“Sharing ideas and learning from one another”
Our Mission
The Orange County Docent League (OCDL) is a forum in which docents throughout the community share ideas and learn from one another.
The goal is the development of a network that will be a focus for docent activities.
Profile
What is a Docent?
A docent can be described as a trained volunteer dedicated to furthering the public's understanding of community organizations and their diverse historical and cultural collections. Docents are lecturers, teachers, educators, and tour guides.
To what associations are the OCDL linked?
The National Docent Symposium is held every two years. It is hosted in rotating cities and usually lasts three or four days. There are multiple workshops that demonstrate varied techniques to aid docents in the art of imparting knowledge to the public. Whether docents are from museums, zoos, arboretums, or ecological programs, docents find that all organizations have similar successes and problems and the workshops enable that docents come away with new ideas and solutions.
The Southern California Docent League (SCDL), based in Los Angeles County, holds events two to three times a year. The SCDL is pleased to learn of the development of the OCDL and looks forward to joint meetings to coordinate topics for Orange County and Los Angeles County events. Leaders from both leagues anticipate dual benefits for the docents as we coordinate events to compliment symposia dates, topics and places.
The Orange County Docent League was established in May 1999. Orange County Docents have expressed delight that the OCDL mission will address local needs. It's always wonderful to see how the museums of Los Angeles have addressed docent needs, but the addition of the Orange County Docent League benefits us as we learn how our neighbors address similar issues. The OCDL plans to hold two events each year.
Comments have been received from some San Diego docents who also indicated interest in the development of the OCDL. They look forward to our future events and believe the OCDL could be an advantage for them, as well.