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Hi Ray,

We have two confocals, a multiphoton, a spinning disk confocal and a
DeltaVision and I'm afraid I allow all trained users to come in outside
hours - if I didn't, there would be a major rebellion in the
University!  My emphasis is on the training - every user has to go through
a one-to-one 3-hour training session on each microscope they use, plus I've
written a handout for each system with very careful notes on turning on and
shutting down the system.  Once I trust that they know what they're doing,
I activate their card-key access so they can come in after hours.  It does
mean that I spend a lot of time training people, but I think it saves time
in fixing problems later on.

So here's the good news - we've had very few problems at all with broken
equipment.  I can only think of a handful of occasions where things have
gone wrong outside hours - e.g. one time a perfusion system leaked onto the
dichroics - and most of my users are really very careful.  I guess they're
aware that our computer records show who was logged on so they can be
tracked down if anything goes amiss!  And I certainly do chase up people
who leave the objectives with oil on or leave the mercury lamp on
overnight.  But on the whole I have been pleasantly surprised how careful
and considerate towards other people my users have been.  As an example, we
have decreed that it is the responsibility of each user of the spinning
disk to set the Solent environmental chamber to the correct temperature for
the next user, and only twice has anybody forgotten to do this (in about 6
months).  So I would say - emphasize ways in which they need to be
considerate towards other people and the equipment and then give them the
benefit of the doubt until you actually encounter severe problems!

As for charging, our users are automatically charged for the time they're
logged onto each computer.  We added in some code so that after 4 hours of
continuous use the charge for any further hours automatically drops to 20%
of its normal rate.  This means that people don't pay significantly more
for an overnight session than for a 4-hour session, and so far (!) none of
the PIs have complained about this.  Obviously, you might decide that 30 or
40% would be a more appropriate figure for your facility.

Good luck with sorting it out.  We have amazing fun reviewing the data from
24 or 48-hour timelapse experiments, so I'm sure you'll find it's worth the
trouble.

Best wishes,
Alison


At 08:38 AM 12/11/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>Search the CONFOCAL archive at
>http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
>Hi,
>
>How do you handle requests to use your confocal at nights and on weekends?
>
>We run a small operation - I'm the only one in the lab - with a Leica TCS
>SP2.  Our present policy is that I get everything turned on and ready to go
>and then, for those users who have shown they know what they are doing, I
>let them run it.  I'm in the area, however, if need be.
>
>I could use the income from what might result in additional hours and,
>really, the only aspect I worry about (but it's a big concern, of course) is
>damage to the objectives.  We already have a crack on our workhorse, 63x oil
>objective, but that happened even without allowing after-hours usage
>(fortunately the crack/scratch [we're not sure which] is off center and
>doesn't seem to affect image quality).
>
>As more and more investigators/groups are attempting to acquire their own
>systems, I don't want to put my lab in a non-competitive situation.
>
>Finally, how do you charge for extended-hours experiments, e.g., 24 to 48
>hrs?  We now charge $25/hr but it wouldn't be feasible for m/any
>investigators to pay $600 to $1,200 for one of these lengthy protocols.
>
>Thanks for any thoughts on either of these concerns.
>
>Ray Hester
>Univ. of South Alabama

Dr. Alison J. North
Rockefeller University,
Bio-Imaging Resource Center, Box #209,
1230 York Avenue,
New York,
NY 10021,
USA

Tel. (212) 327 7488
Fax. (212) 327 7489
e-mail: [log in to unmask]