The embattled Watkins Community Museum of History will close during the week of Christmas if it can’t find volunteers willing to keep it open for the estimated 150 to 300 people expected to show up for visits.

The tentative closure plan won approval Thursday from the board of directors of the Douglas County Historical Society, which runs the museum. The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays at 1047 Mass.

Board members decided closing the museum would be better than choosing which of the museum’s two full-time employees  historian Steve Jansen or collections manager Judy Sweets  should get vacation at the end of December.

Last year Jansen had the week off. This year  once again  both employees have asked for vacation at the same time.

“One of the ways to resolve that conflict is just not to be open,” said Phil Godwin, president of the board and member of the museum’s management committee.

Dennis Dailey, a board member, initially was skeptical of the concept before relenting and consenting to the plan.

“The last thing we need is another round of questions about why the museum is closed,” he said.

Steve Glass, another board member and member of the management committee, said he hoped the museum wouldn’t need to close for the week, but he conceded it was the best available option.

“Both of these employees deserve some time off,” Glass said. “We’ll deal with the fallout if there is any.”

The decision came a week after Douglas County Commissioners blasted the board for failing to sufficiently lead the museum through tumultuous times. Since July, commissioners have turned up the pressure on the board to come up with a viable leadership plan, including a possible overhaul of the board itself.

Commissioners have threatened to pull some or all of the county’s annual $58,000 contribution to the historical society beginning in 2004, unless the board offers a clear direction for the museum and its operations. The county’s contribution accounts for about a third of the society’s annual operating budget.

The museum has been operating without a paid administrator for more than a year, after the museum’s two longtime employees  including Jansen, who had been director  were demoted, their salaries cut and five volunteers on the museum’s management committee left the organization.

Even after the changes, commissioners say they continue to receive complaints about shoddy storage of artifacts in the building, inconsistent policies for operations, disorganized resources, employee-management friction and numerous other problems.

Jansen and Sweets attended Thursday’s meeting, but they left when the board decided to go into executive session to discuss personnel.

After the executive session, Godwin said the board decided the museum’s management committee should decide how to allocate the money it has for personnel. County Commissioner Charles Jones has said the board should spend its money to hire an administrator before paying its existing staff because hiring an administrator is a higher priority.

“They asked us to set priorities,” Godwin said of the Douglas County Commission, “and we’ll be setting priorities about what’s available for personnel.”

Godwin said the committee would meet Oct. 17 to come up with its plan to be recommended for museum board approval Oct. 24.