Docents Greg Gutting, Lyle Thornton and H.A. Tuck report that MAAFM is improving every week. Not just in exhibits, but also in the gift shop and in the numbers of people that are visiting.
Thanks to Brent and Patti Collins for continuing to update our exhibits, by adding contributions from the general public. We seem to get new ones each week.
Our fledgling gift shop has added a few items in the last month, including some airplane pins, which are well liked by the kids who visit. We are continuing our popular promotion of giving away an F-14 or Air Show book with each $10.00 donation. We are low on tee shirts right now, but have been told that more have been ordered.
Our future wish list includes enlarging the foyer area to permit a wider variety of items to be displayed and sold. Right now all monies that come in are donations, but the larger we get, the more we will need an accounting and inventory system to track sales, and collect and pay sales taxes.
We continue to provide weekday group tours: during June Cavazos Elementary in Odessa brought two groups of kids out on separate days, and SHARE, a support group for DadŐs with special needs kids, had their monthly meeting and took a tour. Additionally, several HSW members have conducted private tours for friends or family.
On June 24, July 1 & 8, we had more than 175 visitors sign our guest book. With the exception of major events like Airsho and Memorial Day, this is probably the largest three day total we have had since our opening. We attribute those numbers to good customer service and word of mouth advertising.
Visitors to the museum are greeted at the door, if at all possible, and given a brochure and a brief introduction to the museum. If a docent canŐt escort them through the museum, one will catch up with them during their visit, explain some of our exhibits, and answer any questions. We like to give at least a Ňmini-tourÓ to all visitors, but sometimes, with the volume of visitors we have had, that just isnŐt feasible. We could use more docents* Special thanks go out to Ralph Gillette and Randy Wilson for pitching in when we have been short of manpower.