Digital BW, The Print

I recently coordinated a print exchange on the Piezography list, and today I
posted a few comments on the process. Since it looks like an exchange is
about to kickoff here, I thought this might be useful.

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Since the dust has now settled from the first print exchange, I wanted send
out a little note with some advice for anyone who wants to coordinate a
future exchange. Sorry I didn't get around to this before the second
exchange got started, but hopefully Siobhan will add some tips to this based
on her experience as well.


1. Decide on the size of the exchange before you start.

I spent a lot of time in the beginning trying to figure out who was
interested, then what size group they wanted to be in, then configuring the
groups, and reconfiguring them, etc. If I had just decided that it was going
to be, say, a 30 print exchange, and limited it to that from the beginning,
then I would have avoided a lot of confusion. Of course, I wasn't really
sure since I had never done it before, and I was too much of sucker to turn
anyone away. So I wound up with 3 different groups, which frankly, was a bit
too much to handle. 30 is a nice round size that most people seemed
comfortable with. For a smaller group that's a little less work, try 10.
Don't do more than one group at a time, it will drive you nuts.


2. Keep good records.

Once you start off an exchange, you will get a LOT of email, both on and off
list. I recommend creating a folder and saving ALL the messages you get
related to the exchange so you can go back to them if you need to. And
create an Excel file right from the start where you can track all the
participants, when you heard from them, when their packages arrived, when
you shipped their packages, etc. Some people will inevitably drop out, and
some people will disappear and you will never hear from them again, so keep
a waiting list, and be prepared to juggle things around at the last minute.


3. Packaging.

This is by far the most time consuming part of coordinating the exchange. I
had to re-package about 90 percent of the prints, because of failure to
follow directions, and my own stupid recommendations. If you are going to
have participants from outside the US (and let's hope that ALL the exchanges
will) you have to account for the fact that standard paper sizes in the US
are different from the metric sizes in the rest of the world. If you ship
your prints in a leftover paper box that exactly fits the size of your
paper, then the prints that are coming back to you WILL NOT fit in that box.
I sort of shot myself in the foot, because even though I knew this and made
it clear in the instructions for the exchange, I later recommended using a
paper box to pack the prints in, and that's how most of them arrived.

Sorting all the prints was somewhat comical, especially for the large group;
I had piles of prints all over my apartment for days. The few that had the
print and info sheet ready to go in plastic binder sleeves were by far the
easiest to handle, because I didn't have to worry about separating them
correctly, and I didn't have to be as worried about damaging them. There is
a special place in hell reserved for the people who did not even bother to
collate their prints and info sheets (just kidding). Plastic sleeves are
definitely the way to go.

Several people made a genius discovery for boxing the prints, and it made my
life a LOT easier. The USPS and FedEx both have a small size box that fits
exactly inside their next larger size box. Pack the prints in the small box,
and put the return address/postage/airbill on it, but don't seal it. Put the
small box inside the larger box and ship the whole thing to the coordinator.
That way the return box is all ready to go, the coordinator just has to put
the prints in it, seal it, and drop it off.

If you can get everyone to use plastic sleeves, make sure their packaging
accommodates some variety in the size of prints, and use the double-box
trick, you could easily sort and pack a 30 print exchange in one sitting.


4. Return postage.

I wanted to be as accommodating as possible, so I didn't get too picky about
the return postage. But the people who went to the trouble of arranging the
return postage and filling out all the return addresses (esp. in combination
with the double-box trick) really made things easy. I spent a lot of time in
line to buy postage and filling out airbills, so I was only able to send out
a handful of packages on my lunch break each day. Both UPS and FedEx allow
you to set up accounts online where you can pay for the shipping and print
out all the shipping labels, so it's really not that hard. Another
alternative, instead of sending cash or checks in the mail, would be to use
PayPal. I don't know why I didn't think of this, since I use PayPal on eBay
all the time. (By the way, if you sent me a check, I still haven't cashed it
yet. I've been carrying them around for a month, and I keep forgetting to
take them to the bank.)


5. "Where's my package?"

My work schedule got really hairy right around the time when I was trying to
send the packages out, so the whole process got drawn out over a couple of
weeks, and some people got their prints a long time before others did. I'd
advise trying to schedule things so you can get all the packages out in a
short a time span as possible, so you can minimize people's worry about
their packages getting lost or forgotten (and cut down on the emails you'll
have to answer).


6. "Thank you."

There were a few people who sent along an extra print of different image as
a special thank you for the work involved in coordinating the exchange. I
can't tell you how happy it made me to receive such a kind gesture. (I was
so moved that I sent back an extra one of my prints to all the people who
sent me a "thank you".) I would like to propose that sending a thank you
print to the coordinator become an exchange tradition, or at least become
known as the sign of a truly gracious participant.


I hope this advice will help people who decide to do this in the future, and
encourage others to coordinate more exchanges. It really was an awesome
experience, and all the work was worth it. Thanks to everyone who
participated in my exchange, and best of luck to all the future coordinators
out there!

-Jason