2010-01-28 Gmail - FW: Architecture Party

David Liao <magneticcarpet@gmail.com>

FW: Architecture Party

6 messages

Christian Bienia <cbienia@princeton.edu> Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 13:43

To: dliao@princeton.edu

So what are we going to do with the lights?

From: luke6058@gmail.com [mailto:luke6058@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Luke Smith

Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 6:48 PM
To: cbienia@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Architecture Party

Hey Chris

Not sure if you remember me - I spoke to you briefly about potentially borrowing the lighting rig for our school
party April 4th. I sent an email to gchouse, but didn't hear back as of yet. Any word on whether it might be
possible?

Kind regards

Luke

--
Luke E. Smith

School of Architecture
Princeton University
NJ 08544

Cell: 609-751-6244

David Liao <dliao@princeton.edu> Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 15:14

To: gchc@princeton.edu

Dear GCHC,

If we wished to lend the events lights, I could send the following

letter to the student who was interested in borrowing the lights for
the party at the School of Architecture.

However, I wasn't sure whether the dBar needed the lights on Thursday
April 2, which would prevent our lending fixtures before Friday April
3. The GCHC, and especially Christian Bienia who has greatest
familiarity with the lights, will be busy April 3--4 preparing for the
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2010-01-28 Gmail - FW: Architecture Party
Formal April 4.

Should we decline lending the lights in this situation out of

scheduling concerns? Also, would anyone recommend discussing this
agreement with the GSG, considering their significant financial
contribution toward the lights?

Thanks,
David Liao
Chair
Graduate College House Committee

===PROPOSED LETTER===

Dear Graduate Student Event Planner,

I am sorry for the late response. The GCHC has been discussing how
best to make the lights available for student events. We are happy to
tell you that we chose not to charge rental fees from borrowing users.

The GCHC and GSG contributed funds in 2008 to purchase this lighting
system. The GCHC is testing a program to lend the lights. We are
excited about the opportunity to share these lights with events open
to graduate students in general and making these lights available to
events in future years. If you are interested in borrowing the
lights, please fill in the form below.

We are enthusiastic about lending out the lights,

David Liao
Chair
Graduate College House Committee

Christian Bienia
Senior Special Events Chair
Graduate College House Committee

===PROPOSED AGREEMENT FOR LENDING OF GCHC EVENTS LIGHT FIXTURES===

===[Breadth of section of graduate student body that will have

opportunity to enjoy lights at user's event]===
[GCHC CONTACTS]: Senior Special Events Chair: Christian Bienia
(cbienia@Princeton.EDU) and Chair: David Liao (dliao@Princeton.EDU).
[USER NAME]:
[USER CONTACT EMAIL/PHONE/ADDRESS]:
[ELIGIBILITY]: User agrees that (a) the user is a Princeton
University graduate student or recognized University graduate-student
organization, (b) this event is free, advertised, and open to the
general graduate student body, and (c) the user agrees to register the
event and use of space as required by law and University policy as
applicable. User agrees that event literature will include the
sentence, "Event lights made possible in part by the Graduate College
House Committee and the Graduate Student Government." We hope that
this sentence will advertise to students the opportunity to use these
light fixtures to enhance future events.
[EVENT DATE, TIME, and LOCATION]:
[EVENT TITLE and SHORT DESCRIPTION]:

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===[Exchanges, payments, and duties]===
[EQUIPMENT]: List the model names, model numbers, and serial numbers
of all equipment to be lent:
* Item 1
* Item 2
*...

[NO RENTAL FEE]: The GCHC charges *no* rental fee for the light fixtures.

[USER MUST SUBMIT DAMAGE DEPOSIT]: The user must submit to the
Special Events Chair a damage deposit check as the Special Events
chair hands over the lights. The Special Events chair shall
immediately destroy or return the check if the user returns the lights
in a condition to the satisfaction of the Special Events Chair. The
user agrees to return borrowed lights by the Return date. The user
agrees that the Special Events Chair can determine that any lights
returned are not in satisfactory condition and thus Lost.

[USER MUST REMEDY DAMAGED AND LOST EQUIPMENT]: The user agrees to
remedy Lost equipment within 45 days of the Return date by (a)
purchasing and delivering to the GCHC identical replacements or
similar products no less than equal in function and quality, as
determined by written vendor advice or (b) paying by cash, check, or
University internal account transfer the replacement cost as
determined by the GCHC or the maximum replacement fee below, whichever
is less. The Special Events Chair agrees to quote the GCHC's
replacement cost within 5 days of damage reports. The user agrees to
notify the GCHC in writing within 10 days of the Return date whether
the user chooses to remedy damages by method (a) or method (b). If
the user chooses a replacement method that costs less than the damage
deposit, the Special Events Chair shall reimburse the user for unused
safety deposit funds by check within 10 days of replacement delivery
to the GCHC.

[DAMAGE DEPOSIT]: $400.00 per event

[MAXIMUM REPLACEMENT FEE]: $4000.00 per event

[PICK-UP DATE, TIME, and LOCATION]: The Special Events Chair

organizes and runs special events throughout the year. We might not
be able to satisfy your first choices for pick-up and drop-off
times/locations.

[RETURN DATE, TIME, and LOCATION]:

[SPECIAL EVENTS CHAIR DUTIES]: The Special Events Chair agrees to be

ready at specified pick-up and drop-off times and locations to
exchange/return/destroy deposit checks and record in writing the
condition of returned equipment.

===[Safety and technical operation]===

[SAFETY]: The user agrees not to violate fire and electrical safety
rules, regulations, and obvious hazards, for example, power cords that
could cause guests to trip, unstable placement of lights and trusses
that could fall and expose guests to shattered glass, or blocked
exits. The user must agree to take full responsibility for the safe
operation of the light fixtures according to manufacturer's manuals.

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The GCHC declines to lend the lights to any user who does not (a)
state familiarity with legal safety regulations, University safety
policies, and the manufacturer's recommended procedures and thus (b)
accept legal responsibility for the safe operation of the borrowed
lights. The user may request the Special Events Chair to email a
manifest of the light fixtures with model numbers and short
descriptions to help find further manufacturer and safety concerns.

[OPERATION]: While operation complexity varies with the number of

lights lent, the user understands that the GCHC recommends new users
spend at least a couple hours working with borrowed lights before
planned events. The GCHC suggests that the user pick-up the lights at
least a day in advance of a planned event. The Special Events Chair
and dBar czar Nick Skizim might be able to accelerate user practice by
demonstrating features of the lighting system, but such assistance is
not a part of this agreement. Such assistance depends on separate
personal negotiation and scheduling.

===[Requests and suggestions]===

[SPECIAL REQUESTS]: Please use this field to describe special
requests. What duties need to be changed or added to the form-text?

[COMMENTS]: Is there a kind of light you would like to see in the

GCHC's collection? What lights are most appropriate for your event
and why?

===[Agreement]===
[JURISDICTION]: This agreement will be interpreted under the laws of
the State of New Jersey.

[AGREEMENT]: Please feel free to change the entries in this form and
exchange revisions. This form requires the agreement of three
parties, the Graduate College House Committee Chair David Liao, the
Special Events Chair Christian Bienia, and the prospective user. When
satisfied with a draft, a party may sign this form electronically by
quoting it in an email, along with a declaration of agreement, to both
of the other parties. DO NOT SIGN THIS AGREEMENT IF YOU ARE NOT
SATISFIED WITH ITS TERMS.

[NOTIFICATIONS]: All notifications required in this agreement must be

sent in writing to all parties.
[Quoted text hidden]

--
PhD Candidate
Department of Physics
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Giri Parameswaran <gparames@princeton.edu> Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 18:26

To: gchc@princeton.edu

I am in favour of making the lights accessible broadly

A few comments:
1) Regarding contacts.... lets dispense with the seniority in Special Events Chairs, and just make both SECs
contacts.
2) Eligibility: why do we require the event to be free? I'm happy with everything else.

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3) $400 deposit seems steep. How about $200?
4) Remedy for lost equipment - increase payment due date to 90 days.

I would also include a comment somewhere that GCHC and GSG events trump other events, and that priority of
access will be given to these organisations.

Question: I can see the value in having this contract, but are we serious about enforcing this? The contract calls
for an individual student to be liable for up to $4,000. Even if there are damages, I would hope we never seek to
recover money from students, or if we do, that we don't do much more than confiscate the deposit. Certainly, I
hope there is no suggestion that we would seek recourse to the law if the student refused to pay.

With those comments, I note my satisfaction with sharing our facilities with the graduate student body.

I will urge the GSG to adopt a policy along these lines.

Giri
[Quoted text hidden]

Giri Parameswaran <gparames@princeton.edu> Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 18:49

To: gchc@princeton.edu

Two more comments:

1) Consider changing the wording of the document so that it refers to Officers by their title, rather than by name
individually. The agreement is between the GC House and the outside party, not between David and Christian and
the outside party. David and Christian sign in their capacity as GCHC Officers. So, for example, the "Agreement"
Section should read:

"This form requires the agreement of three parties, the Chair of the Graduate College House Committee, one of
the Special Events Chairs, and the prospective user."

Clearly when it is signed, the relevant officer will sign their name. Similar changes should be made throughout,
with the only exception being to provide contact details for the relevant people.

2) Consider broadening the group of people who have authority to sign out the lights. Currently if either the chair
or the senior SEC are absent, groups will be unable to borrow the lights. Instead consider something like the
following: 2 GCHC officers must sign; one of the signatories must be a SEC (either one); the other signatory
must be either the Chair or the Assistant Chair. (Possibly broaden the group further to include Secretary and
Treasurer).

3) You might want to consider what authority the GSG has to loan out the equipment. The GSG technically owns
roughly half the equipment......

Giri
[Quoted text hidden]

Christian Bienia <cbienia@princeton.edu> Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 21:53

To: gchc@princeton.edu

Hi Dave,

Thanks for working out the contract. Here are a few comments:

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* I initially chose $400 as the deposit amount because this is about the cost to replace one of the
more expensive lights.

* We should have a clear idea what we’ll do in the following cases:

1.) Minor damage (light still works but impaired functionality)
2.) One light completely broken ($200 - $400 damage)
3.) Total loss of all lights ($4000 damage)

Cases 1-2 are mostly harmless, but case #3 can get very ugly. Are we going to take legal steps to
get the money in the worst case?

* As an absolute minimum somebody will have to plug in and check every light to make sure that they
all still work. This is easy to do but will take about 20 min.

An intermediate step would be to buy insurance for the lights. If they all break (or some of them) we’ll
be able to replace the damage easily. Moreover, we might be able to get an insurance contract that
allows us to pay a premium for each event we use the lights for. Ideally it’ll work as follows:

* GCHC negotiates a framework insurance contract with somebody

* Whoever wants to use the lights signs the insurance contract and pays the insurance money
directly to the insurer
* The lights can be picked up if proof of insurance is presented to the GCHC

If we can’t get such a framework agreement we can still buy an ordinary property insurance and
simply pay the annual cost. Shouldn’t be too much.

- Chris

From: GC House Committee Internal List [mailto:gchc@Princeton.EDU] On Behalf Of Giri Parameswaran

Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 7:50 PM
To: gchc@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: FW: Architecture Party

[Quoted text hidden]

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2010-01-28 Gmail - FW: Architecture Party
David Liao <dliao@princeton.edu> Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 12:11
To: Christian Bienia <cbienia@princeton.edu>
Cc: gchc@princeton.edu

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the comments so far. They are all very thoughtful and
helpful. I am very interested in Chris's discussion of requiring
borrowers to provide proof of insurance.

I would like to tell Luke from the School of Architecture that we are
still working out the details of a contract and that the GCHC is very
busy during the weekend of his request, so we cannot lend the lights
to him. I'll email Luke in a day if no one proposes otherwise.

I want to make sure that the contract addresses the possibility of

total loss, but there is sufficient concern in this thread about
requiring/enforcing a $4000 payment. We can think about Chris's
insurance suggestion. We might want to talk to the Office of Risk
Management. If the policies of the ORM made it difficult for
University-related organizations to pay for a particular kind of
insurance policy from a particular vendor, I would want to avoid
requiring borrowers to provide proof for that kind of insurance
policy. I think we will need more than two weeks to determine the
best way we might require proof of insurance.

Thanks so much for your comments,

David Liao
Chair
Graduate College House Committee

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 10:53 PM, Christian Bienia

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