Block #11: Contracts and Deposits
Contracts
Presenters always remember that this is a business, and you need to protect your interests.
If someone tells you that you don't need a contract when booking a school visit, they would be giving you some bad advice. Schools are run by people, who in most cases play by the rules, but in some cases, they just don't. They are human and people sometimes make decisions based on what is good for them, without consideration of what is proper and what is not, or what is legal and what is not.
Why would a coordinator book and then cancel?
- They booked to hold their spot while they figured out what they want to do (It happens)
- They booked before being approved by the board and didn't get approval (It happens)
- They were waiting on a grant that didn't come through (This happens all the time.)
- They found someone cheaper (It happens)
- They found someone free (This happened to me in 2024)
- They decided to go in a different direction (This happened to me in 2025)
- Something in the school schedule conflicted with your event (It happens)
- They forgot the fifth graders had a class trip that day (This happened to me in 2025)
- Administration decided they just didn't want to do it (In 2009 I had this happen two weeks before the visit and lost the job. This was the last visit I booked without a contract.)
- The person who booked didn't have approval to book you (This happened to me in 2019)
- Not enough people signed up for the night show
I have been booking programs for 18 years and I have had school coordinators and/or administrators try and cancel dates. All the reason stated above are from experience, they are not made up. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and without a contract, it can make it harder to collect what you are owed.
Most coordinators that walk away, will do it within the first couple of weeks of you issuing a contract. So, if they seem to be dragging their feet, they probably are, and this when you will most often hear, that they went with someone else, or they went in another direction. This sort of thing happens almost every year. It's so frustrating, it's disappointing, but if it happens quickly then no harm.
Keep in mind, a coordinator's e-mail that tells you that they are booking, is a show of intent to book. Any e-mails that show intent to book is considered a contract, from that date on, in most states. But you still should keep all e-mail correspondences until the written contract is in hand, and the visit has been completed.
If the e-mail is a binding commitment, then why worry about a written contract? Because most people won't try and outmaneuver a written contract. Your written contract should cover everything that comes with the day, everything that you need to fulfill your end of the contract, and that is expected of the buyer. This way there are no grey areas, and no way to wriggle out of the commitment.
Deposits
Every school that wants to be included on my school tour is asked to pay a non-refundable deposit. The deposit assures that all schools who book my time will at some point fulfill their contracted obligations. Money paid means they are now invested in the day actually happening as planned, whether it is on the date scheduled, or sometime in the future if something gets in the way.
It will also assure that travel fees aren't paid out of the performers pocket as this can become a financial burden. And if payment becomes an issue at the end for any reason, at least the expenses have been covered, and/or you have something in hand covering possible losses.
Things happen, payments can be delayed, and events can get disrupted, but a postponement shouldn't negate the school's obligation to fulfill the contract. Why is this?
- Because we sell our time, and time is gauged by the dates on the calendar.
- Cancelations become lost revenue
- Cancelations leave gaps and gaps can create unpaid cost if you're cluster booking
- Cancelations create unbookable dates
If a school schedules a visit and then removes themselves from the touring schedule they leave a gap. Depending on where in the booking season you are, this gap day will likely become unbookable. So now you are left with an open date that could have been sold to another school.
In order to both satisfy the buyer and mitigated the loses, I suggest giving all schools the right to reschedule, but never to cancel. It doesn't take away the sting of losing a day on the schedule, but at least the loss is limited to just the booking date and not the school who needs to postpone. And that goes for weather conflicts as well.
Weather issues happen every year and believe it or not, you might come across an administrator who would rather cancel the event than try and reschedule.
Keep this in mind moving forward. If you give a buyer an out clause, you will get people who will take advantage of it.
Having a "No Cancelation Clause":
I have never lost a booking because of my no cancelation clause. No coordinator should even be thinking about canceling when you are in the booking stage. Weather delays, and weather-related rescheduling should be addressed in the contract, as that is a question asked in the booking stage.
Scheduling a tour is complicated, and once a school is added to the schedule, I begin booking other schools around them based on their location. So, there is no canceling allowed at that point for any reason, with the exception of rescheduling for a weather event. Rescheduling, not canceling.