[CAUT] Scheduling Arrggs!

[Gerald Cousins]

Chris,
Excellent! 
Paul,
An additional thought, I did have a "emergency" tuning factor which interperted as an additional fee for any rush services. (Outside of my normal booking schedule) What it was was the monies lost for that day or job(s) time which had to be bumped to accomodate the emergency service. It also provided me for (if necessary) a crediting of charges for any customers which were inconvenienced by the emergancy. This ofter proved to ba a real customer saver and great with client relations. It also made sence IF a regular customer had an unforseen emergency where I had to charge them the fees. 
I learned this technique from the medical field as well as some of the more professional lawyer practices who had the value placed on their expertise and treated all clients as neutral from a monies basis. 
If you treat all clients with a standard policy then there may be some equality toward your time. But, once you provide the proverbial exception to a rule then the rule becomes rewritten as including exception.  Adn like aby bureaucratic policy, very hard to change back. (if not impossible)
I know that in a CAUT situation there may be political relationship issues as well as time clock issues but this thought may shed another idea on how to handle the issue.
 
All the best,
Gerry



From: csolliday at rcn.comTo: caut at ptg.orgDate: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:12:31 -0500Subject: Re: [CAUT] Scheduling Arrggs!


Paul,
in my world regular time is 8am-5pm weekdays. Anything over or under is OT and charged at 1.5x. This can get more respect for your time and sometimes actually change things, but at the very least I feel better about getting up to work longer hours.
Everyone should charge this way. I suppose venues could hunt around to find some fool who will work cheaper but so far it has not happened in 15 years of this policy. I think that once you are the tuner of choice it is not an issue. After all they pay the stage hands, cops, custodians etc the same way.
BTW I charge 1.5x on Saturdays, 2.0x on Sundays and national holidays. When I started that I thought that at least I would get my Sundays back but it never happened. But my income did go up significantly.
Be well
Chris Solliday 
 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul T Williams 
To: caut at ptg.org 
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:13 PM
Subject: [CAUT] Scheduling Arrggs!
Hi All, How many times does it happen that I find out the day before a "live" performance on PBS (local) radio for a concert at 9am tomorrow morning.  Today's full!!  I know now I'll have to come in at 6am. (I know..boo hoo for me..I picked the job :>)  I remember many times in the private world where wealthy folks throwing a huge Christmas party with hired pianist....and forget to get the piano tuned until a day or two beforehand...but this is rediculous!  The Lied Center is a professional concert venue and they should know that I'm not there at the drop of a hat.  What do they think I do...just sit around and write e-mails to my collegues?!?!?! This is a really nice Steinway B...but I haven't tuned it for two months!  Maybe 5:30am would be a better idea?  What have you folks done in these situations? Thanks for advice... Paul 
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