Apologies for hijacking the post.  I don't know how to make a general post but I need your help.  Does anyone have a sample agreement or contract to create customized puppets for clients - an agreement that would list the terms and conditions, cost of making a customized puppet?  If so, can you share it with me by emailing it to .  Thanks much! 

I split your topic off and moved it to Open Discussion. There is a link when you are in an area to the far right at the top of the list of topics that allows you to Post a new topic.  

I noticed you mentioned in the topic about "real jobs" that you are a paralegal or legal assistant... is that right?  I would bet you would know better what a contract needs to be. I guess maybe more then anything you are interested to know what types of terms and conditions may be specific to puppet build. For one you should always require a percentage up front that would at the very least cover cost of materials with the remainder do on completion of the puppet. I personally would never send the puppet off to the client without having full payment. Clients often keep changing their mind about what they actually want in a puppet so limiting the number of changes they can make to a design should be addressed. It is important I think to have the time frame established of when the puppet needs to be completed and delivered.

All that being said I think many puppeteers work without an actual written contract. I know most of the projects I've worked on have been that way.

Thank you so much Shawn for moving the post and for all you tips!  Yes, I'm a legal secretary.  I thought it would be best to ask the group for an agreement that's specific to a customized puppet build instead of me drafting a new agreement from scratch and thus re-creating the wheel.  I don't have a lot of time.  You're so right about clients changing their mind! I'm working on my first corporate order and wanted to be more formal than I have with individual clients.

Your advice is invaluable.  Thank you so much!

Is there some sort of arts union that applies to puppeteers in the US? Here in Australia puppeteers come under the umbrella of MEAA, which is the actor's union (they also cover other arts areas, such as writers/journalists, and so on). The union here used to, or still does, offer downloadable contracts that are stock-standard and you just edit as necessary.

We also have a local arts/law organisation which specifically offers info, advice and downloadable contracts for a range of artists.

Surely one of those exists in America?

There is no union for puppeteers.  I guess they could join Actors' Equity Association (AEA) which is the actors union but I doubt it would give them much protection or be of any use.  There is American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) which would be a better fit but you still would not get much out of it. The problem is these unions are just not that strong any more here in the US.  There are so many theaters and venues that do not contract with the Unions since the majority of states are right to work states.

Sounds like how it is in Australia. Our union is not really a 'must'; most actors join mainly because it offers a certain level of protection. That is, if you're scammed, you can rely on the union to go after the culprits or otherwise provide legal services. Outside of that, I can't think of much else they're good for outside of lobbying the government for higher rates, etc. (Journalism is different, because obviously, you need official press passes, etc) However, if you're producing a professional show, are a pro actor/techie, you don't need to be part of the union in order to do anything or obtain pro rates. I guess it's mainly because most of our shows here are produced independently, a union isn't going to provide much protection or regulations be implemented with tight regulation.

Incidentally, I never joined the union here for one reason: cost. Since my work often comes under two different headings (theatre tech. and writing/journalism) and the dues are divised based on a sliding scale/your income, I got quoted double the fees. I would have been shelling out more than 1k per year for the privilige of saying I'm part of the union.

... But I digress. I never had to join my local union to use their downloadable contracts. They were available for free - no login required even - from a 'resources' section on their website. It was pretty much a boilerplate contract for artists. I remember one was specifically for co-operative productions where you have the actors/crew putting in their own money for profit-share; another was for a professional show; etc. The arts/law organisation which is seperate to the union, also had contracts for free on their website; boilerplates for artists' commissions, music contracts, etc. The more complicated contracts required a fee to obtain, but it wasn't much.

I just would have thought that if we had something like that here in Australia, that someone somewhere in the US has also come up with something similar. Surely there's a state/federal copyright/law/arts organisation that has boilerplate contracts available?

-- I'd actually be interested in comparing. I've just been looking up info on my state/federal laws on what details I have to put on product labels. I stumbled onto some of the American laws because I actually find the info on our government's website to be particularly vague and wanted some comparisons. It's interesting to see that American toy labelling is far more stringent than the Australian ones, and it gives me a better idea of what other issues to consider than just what my federal/state laws say. (Particularly as I think state laws don't exist here for products. My state government business website just points towards the federal one)

Ahem, sorry to once again derail