Read on Twitter
I just conducted an in-person training as an outside consultant at a museum yesterday and I& #39;d like to share my experience with you because I learned a lot.
The museum was open but we held the training after hours. I asked that the training be outdoors and my hosts were able to accommodate that. Unfortunately we did not come up with a rain plan and guess what? it rained!
Lesson number one: make a rain plan. Thankfully this museum had a couple outdoor areas that were covered and we were able to quickly change locations. This did mean that the chairs had to be closer together to fit under the roof.
I always ask for amplification but was especially adamant I be amplified for an outdoor training with people spread out. They had a great portable speaker with microphone however there were no bleach wipes and the microphone couldn& #39;t pick up my voice from behind my cloth mask.
Lesson number two: a plastic face shield would have allowed for me to speak into the microphone while covered. Bleach wipes would have been helpful for sterilizing the microphone.
A supervisor was casually explaining the mask policy as folks trickled in. Some participants were lifting their masks to snack and wearing them incorrectly (chip strap, nose overhang, you know). I was put in the very uncomfortable position of telling individuals to mask up.
Lesson number three: agree on the safety rules ahead of time and if you are hosting, take charge of articulating them confidently and clearly and please don& #39;t let the responsibility fall on the guest speaker to enforce those rules.
Participants wanted to eat and drink during my training. I don& #39;t blame them - they were coming straight from another training, it was 5pm, and they had not been given a break.
Lesson four: acknowledge we& #39;re asking a lot from participants and build in the time for them to take care of their needs before and after the training. I made an announcement that if they needed a snack or mask off time they could go do that whenever and I would not be offended.
