08 03 JT

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Page 22 of 150 • Tourists coming to Louisville from the towns around us, elsewhere in Colorado, other states, and other countries. Louisville does not currently have a Visitor Center for assisting tourists. • School classes from Boulder Valley School District o In recent years, the Museum has given tours to between ten and seventeen school classes each year, which calculates to 250-425 students served on site per year. (In 2014, three of the classes were made up of fourth graders from Louisville Elementary School who focused on historic preservation; their visit was written up in the 2014 Annual Report of the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund.) o The Museum also allows and encourages school groups to use, with supervision, the Tomeo House as a location for making short films for school projects where a historical house background is needed. • Other groups, such as Boy Scouts; Girl Scouts; seniors living at Balfour; and classes from private schools such as the Louisville Preschool, Art Underground, and the St. Louis School. • Researchers using the archives, reference collection, and files of information. These include book authors, magazine or newspaper reporters, engineering consultants, and people researching their family histories. • Former residents or descendants of former residents. These visits frequently lead to the sharing of information, people becoming paying members, and the collecting of stories and oral histories and the donations of photos and artifacts. • Volunteers. The Museum includes volunteers in the counts for Museum foot traffic because the interactions of staff with volunteers are, in many ways, similar to the interactions of staff with traditional visitors. For example, many volunteers collect information for their own projects while at the Museum, do family history research, bring in photos and artifacts to donate, order historic photos, and are eager to share information about Louisville history, all of which are activities that show how they are participants at the Museum as opposed to holding a traditional museum docent role. As Metcalfe observed, the Museum serves the role of being a community center where there is learning and teaching by volunteers as well as by traditional visitors. The Museum also creates volunteer opportunities and promotes the City's Core Community Value of civic participation and volunteerism. Because the Museum serves the personal interests and needs of not only visitors but also on-site volunteers, volunteers on site are included in the counts for Museum foot traffic. • Attendees of meetings at the Museum are included as visitors. Examples would be potential donors meeting with the Museum staff to discuss a donation of artifacts and a Foundation director meeting with the Museum staff about Foundation business (however, public meetings cannot be held at the Museum due to the lack of ADA accessibility). Meetings and similar activities contribute to the foot traffic at the Museum and reflect the usage of the Museum by the community. (City staff members who are present at the Museum in the course of their work are not counted as Museum visitors.) • Visitors during special events at the Museum. This includes people who visit during the Taste of Louisville and the Parade of Lights and attendees of the First Friday Art Walk events at the Museum. Visitor Experience Objectives The typical visitor experience begins as people enter the front door of the Jacoe Store and are greeted by a Museum staff member or volunteer. After chatting in the Jacoe Store, they are invited to go with a 14