The faces of the Church History Museum are its 270 volunteer docents.
Each of the docents is a Mormon Church service missionary. They emphasize the Restoration as part of a larger Temple Square experience. Their modus operandi isn't to present art to visitors as typical docents would at any other museum; rather, the Church History Museum's unique band of docents strives to express the faith of Latter-day Saints through artifacts and exhibits.
"Our purpose, our overall goal, is to help people have a desire to make and keep covenants," said Angela Ames, who oversees docent training at the Church History Museum. "The way that we teach docents to interact with people is through telling stories, the stories of the Restoration and stories that are faith-inspiring. If we tell stories using art and artifacts as illustrations of those stories, we can create a foundation upon which people can build their faith."
Docents serve for two years at a time but can extend for subsequent stints; some of them have been serving for more than 25 years.
"It is a blessing for anyone who can be a part of it," Sister Ames said. "All of our docents are very dedicated people — not only to the museum, but to anything Church-related. A lot of them have experience with missions and other service callings. It's just really neat to get to interact with and know people who have done so many things and blessed so many people's lives."
Nancy Andersen enjoys dressing up and pretending she's someone else.
Granted, Sister Andersen is in charge of the Church History Museum's First Person Pioneer Profiles program wherein docents dress up in period costume to assume the persona and identity of an early Church pioneer. Among the Church historical figures Sister Andersen has personally profiled are Eliza R. Snow, the second general president of the Relief Society and noted LDS poet and writer; and Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball, whose decision to make clothing to help the builders of the Nauvoo Temple led to the formation of the Relief Society.
Sister Andersen's charges are a select group; only 30 of the 270 docents have taken the additional step to become "profilers." Because a great emphasis is placed on presenting historically accurate First Person depictions, a thorough vetting process is employed each time a docent develops and takes on a new First Person profile.
"We help [docents] with the research on their First Person characters," Sister Andersen said. "We have them practice, first on fellow docents so they can get comfortable with the delivery. We make suggestions for improvement. We find that sometimes they want to tell too much of the story. They have to learn how to be brief and focus on the most important element of what they can possibly share with the audience, and they get better at it."
The First Person interpreters are especially popular and credible with children. To that end, Sister Ames tells of a docent missing most of his right arm who combed through Church history to find amputee pioneers who similarly were without the use of all or most of an arm.
"It's fun, because one of his characters used a knife with fork prongs on the end so that he could cut food and then pick it up with the same hand," she said. "So he had them create a facsimile of the utensil that he carries around.
"His characters are always very true to life, and the kids think, 'He must be a real pioneer — he doesn't have his arm!' "
Ensconced behind an exhibit on the Church History Museum's second floor is a locked door innocuously labeled "Volunteers." The door leads to a small rectangular room where docents muster for duty.
On a recent Tuesday morning, on-shift docents waited in their appointed room for the call to duty, to jump into action. Most of the docents on this particular shift were middle-aged women. In talking to them, two things readily become apparent: they savor each other's company, and they place a premium on participating in the yeoman service of being a docent at the Church History Museum.
"The interaction with the docents is probably my greatest benefit from being here," said Nancy McPherson, a docent since 2000 and the shift's tour coordinator.
Peggy Rinehart, docent for four years, vigorously nods her assent.
"I think there is a feeling here, a spirit in the building about the docents that is testimony building," she said. "You put that with the artifacts and it's visual and it's eternal."
Six-year veteran Lauri Storey, a former high-school drama teacher and mother of three daughters ranging in age from 16 to 22, palpably emotes positive energy.
"The docents are actually my favorite part of the museum," Sister Storey said. "We learn from each other. It's really invigorating to be learning from people.
"I also enjoy the challenge of learning and preparing and hopefully teaching if all goes well. [Patrons] come to the museum to see what we have here. They could read about people some other place. But we have the stuff — so we need to let them see it and interpret it. … Every group is my favorite if I feel like I'm helping them learn."
The Tuesday morning shift, a tight-knit group to be sure ("it's like a family," Sister Storey said), constitutes just one of the museum's 12 different docent crews. There exists a morning and evening shift for every weekday, and two Saturday shifts that alternate with each other so that each only works every other Saturday. With 12 docent groupings that essentially function independently of each other and rarely collaborate or interact, impeccable efficiency of communication is the only thing that keeps docents running on the same page.
"We send out all of our communications via e-mail," Sister Ames said. "Our coordinators are very responsible and they're very good at directing their own shift. We give a heavy load of responsibility to our shift coordinators, and then we communicate to everyone through e-mail all of the things that we need to be in sync about. We also use an electronic calendar to make sure that everyone is aware of scheduled tours."
All docents are trained to take tour groups throughout the entire Church History Museum. Two general, baseline tours exist: a basic Restoration-themed journey through the museum, and a more limited presentation consisting entirely of Utah history and correlated to the curriculum of the fourth-graders who frequently come to the museum on field trips.
The two basic tours never vary much in terms of substance. For example, the narrative of the basic Restoration presentation essentially stays the same regardless of whether the audience is generally LDS or composed of nonmembers. And yet, no two tours are identical.
"Every tour is different, even from people just walking in wanting a tour," Sister Storey said. "You have to kind of find out what they're looking for or what they're interested in and just focus your information on that."
Of course, docents are always ready to adapt the presentation in light of specific requests and special needs.
"It does (differ) depending on the audience," Sister Ames said. "The content is still pretty much the same for members and nonmembers, but a lot of members will request specific themes. They'll come and say, 'We're really looking for something to prepare our youth who are going on trek.' So we'll focus on preparing them with stories of the pioneers that will enrich their trek experience."
In order to tailor their presentations to the needs of the audience, docents carefully select appropriate artifacts for incorporation into a given tour.
"One of the things that we try to do is get a unifying theme that'll carry a tour through, a concept that you're trying to get across" Sister McPherson said. "Then you try to pick out the artifacts that pull together that idea so that the people who are visiting will go out with one thought that they'll carry with them instead of just bits and pieces."
Docent training occurs only at the beginning of even-numbered years. Although the application deadline for the January 2010 training has already passed, Sister Ames said that the Church History Museum still has docent vacancies and will continue accepting applications for a couple more weeks. She said the museum is especially interested in finding prospective docents who speak Spanish or can work on Saturdays.
The only set-in-stone requirement for becoming a docent is being a temple-worthy member of the Church.
Sister Ames said: "What makes a good docent? Love — love for people and love for the subject matter. Because if you care enough for the subject matter, you don't have to memorize anything; you just share with a friend something you are excited about. If you love the people, you will become a good public speaker. You will become a good teacher. You will become an inspirer. That's what the key is."
For more information about becoming a docent, please contact Sister Ames at 801-240-4615.
