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Peter,
        Boy I wish that could be true in most places... but
in my years at Pacific Science Center, we had only 3
guys to cover the 7 day a week 10 hour a day operation
for more than 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space.  Now admittedly
we had some other staff in the metal and wood shops they
could call on when things went really wrong, but there never
seemed to be enough money to get the numbers any higher
than that.

        The import  thing I found was to find folks who were
generalists rather than specialists... and good at finding
solutions rather than problems.

        Unless you are the Smithsonian, I doubt that anyone
has enough staff to support their operations, and they would
probably argue that they don't either...

David

David Taylor
AHHA Museum Services
  "Now I Understand"
    (206) 363-8126
   e-mail:   [log in to unmask]
http://www.AHHA-MuseumServices.com


> From: "Peter A. Anderson" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 20:05:23 -0500
> Subject: Exhibit maintenance and upgrading costs
>
> Philipe,  hi!
>
> I have a rule of thumb that 10,000 sq. ft. of substantially interactive
> exhibition takes 3 people to maintain.  2 - 2.5 of these people have a tool
> pack on their belts;  the rest is overhead - management, accounting, design
> and fabrication (for those exhibits that are unmaintainable and just must
> be changed), graphics (for those graphics which just must be changed) etc.
>
> Many people think that this is a high estimate - but I think that they
> haven't added up all the bits.  Most science centers are open 1.6 times a
> person-year of 236 days, so quite a few of these maintenance people must be
> part-timers.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Peter Anderson

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