Getting Ready for Summer (Intensive)
Here's a checklist...
The Program Director should
1. Determine whether you owe any licensing fees or royalties or have any other obligations to any other entity. At some point, a relationship between your program and a performing company or out-of-town professional training school may have been beneficial in terms of marketing your summer program and casting a wider net for talented students. Carefully review the agreement establishing the relationship (first, you may have to find it!) and forward it to your attorney. Old agreements can be full of surprises: you may be liable for royalties for the use of the name, or you may be required to hire guest teachers or artists-in-residence. On the other hand, you may be entitled to choreography or other active participation from the other entity. Unless the agreement expired or was terminated (in which case you may be in trouble for still using the name), it could be valid and enforceable. And a problem.
2. Review your contracts with faculty and staff. If you intend to have independent contractors, rather than employees, make sure the contracts conform to the criteria creating a 1099 relationship and not a W-2 headache. Since summer intensive courses typically feature guest teachers for a week or two instead of the whole session, directors may prefer to avoid the whole independent contractor issue and offer an honorarium or daily expenses instead of a regular paycheck. This is technical: get expert legal advice.
3. Arrange for waivers of liability from faculty and support staff, as well as students. You should be protected against liability for injuries suffered on, and off, your premises and for loss or damage to personal property, especially if you provide or arrange for residences in connection with your program. For example, if students of yours trash a rental unit that was made available exclusively to your program, you do not want to be responsible to the landlord. Students should be required to provide medical permission to participate in the program (it is "intensive", after all), but it may also be a good idea to have faculty and staff provide similar written assurance that they are healthy enough to perform and complete their contractual obligations.
4. Think about other consent forms that will protect you against claims. If you intend to screen students for physical conditions like scoliosis, make sure you get written parental permission. And establish a privacy policy so that the results stay confidential. If you intend to photograph or video classes, rehearsals, or performances, you should obtain written consent from faculty and staff to use those images, as well as from students. Remember that most of your students are still minors. Get written consent from parents or guardians. Consent from the minor will not be sufficient to protect you.
5. Request detailed lists of recorded music that your faculty or guest choreographers intend to use in class and for performances. You should make it part of their job to determine whether the music is protected by copyright, and to obtain required permissions. Because you, not they, will be responsible for the payment of royalties.
6. Get paid. Establish a twenty-first century billing and collection system. Consult a techno-geek to find and install billing software and teach you and your office staff how to use it. Don't wait until next winter to consult a collection lawyer for this summer's tuition.
This list is suggestive, not exhaustive. Consult your attorney while you set up your program.