It’s pretty different than home, without kids. I like both, but one is noticeably less chaotic and conducive to working than the other.
New Orleans: flowers on a fence.
I’m trying to settle back in, and focus on some tasks that I have targeted for this coming week or two; adding the last material to the DVD, tying off a few loose ends for upcoming shows and classes, updating my schedule on my web site. One of my upcoming teaching gigs has exhausted me before it even begins, with a bulging folder of answered emails detailing a lot of questions and concerns for a weekend session. Although I am really looking forward to going, and I’ve slotted in a holiday day on the beach, and I get to see Jeff and Holly, and I have several beloved students in that session, I’m fairly certain that I have worked the entire 16 hours I have been engaged to provide before my flight has even been booked. And in the end, that’s my fault for not having a standardized contract and supply list, and a set menu of classes that I teach.
It has motivated me to restart the sleeping Contract Project; I am going to get together with about 20 of my fellow fairly senior bead, glass, jewelry and metal clay instructors and draft a base contract that isn’t focused on what we charge (because that varies to be certain) but that really makes our basic needs for success clear re venues, accommodations, and reasonable expectations for travel time, work hours, and access to people beyond the students in the class, through trunk shows, talks at meetings, or Guild events. If we all need the same sort of setup, and I suspect that we do, then things get a lot simpler. If you have ten years of teaching experience in our field, and would like to participate in this (which involves sharing information) please let me know.
