Guides who have given at least 60 tours (generally 2 years of service) will be eligible to be trained to be a reviewer.
- Optional Training for new reviewers will be conducted by the Chair of the Performance Review Committee, assisted by qualified guides with experience in interviewing and/or evaluation.
- Reviewers will be selected by the Chair of the Performance Review Committee.
- Criteria will include, but may not be limited to, completion of successful performance review(s) of their own, and good interpersonal and communication skills.
- Reviewers will receive one tour credit for each review completed. They must use the Online Sign-out form on the Guild Room Computer noting that they are doing a Performance Review.
Overview:
The purpose of reviews is to help make each of us the best possible guide we can be. A review should be a positive experience for both the reviewers and the ones being reviewed, as well as a learning experience for all parties. Remember we are all volunteers and equally proud of our guiding abilities. More importantly, enjoy this opportunity to meet other guides and see what they offer to our visitors.
Review preparation: PLEASE READ
- The forms for the review and the information about it are on the Heard Museum Guild Website, Las Guias Program, Performance Review.
- Contact the person to be reviewed and schedule a date that is mutually agreed upon. Remind them that the evaluation form that will be used during their review, and the Peer Review Process, can be found on the Guild Website and in the Guild Room.
- Alert the person being reviewed that they need to contact Heard Museum Tour Scheduler to make sure they are scheduled for a HOME tour the day of the review.
- All tours reviewed will be in HOME.
- All reviews are to be completed by April 15 each year.
- If you and the guide being reviewed can’t arrange a time when one or the other of you is normally scheduled, you may use another guide’s scheduled HOME tour time, if it is arranged in advance. The scheduled guide will still receive credit as will the person being reviewed and the reviewer.
The Review Itself (Information for Reviewers)
Remove your badges; stand in the back of the group, do not take notes, and silently observe.
Do not offer to help or add anything during the tour.
After the tour, find a private place such as the guild room (close the door if others are present) to go over the tour.
Stress the positive aspects of the tour
Point out the things you liked about the tour.
Do not criticize anything that is not on the review form, such as going around the museum and rounding up visitors for the tour.
Do not let personalities interfere with an objective review. It is perfectly OK for guides to cite personal experiences on their tour. In fact, that type of thing enhances the tour for our visitors.
If there is anything about the tour that you think could be improved, write it on the form.
If you feel the guide may need help to improve his/her tours, please discuss your views with the guide, and then put your observations IN WRITING on the review form.
Inform the Performance Review Committee, performancereview@heardguild.org, of any unsatisfactory performances, so that a process for improvement may be implemented. If you think that a fact is incorrect, ask where that information came from. Tell the person being reviewed that is not your understanding and suggest they go back and review the information. If the guide finds that he/she is correct, please have that person cite their reference, and let the Performance Review Committee know.
The review forms will be available in the Guild Room, and on the Guild Web Site.
Fill it out, have both reviewers and and the reviewed guide sign it, then put it in a sealed envelope and place it in the Performance Review Slot in the Guild Room. The slot is one of those on the large black organizer by the door.
The information contained in the review is private. You are not to share it with anyone else.
NOTE: Please pay attention to transition in time and space as you move through the tour so that our visitors know where they are.
Tours should be 45 minutes in length, and in no circumstance exceed one hour. Any tour over an hour, give a couple of minutes, should be noted on the Review Form.
All major areas should be covered: Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblos, and Sonoran Desert.
Peer Review Committee can be contacted at performancereview@heardguild.org