Seeking theatre technician to install Gas fire

  Joe, the concept of enticing sparkies into the comeatre arena with free club membership is a damn good one. 

Lord knows, the am-dram clubs that have an in-house electrician are the envy of most others and the few "theatre friendly"sparkies that are out there are in VERY hot demand. Take the likes of the legendary Don Allen, Melville Theatre's Ian Black and "Dynamic Duo" Jeff & Jodie Hansen, Stage Left/Goldfields Rep Club's Lewis Johnson, Geraldton's Andrew Thompson, Stirling Players/PlayLover's Tony Ridout or our dearly departed Old Mill/Phoenix Theatre's Hywell Williams. It seems their phones constantly run (rang) hot with: "Hi mate, I was just wondering if you could help us with.........." phone calls. I'm not blameless here either, I have (on several occasions) called each of these people myself!

Invariably payment for their invaluable services comes in the form of Comps, a heartfelt and sincere "Thank you" and the ever presented bottle of wine...obviously nowhere near what they would get for the same job in the outside world.

Non-Theatre Electricians - Please don't get me wrong - I  am fully aware of the situation that "outsider" freelance or company employed electricians are placed in. They realise that as community theatres we have shoe-string budgets and they really do want to help but.... well, their hands are tied.

The costs of "commercial" electrical work have been explained to me thus:

When a licensed electrician sets foot into a community theatre (after having the usual initial "Oh My Effing Gawd!!! What the hell is THAT!!"  OHS related heart attack) they are required to operate as if it were an "industrial" installation - IE no pensioner discounts, no "domestic" fittings, and they are required by law to repair any faults or dodgy wiring that they find and because of the scope of work this usually involves, the fee is usually just short of astronomical. (This is assuming that they haven't backed nervously away as soon as they saw the lighting grid, to sit cowering in a corner shaking uncontrollably, muttering about extension cords, Kambrook 4 point boards and double adapters to themselves!)

Offering free club membership is a great idea, but don't stop there - make them Life Members, these guys and girls are hard to come by! I would be tempted to also offer comps to any show they wished to see throughout their membership, reserved seating in the best your company has to offer and a personal parking bay directly opposite the front door. Those clubs with a bar could also include a perpetual tab and stock the sparkies favorite tipple. After all, how much could a sparkie possibly drink???? (Note: Do NOT use Jeff as an example here.... :) )

  I can pretty much guarantee that the end cost for these perks would not come anywhere near the cost of any "commercial" work that the theatre had done and , as a club member - even if they did "have" to charge for their services - they may just offer a discount..

 P.S. No, I will not give out any numbers for the previously named theatre sparkies!! Find your own!! :p

"Each morning is the dawn of a new error" - anon.