Ticket Purchases
The tour bus departure site is where the bus tour tickets would be purchased using the system of the HOST INSTITUTION, so whether it's the MTPA, the Westin, Callahan House, one of the other hotels, or Old Fox Books, they'd sell the bus tour tickets. Ticket stubs would be collected by the bus driver no matter where they are purchased so that the bus driver would know how many tickets had been sold that day. The host of the tour bus departure site would receive a percentage of daily revenue based on how many tour bus tickets are sold each day.
Candidates to host the tour bus departure site:
1. The Maryland Theatre for the Performing Arts (MTPA)
Next to the Westin, we'd move the Hall of Presidents Before Washington (HPBW) there and ask for space each day in a theater not in use. Wherever they put the HPBW, each day we'd set up a portable exhibit of removable items including foam boards displaying the various timelines of the Articles of Confederation (to be temporarily affixed to the walls), documents from George Brown's collection, the gift shop, and colonial-attired personnel. After participants listened to the audio tour of the HPBW, we'd screen the City TV film (every 20 minutes) inside a theater not in use and then each hour the bus tour would depart and return.
2. The Westin Hotel
The HPBW is there now, so each day we'd set up a portable exhibit of removable items including foam boards displaying the various timelines of the Articles of Confederation (to be temporarily affixed to the walls), documents from George Brown's collection, the gift shop, and colonial-attired personnel. After participants listened to the audio tour of the HPBW, we'd screen the City TV film (every 20 minutes) inside a meeting room not in use and then each hour the bus tour would depart and return.
3. The Callahan House
Located on the site where Mann's Tavern once stood, they have a conference room that could be used to replicate the 1786 Annapolis Convention. In addition to this being one of the three bus tour stops, we could ask permission to use the Callahan House on Saturdays and Sundays to operate the bus tour out of there. We'd enhance the Westin exhibit, put sandwich boards up all over town designating where the bus picks up, and bring people to the Callahan House to buy tickets and depart for the other three stops of the bus tour: The HPBW at the Westin, the French Soldiers' Memorial. the State House, and the back to Callahan House to watch the film, re-enact the 1786 Annapolis Convention, and buy souvenirs.
4. Annapolis Waterfront Hotel
5. The Graduate Hotel
6. The Hilton Garden Inn
7. Old Fox Books
This is where we held our first event in 2012, located not far from the three bus tour sites. They can screen the film on a monitor within their cafe. If the tour bus departed from here, the Westin and the HPBW would become a fourth stop on the bus tour; each day at the Westin we'd set up a portable exhibit of removable items including foam boards displaying the various timelines of the Articles of Confederation (to be temporarily affixed to the walls), documents from George Brown's collection, and the gift shop. After participants listened to the audio tour of the HPBW, since they'd already have seen the City TV film, the bus tour would then continue on the rest of its route. We'd only utilize Old Fox Books as a bus tour departure site if the Westin could not provide space to screen the City TV film while Old Fox Books could.