We use a photographer from the community as we do not have a staff photographer. He automatically tacks on a 200% addition to our orders when the image needs to be turned around the same day. So we are simply passing the fees on to the person who waited until the last second to order something he/she desperately needs. These people (TV studios, magazines, publishers usually) can usually afford the fees. If you cannot rush the procedure to obtain the image, there should be no extra charge since no rush is possible. However, if the "rush" means you set aside your other work to do it, then a rush fee seems appropriate, perhaps at a lower fee than if you are covering additional expenses caused by the rush. A standard additional fee (per item?) seems like a good rule of thumb if you are giving extra service, or paying extra for the speed. However, since our lowest cost reproduction is $13 for a 4 x 5 print for which we already have a negative, the triple rush fee works out to $39, much less than that standard $100 fee. This does allow the purchaser some flexibility in figuring out what he/she needs and can afford to pay for. Rush fees are not applied all that often. The photographer is not very busy, and usually gets our orders back to us within three days without the rush fee. The rush fee simply serves as a guarantee that I will have the order sent out within 24 hours of receiving it. For us that works out to about 3-day service since it includes mailing time. We always warn people that we cannot guarantee less than a 2-week turn around. I leave it up to the purchasers whether they can wait four or five extra days. They are usually very happy when the order is sent within a week. If it takes the photographer longer (e.g., when he is out of town taking the American Dairy Association prize cow pictures), they cannot say they were not warned. Of course, if I have a readily available way to fill the order quickly, such as an already-digitized photograph they want to receive by e-mail, I will not charge extra for the quick service, simply because I don't really need to do much work. The rules we have keep me from being overly affected by sad tales that sometimes accompany the rush requests. Now on to today's rush order for 12 scanned images..... Erin Foley Archivist Circus World Museum Library 550 Water Street Baraboo, WI 53913 [log in to unmask] 608-356-8342, ext. 3283 fax 608-355-7959 ----- Original Message ----- From: Ziva Haller Rubenstein <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 3:30 AM Subject: Re: appropriate rush fees Hi Erin and others, Wow! We had a double or triple policy at first but received a number of groans in response. Clients don't always understand that in order to service their order asap you have to put some other orders aside. We now tack on a $100 rush order fee and that goes over without notice. A couple of questions for you and the list: - What are your limits or definitions within which an order is considered 'rush'? Is it only 24 hours? What about a three day treatment, for example? - What do you do if/when you do not have the photographic material readily available to supply (either you have to dupe some slides or transparencies or order a print from the lab)? (And I guess this is related to my first question) If takes at least 3-5 days to receive the material from the lab, do you still consider it a 'rush' order and charge 'em? Thanks for your time and consideration. Looking forward to reading the responses... Best wishes, Ziva Ziva Haller Rubenstein Rights & Reproductions Coordinator, Art Dept Image Resources & Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).