ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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At our center, we have always had the policy that staff members cannot
accept tips or gifts for services rendered.  We opted not to deal with
the tangle that you are facing of who gets what.

When someone offers a tip to one of our staff members, they let the
visitor know that they are not allowed to accept tips, but they offer
them the option of donating the tip to the center and making a donation
in their name.  This way the staff member is recognized and the visitor
feels good because they have the option of applying that tip that they
would have given to the employee to the center, which, in turn, will
help the center to make a difference for more people. Using this
technique, many people will donate more to the center than the
percentage that they were originally going to give as a tip.


Jennifer V. Holt
Director of Revenue Programs
Sci-Port: LOUISIANA'S Science Center
318-424-8694 / [log in to unmask]

  ADULT  LECTURE  SERIES
   www.sciport.org/series

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Blower
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Gratuities in Museum

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
************************************************************************
*****

We are running into a situation that can get a bit sticky. Occasionally
we (or a specific  employee) are offered a gratuity by a patron. This
may be during a special rental event or now that we are doing a bit more
catering with our small cafe, the customer often expects (and we are
glad) to add the standard 18% gratuity to the cost. A buck or two here
and there is one thing but with this 18% deal, you can easily get into 3
figures. So what's the problem you say? 

 

Who gets it and how is it dispersed? It may seem simple but the more I
look into it, it can be a Pandora's Box of moral/legal/payroll/fairness
issues that gets muddier by the day. What if a front line employee
pitches in for 15 minutes to help set up? What about the phone rep who
booked the event but wasn't even in the building on the day of? I have a
list of about 20 "what if's" that seemingly make this a much more
complicated issue than I initially thought it would be. My HR Manager
has downloaded about a virtual inch-thick stack of documents about how
to handle tips in California. Yikes.

 

How do you handle this type of (good) problem?

 

Thanks. 

 

Craig Blower

Chief Operating Officer

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

619-238-1233 (main)

619-685-5701 (direct)

[log in to unmask]

 


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