SOP for hotshop rentals.

[Scott Novota]

Hi guys I am looking for some SOPs for running a rental hotshop. I would say that all the rules we have in place now are pretty solid I just would like to know how other shops are doing it. I already think I know the answers to most of these but was wondering how other shops handle these issues. Sort of a "how is everyone else doing this" kind of question. I am sure the guy that runs our shop will read this and get some great ideas and validation for his procedures as well so fire away.


#1. What kind of policy do most hotshops have about people starting up the equipment for rental time? Do you have a "start up" check list or the like? Does only one person do it? How do larger and smaller shops handle this?

#2. What kind of policy do most hotshops have around charging? Drop a load in after you done working at the end of the night...even if it is newbies? Just the senior students that know how to charge? Only the shop tech?

#3. Should students be showing up before the "time slot" to ready equipment, blocks, tools, turn on equipment etc. Should there be a "buffer slot" to let people get in and out or is that part of the "rental time".

#4. Should students be responsible for cleaning up? IE> turning off equipment, sweeping at the end of the night...Should this be done inside the "rental slot" or should there be a give amount of time after the rental time to clean?

#5. Should students be given breaks for bringing in their own tools, blocks, pipes, molds?

#6. Should you think about giving practice time for new students? Sort of an "all clear no annealer" type of deal at a reduced price? During non-rented slots (sun at 7am). Walk in turn on the glory get going just knock everything off in the recycle bucket kind of deal.

#7. What kind of deal should be in place for fund raisers for the shop? If you are making pieces to be sold for a fund raiser for the shop(ornaments, tumblers, pumpkins) should that be a shop sponsored blow time or should we expect the students to donate time, talent, and pieces?

#8. What kind of policy do most shops have about rental time and time slots? IE> how do you handle who gets to blow when? Should paying customers always get the best slots or should the resident artist get the pick of the litter? Should senior students be able to bump others? How do you guys handle the rental time scheduling? Webpage, excel, a calendar behind the bench?

#9. How do you rent ancillary equipment? Large torch, map gas bottle, pipe warmer, garage, larger glory hole.

#10. If you have 2 glory holes and one furnace but 2 marvers is it going to be ok to rent at full price for both sets of renters or should there be a "group" price for renting out the whole studio? Just trying to think of being fair to everyone evolved as they will be in each others space quite a bit and fighting for the good pipes/punts.

Anything else you would like to add.



Thanks,

Scott.
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[Glenn Randle]

Scott,

You called it "shop rental" but I keep hearing you say "students". Renters should be competent. Students should be treated as students.

I'd say as for most of your other questions, you call the shots but remember to keep the policies "simple". Don't give discounts for them bringing their own tools. If they don't have tools I'd consider them "students". They deserve a relatively full pot of good clean glass, it is your job to supply that. I wouldn't pay a rental fee and charge your furnace too.

If you have two glorys and full space for 2 blowers each one could be rented at the same time. If a "big shot" needs both of them or the full shop, charge him accordingly.

If there's too much demand for your studio and scheduling becomes a problem begin raising your rates a bit until it takes care of the demand.


Maybe some of my opinions are wrong, but they were free.:rolleyes:


Let us know how it goes.

peace,

[Ken Peterson]

In my opinion..... make sure it's worth your time money wise (include equipment repair time, depreciation, fuel, glass, etc.....). This should answer all your questions. It's easy to become too nice and end up paying yourself $5 an hour to be in the shop. I think the best scenario is to have competant renters that can do everything that way you can go to the beach and get paid $5 an hour. But they're hard to come by.

[Rob White]

Here are some answers on how we handle these things at Public Glass

#1. What kind of policy do most hotshops have about people starting up the equipment for rental time? Do you have a "start up" check list or the like? Does only one person do it? How do larger and smaller shops handle this?

Only shop personnel and a select few very experienced people are allowed to start up gloryholes. The furnace is always on, and the annealers are simple enough to start up by users who have been shown how to operate the Digitry. Renters can start the garage after receiving training.

#2. What kind of policy do most hotshops have around charging? Drop a load in after you done working at the end of the night...even if it is newbies? Just the senior students that know how to charge? Only the shop tech?

Techs charge. Renters do not unless they volunteer to help on charge days. And then they usually are helping clean and not actually charging, unless the tech decides they are compentant enough to charge correctly. No one wants to rent with a furance of poor quality glass.

#3. Should students be showing up before the "time slot" to ready equipment, blocks, tools, turn on equipment etc. Should there be a "buffer slot" to let people get in and out or is that part of the "rental time".

Instructors are responsible for set up for classess, though they have the option of teaching the students how to set up the bench and having them share the work. Most classes have a buffer before them so they slot is clear when the class starts.

#4. Should students be responsible for cleaning up? IE> turning off equipment, sweeping at the end of the night...Should this be done inside the "rental slot" or should there be a give amount of time after the rental time to clean?

Instructors are responsible for making sure the bench area is clean, but they have the students take part in the cleaning to learn the responsibility of a clean shop. The bench area need to be clean and ready to go at the end of the slot for the next user.

#5. Should students be given breaks for bringing in their own tools, blocks, pipes, molds?

No.

#6. Should you think about giving practice time for new students? Sort of an "all clear no annealer" type of deal at a reduced price? During non-rented slots (sun at 7am). Walk in turn on the glory get going just knock everything off in the recycle bucket kind of deal.

We do beginner benches which are supervised by a TA so beginners can practice on their skills. Each person is charged a reduced rate but must share a bench up to 3 per bench. If there are 3 on a bench, then the total rate ends up more than the rental slot for the time period.

#7. What kind of deal should be in place for fund raisers for the shop? If you are making pieces to be sold for a fund raiser for the shop(ornaments, tumblers, pumpkins) should that be a shop sponsored blow time or should we expect the students to donate time, talent, and pieces?

If we need items for a fundraiser besides our annual auction, we may comp the time slot for the creation of the items, with the understanding they become property of Public Glass.

#8. What kind of policy do most shops have about rental time and time slots? IE> how do you handle who gets to blow when? Should paying customers always get the best slots or should the resident artist get the pick of the litter? Should senior students be able to bump others? How do you guys handle the rental time scheduling? Webpage, excel, a calendar behind the bench?

We have a schedule based on 3 hour slots for 12 hours a day. Bumping is not allowed for rental time, everyone has equal priority. Exception is if a class has to be rescheduled or we have a special demo from a visiting artist. If we had a resident artist, scheduling would be the same as a rental slot. We use a online scheduling program that works very well for us, though we did use Apple's iCal before that for many years. Being able to see the schedule online is a bonus, but you can go with a wall posted or even a book if that works for you. The trick is to be prompt in your confirmations for rentals and classess.

#9. How do you rent ancillary equipment? Large torch, map gas bottle, pipe warmer, garage, larger glory hole.

Extra rental charges, though Mapp gas, pipe warmer, basic tools and a set amount of annealer space is included with the rental. Other shops do charge by the item, like Urban Glass in NYC.

#10. If you have 2 glory holes and one furnace but 2 marvers is it going to be ok to rent at full price for both sets of renters or should there be a "group" price for renting out the whole studio? Just trying to think of being fair to everyone evolved as they will be in each others space quite a bit and fighting for the good pipes/punts.

Experienced users usually have some of their own tools. If everyone busses the pipes and punties they use, there is usually not a problem and in our shop everyone gets along for the most part. If someone wants to rent more than one slot at a time (we have 3 benches) then they must pay full rate for each bench. Though we do may considerations for multiple rentals from time to time depending on the time of year and demand.

Anything else you would like to add.

Make sure you calculate what it cost to run one bench in energy and glass per hour or slot. This will help you decide if you can afford to offer discounts.

Also figure out your daily average operating expenses including fixed costs like rent, insurance, payroll, etc. along with the expendable costs. Though each month should have different gross operation costs, take a month's expenses and divide it by the number of rental days in that month. Try to include expendables like paddles, blocks, mitts, etc in that average. That will give you how much you need to make each day to break even. Figure out your utilization rate (50% is good for paid slots) and that will give you a guideline on how much you need to charge per hour or slot for usage to keep your books in the black.

Becareful of offering promotional discounts of a long time period, like where someone can purchase a block of slots upfront at a discount and use them over several months. Though you will get a large sum of cash for that month you collect, you will get nothing for the following months until that block is used up.

Trade time is a good way to get people to help with shop maintenance, but be carefull not to use it for everything or you will have everyone working on trade and no income for the shop.

Hope this helps

Rob White
www.publicglass.org

[Jeff Hoover]

A few randow thoughts from where I work:

"students" can't rent. They have to be cleared as "renters" first.

"students" use shop tools and class color. If they bring their own tools or color into class, no discount on tuituion.

A "slot" gets you clear glass, one set of hand tools, the mapp torch, blocks, a glory hole, a bench, a marver, the pipe warmer, the pickup box and the annealer. The bench in front of the big glory costs more per hour. Color is by weight.

You get a small discount on a rental slot if you use your own jacks and either only marver or have your own blocks.

Renters are in two grades. There are a handful of uber-renters (my term only) who have solid studio training and are trusted to run the shop and light equipment. Most folks may only rent when someone approved will be there to light up and shut down.

If you personally aren't lighting up and shutting down, your ass is still on the line when someone else is. You'd better have great confidence in the skills and personal responsability of anyone you let be an uber-renter.

If you want anyone to make stuff to raise funds for the studio, you're going to have to make it a free slot with free color, in my judgement.

[Rich Samuel]

I haven't worked at Pratt in years, but when I was last there the routine was very similar to Rob's at Public Glass. Here are a few exceptions:

1) All shop users had to make a visit (well in advance of their first blow slot) in order to walk the glass tech through the routines of starting up the glory holes and annealers, as well as demonstrating knowledge of the locations and uses of all safety equipment. After showing you knew what you were doing you'd receive an "access card." This also applied to coldworking equipment.

2) Students and/or renters, after being trained, could come in at night to charge. There was a small discount on blow slots for this.

3) There was a ten-minute clean-up/prep "gap" between blow slots, though if you needed more time to set up (cut color, arrange cane, etc.) you were welcome to come in earlier so long as you didn't get in anyone's way.

4) Everyone was required to clean-up after their slots, regardless of time of day.

5) Same as Rob.

6) No beginner deals.

7) Same as Rob. Pratt schedules a c-ball blow for the Christmas sale.

8) Same as Rob, though slots were four hours. Prior to each quarter Pratt had (has?) a glass users meeting where renters put their names in a hat and you got to choose available slots as names were drawn. That was followed by lots of "horse trading" until most people were satisfied.

9) I believe there's an extra charge for the garage and additional annealer space. This was being debated at the time I left, so I could be mistaken.

10) Same as Rob.

Also:

A) Pratt had a 48-hour cancellation policy. If you cancelled in less than that time you still had to pay for the slot. (This wasn't enforced if someone jumped in and took the slot, of course.) The exception was during the Summer, when you could cancel the same day if the temperature was above 80.

B) All renters had to sign a short waiver absolving Pratt of any responsibility for injuries, stolen tools, stolen and/or damaged product, and anything else they could think of.

C) Pieces had to be picked up within two weeks of coming out of the annealer, or they were either tossed or became Pratt's property.

D) Pratt charges fees for coldworking and sandblasting time, both of which used to be included in the slot rental fee.

As is often the case, all of these rules are extremely flexible, depending on momentary economics, politics, and, for all I know, phases of the moon. ;)

[Scott Novota]

I guess I should clear something up. I ment to say renters not students.

Also I added some questions that I had personally, as well as some that have been asked of me by other renters. I wanted to answer them as if it was a standard answer across all shops, and not just my idea how it should be. That way not only would I not have unrealistic expectations myself but I would not pass them on to other renters and cause friction.

Our shop actually runs very well right now with the number of people that rent and it is a joy to work in (we could use more pipes and punts but what shop doesn't need more?). I just see it getting more popular and wanted to know how some of the other shops are run. That way maybe I can help suggest a plan of action for the future.

Thanks for all the great info so far. I will sit down when this looses steam and collect everyones suggestions and talk with the our shop guys and see what we can implement.


Scott.
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[Laura Doerger-Roberts]

As a longtime renter, I can give you the customer perspective on these and what I've experienced in various shops. My post is also peppered with the "Business Owner" perspective, as I am a decent glass hobbyist, but a damn fine business owner. :D

#1. What kind of policy do most hotshops have about people starting up the equipment for rental time? Do you have a "start up" check list or the like? Does only one person do it? How do larger and smaller shops handle this?

This varies shop to shop, but the shops with open doors and open start up procedures end up losing out by those who aren't honest about their time. Unfortunately, like other addicts, some renters will do whatever they have to...

Also, when a tech isn't monitoring what's going on, if someone doesn't show up, or turns the hole of early or something of that nature, the next renter may come in to a cold hole. A renter should expect to come in a the specified time to a hot hole and a sufficient level of good glass.

#2. What kind of policy do most hotshops have around charging? Drop a load in after you done working at the end of the night...even if it is newbies? Just the senior students that know how to charge? Only the shop tech?

People who pay to use the facility should not charge. There are HAZ MAT issues and these folks are not your employees. Only you or your employees should charge. Even if the renter volunteers to do it, you still have liability.

#3. Should students be showing up before the "time slot" to ready equipment, blocks, tools, turn on equipment etc. Should there be a "buffer slot" to let people get in and out or is that part of the "rental time".

The renter pays for the time, however they use it. If they don't show up beforehand to get their color ready, setup, etc. then they're paying $20-$50 per hour to dick around with getting set up. That's their choice. Also, if they get there late, same deal. The hole is on, the meter is ticking.

#4. Should students be responsible for cleaning up? IE> turning off equipment, sweeping at the end of the night...Should this be done inside the "rental slot" or should there be a give amount of time after the rental time to clean?

Every slot, every time. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to sweep, clean up the tools, etc. If the next renter is there, they may say, "Hey, I'll do it at the end of my slot, just let me on the pad" or may request that the tools be left out or whatever, but the expectation should be that the renter arrives to a clean pad, and leaves a clean pad. $10 clean up fee if they don't do it, but you have to have a tech around to levy the charge and do the clean up.

#5. Should students be given breaks for bringing in their own tools, blocks, pipes, molds?

Nope. Good for them if they've got their own stuff, but you'll spend a lifetime haggling over the $3 here or there "But I didn't USE Any blocks that day..."

#6. Should you think about giving practice time for new students? Sort of an "all clear no annealer" type of deal at a reduced price? During non-rented slots (sun at 7am). Walk in turn on the glory get going just knock everything off in the recycle bucket kind of deal.

Some studios have monthly "open sessions" where renters and students can meet new potential assistants, blow, create a sense of community or whatever. These are usually free or have a low cover charge.

#7. What kind of deal should be in place for fund raisers for the shop? If you are making pieces to be sold for a fund raiser for the shop(ornaments, tumblers, pumpkins) should that be a shop sponsored blow time or should we expect the students to donate time, talent, and pieces?

Renters are your customers. Nothing more. If you want to hire them to make stuff for you, you negotiate a price. The blowtime for free is usually only attractive to those whose skills aren't good enough to make anything that would raise any funds. Some people will do it out of the goodness of their hearts, donate pieces they don't like for a seconds shelf, or something of that nature, but the cleanest arrangement all around, as an answer to ALL of these questions, is to treat your renters like customers in a very business like fashion.

#8. What kind of policy do most shops have about rental time and time slots? IE> how do you handle who gets to blow when? Should paying customers always get the best slots or should the resident artist get the pick of the litter? Should senior students be able to bump others? How do you guys handle the rental time scheduling? Webpage, excel, a calendar behind the bench?

The resident artist should be able to chose his/her slots at the beginning of each month, or a month in advance or something like that. After that, the person who pays in advance for their slot gets whatever slot is available. Paying in advance is the best way to handle slot reservations and is the easiest way to keep the funds for no-shows. I usually pay a few weeks or a month at a time and just keep paying in when my always positive account balance gets low. A prudent business person would not give blow time on account unless there was some sort of contractual promissory note and a good deal of history.

#9. How do you rent ancillary equipment? Large torch, map gas bottle, pipe warmer, garage, larger glory hole.

Pipe warmer & mapp gas are included. Each hole has its own hourly rate, as does the color box, garage, and extra annealer space. Also, some shops charge for excess glass usage for glass over 10 lbs/ per hour, or whatever. This involves weighing pieces and designating specific crackoff bins for each bench and weighing the scrap. It's a lot of work, but if you've got someone making Josh Simpson orbs, you have to allow for the expense of additional raw materials, down time with more frequent charges, etc.

#10. If you have 2 glory holes and one furnace but 2 marvers is it going to be ok to rent at full price for both sets of renters or should there be a "group" price for renting out the whole studio? Just trying to think of being fair to everyone evolved as they will be in each others space quite a bit and fighting for the good pipes/punts.

Yes. Full price for both. You are using the same amount of gas as if they were renting separately, and that is certainly the largest chunk of your cost.

Anything else you would like to add.

"good pipes and punts". Hmm. If you're renting space to people. There should be at least 3 good standard pipes per slot. One in use, one in the pipe warmer, one in the bucket. Same with decent tools. If they're included in the rental price, they should be in decent condition. Some studios rent out a set of "advanced tools" like large jacks, cup jacks, small tweezers, tag, etc. These are much more likely to get snagged and need shop tech approval for rental. Something like $10 for the slot is fair for access to the unusual tools.

A really simple computer accounting program and a big dry-erase wall calendar should make this fairly easy. The last thing you want to do is to sacrifice your own personal time, whether it be blow time, time with your kids, time at the beach, whatever, to administer an overly complicated rental program. You have a price list, a policy for paying in advance, a shop tech to turn things on and off at the appropriate times and to write on the board what was used in the slot and someone to enter it and all the payments into the computer. On the calendar, it may say something like "LAURA - GH #2 - garage- color box 10am - 2pm."

It may seem really wierd to do this kind of stuff to your friends, as commonly the shop owner or studio director is friends with the renters, but having very clear policies that apply to everyone makes your job as the studio owner both easier and profitable.

Of Course, these are just one gal's opinions and recommendations.

[Scott Novota]

Awesome, I can fell my attitudes towards how I rent changing on some topics as I have been reading this.

The "Come to a clean shop, leave to a clean shop" being the best way to put this out there. I have to admit I have always got my ass in a twist about cleaning durring my rent slot. I have always figured that if no one is renting behind me I could just work up until the minute that my time ran out then start cleaning. It seems I have been incorrect in assuming renting the slot ment I was paying for use not to clean and that I could just clean after my slot.

I also like the idea of the shared work time with the new renters, we did something like this a long time ago but it has taken a back seat. I also think the shop should work in a policy about donated work, or shop work for resale or fund raisers.

Thanks for all the information, I think you guys have really opened up my eyes a bit to some of the issues. That not only I have personally but others as well.


Scott.
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[Dan Ellis]

At the shop where I work we deal with this all the time.

#1. What kind of policy do most hot shops have about people starting up the equipment for rental time? Do you have a "start up" checklist or the like? Does only one person do it? How do larger and smaller shops handle this?

Renters are not to start up anything. Only staff is allowed to do that. You can't be sure what your renters know about how the equipment works. You don’t want to have to deal with someone cooking their skin off or blowing up the studio because they don’t have a clue of what they’re doing.

#2. What kind of policy do most hotshops have around charging? Drop a load in after you done working at the end of the night...even if it is newbies? Just the senior students that know how to charge? Only the shop tech?

If the furnace needs charging, only staff is allowed to charge. Renters and/or students have no business charging.

#3. Should students be showing up before the "time slot" to ready equipment, blocks, tools, turn on equipment etc. Should there be a "buffer slot" to let people get in and out or is that part of the "rental time".

Renters rent 4-hour slots. Gloryholes are hot when its time to start and (to some degree) what they use that time for is their business, they are paying for it. If they're farting around talking or setting up, it's their $$. We have three 4-hour slots a day with a half hour between them for clean-up/set-up.

#4. Should students be responsible for cleaning up? IE> turning off equipment, sweeping at the end of the night...Should this be done inside the "rental slot" or should there be a give amount of time after the rental time to clean?

Renters are responsible for cleaning after themselves at the end of each slot. They are not responsible for shutting down equipment.

#5. Should students be given breaks for bringing in their own tools, blocks, pipes, molds?

Nope. Sooner or later you'll be spending time arguing with people who have a pair of jacks (or something else) but nothing else and want a break on price.

#6. Should you think about giving practice time for new students? Sort of an "all clear no annealer" type of deal at a reduced price? During non-rented slots (sun at 7am). Walk in turn on the glory get going just knock everything off in the recycle bucket kind of deal.

You'll probably end up with more waste and it’ll cost you more then you think. We used to have a "Second Saturday" night each month that was free for anyone who showed up that people could practice for free and meeting potential partners.

#7. What kind of deal should be in place for fund raisers for the shop? If you are making pieces to be sold for a fund raiser for the shop(ornaments, tumblers, pumpkins) should that be a shop sponsored blow time or should we expect the students to donate time, talent, and pieces?

Our staff gets together to do this. The studio supplies flame, clear and color and the staff makes stuff. Now and then we'll have renters or students come in and help with the understanding that anything they make will belong to the studio. No one bitches because they get free practice time.

#8. What kind of policy do most shops have about rental time and time slots? IE> how do you handle who gets to blow when? Should paying customers always get the best slots or should the resident artist get the pick of the litter? Should senior students be able to bump others? How do you guys handle the rental time scheduling? Webpage, excel, a calendar behind the bench?

First come, first serve. We have a year long calendar and we sign up for slots wherever there's an empty slot. No one bumps anyone. Once in a while someone might get moved to a different glory hole because of a class or special event but no one gets bumped. If some big cheese famous glass blower comes in and expects everyone to drop what they’re doing for them they’ll be pretty disappointed. Ok, maybe if Lino stopped by but otherwise forget that.

#9. How do you rent ancillary equipment? Large torch, map gas bottle, pipe warmer, garage, larger glory hole.

Except for the pipe warmer, all that would be extra.

#10. If you have 2 glory holes and one furnace but 2 marvers is it going to be ok to rent at full price for both sets of renters or should there be a "group" price for renting out the whole studio? Just trying to think of being fair to everyone evolved as they will be in each others space quite a bit and fighting for the good pipes/punts.

Full price for each.

[Richard Huntrods]

Speaking as a one-time renter, I only want to expand on one point.

#3. Should students be showing up before the "time slot" to ready equipment, blocks, tools, turn on equipment etc. Should there be a "buffer slot" to let people get in and out or is that part of the "rental time".

I really like the idea of a 1/2 hour (or whatever) buffer between blow slots.

There is nothing worse than "being in the groove" making stuff, when you turn to use the marver... and some asshole is there early and putting his shit on said marver.

(this has been my experience at Series in Red Deer, not when renting in Calgary).

There need to be clear rules that go beyond a simple "keep out of the current renter's way". If I am paying good money for a blow slot (even in a course) then I don't what some hog-asshole encroaching on that slot for any reason. Sometimes, when you're concentrating, even having someone dinking around elsewhere in the shop can be a bad distraction.

Now, if you decide that "tough shit", then at least post that as a clear policy. Otherwise, I'd say "no coming in early".

-R

[Laura Doerger-Roberts]

The buffer zone is nice for when you are running a few minutes over, too. If you had to straighten the lip, extra this or that, had a clogged pipe or whatever, it's nice to have the few extra minutes, chargeable, of course, to finish a piece.

It also depends on how big your shop is. I'm ALWAYS in early, putting my pipes up, laying out cane patterns, getting cups in the garage, color in the box, getting in the zone, whatever, but NEVER at the expense of someone else blowing. But, we have enough space that we're not piled on top of each other, either.

[Brian Wong Shui]

#1. What kind of policy do most hotshops have about people starting up the equipment for rental time? Do you have a "start up" check list or the like? Does only one person do it? How do larger and smaller shops handle this?

Only techs start up the studio. There are liability issues of having non-employees start up. We have a startup/shutdown checklist for the studio.

#2. What kind of policy do most hotshops have around charging? Drop a load in after you done working at the end of the night...even if it is newbies? Just the senior students that know how to charge? Only the shop tech?

Only techs charge.

#3. Should students be showing up before the "time slot" to ready equipment, blocks, tools, turn on equipment etc. Should there be a "buffer slot" to let people get in and out or is that part of the "rental time".

They should show up early to get ready. (economics should force this... they start paying when their slot starts)

#4. Should students be responsible for cleaning up? IE> turning off equipment, sweeping at the end of the night...Should this be done inside the "rental slot" or should there be a give amount of time after the rental time to clean?

They leave the blowing area as they found it (clean with all the tools put away)

#5. Should students be given breaks for bringing in their own tools, blocks, pipes, molds?

No. It will just cause problems.

#6. Should you think about giving practice time for new students? Sort of an "all clear no annealer" type of deal at a reduced price? During non-rented slots (sun at 7am). Walk in turn on the glory get going just knock everything off in the recycle bucket kind of deal.

They rent time. (See Steve Stadelman's signature). If you think about it, the annealing cycle is a small cost component of the hourly cost (Assuming that you are running shared annealers)

#7. What kind of deal should be in place for fund raisers for the shop? If you are making pieces to be sold for a fund raiser for the shop(ornaments, tumblers, pumpkins) should that be a shop sponsored blow time or should we expect the students to donate time, talent, and pieces?

You shouldn't expect renters to provide pieces for fund raisers. Treat it as a business transaction.

#8. What kind of policy do most shops have about rental time and time slots? IE> how do you handle who gets to blow when? Should paying customers always get the best slots or should the resident artist get the pick of the litter? Should senior students be able to bump others? How do you guys handle the rental time scheduling? Webpage, excel, a calendar behind the bench?

Big desk calendar. First come/First Serve. No favorites.

#9. How do you rent ancillary equipment? Large torch, map gas bottle, pipe warmer, garage, larger glory hole.

Pipe Warmer included, Color Pickup Included. Different Rate for larger glory hole. Additional for garage. Rental for Torches.

#10. If you have 2 glory holes and one furnace but 2 marvers is it going to be ok to rent at full price for both sets of renters or should there be a "group" price for renting out the whole studio? Just trying to think of being fair to everyone evolved as they will be in each others space quite a bit and fighting for the good pipes/punts.

Same Rate. (You are burning 2x gas).


OK. So I have a couple more questions to add.

#11. We run shared annealers. Let say a renter puts away a piece and causes damage to other pieces blown in an earlier rental slot. What is the studio's liability?

#12. Let say someone blows something and it comes out of the annealer with a check. What is the studio's liability? All annealers are proofed with a cane test and thickness numbers are posted.

[Scott Novota]

11 & 12: happens once or twice just talk it out. Shit happens. Repeating with any kind of regularity your going to have to work something out or fix something.


Just my views.


Scott.
.

[Larry Cazes]

#8. What kind of policy do most shops have about rental time and time slots? IE> how do you handle who gets to blow when? Should paying customers always get the best slots or should the resident artist get the pick of the litter? Should senior students be able to bump others?

If you are in business to rent slots, this is a big one for me. This type of situation has caused me to NOT rent at particular studios. There should be NO favoritism given to anyone, and more importantly NO ONE should be bumped from a previously reserved slot in preference to anyone else.

[Doug Chaussee]

Re: #11 and #12

Damage to someone's piece that is caused by another renter is rare but it does happen. So far, the damage has been minor and we offered a re-do for the victim pieces. If it's gross negligence on someone's part, we'd probably discuss it with them and suggest that they work it out with the owner of the damaged piece.

Getting a check in a piece when it comes out of the box is on the blower unless we had a failure of some sort in the annealer or program. Most checks happen when a renter boxes the piece too cold or tries to move something once it's been in the box a while.

We do not bump anyone, it's first come, first served. We made two small marvers to go next to each GH and have one large one in the middle of the work area. That way each renter can lay out what they want on their marver and share the large one which is free of debris.

Other than that, we agree with most of what has been given as a response to the original questions.