OK, so my church asked me to paint for the Access Ministry (Handicapped kids) Camp. I painted for an hour and a half last week. In my eyes it wasn't so successful....most of the kids wanted arms and cruddy hand art stuff. Not fun for me. The church was happy. In fact, the lady in charge wanted me to come back EVERY day this week. (NOT going to happen.) I agreed to come today....and she wanted me for the entire day...for free. I volunteered two hours. There was never any mention of, "oh, if you could stay, we'd be happy to pay you....or......We'd be happy to pay for your paints and supplies." Today was MUCH more successful......most kids wanted full faces, only a few hand art stuff. Anyway, when it's over, the woman comes up to thank me and says that they will copy my business card in their flyer and send out to all the families....YEA! They oogled and oogled and oogled about my work and said how it was not only great, but fast.....yes! Here comes the problem.......she really wanted me to come back AGAIN sometime this week. (I can't, thank goodness because I'm going to Toledo, Ohio for a week.) So I told her, "sorry." THEN.....a woman comes up to me and introduces herself.....she's the head of the ADULT handicapped camp next week and wanted me to come to do something. Told her, "Sorry, I'm going to be gone next week." She says, "Oh, it runs for two weeks!" ..........She says, "I'll have my person call you to see what your schedule is."........ THEN.....another man comes up and introduces himself as the director of their new house for handicapped kids and says he wants me to come to their grand opening when that happens. He took my card. They've never offered to pay me, and while I don't mind donating my time ONCE in a while...maybe 2-3 times a year, I could do the whole summer for free! OK, the question...... Where do you draw the line? When you do ask for pay? When you do say, "this is costing me......$$$ I just paid $218 for paints!" I wouldn't mind even giving them a $50 per hour discount so I get SOMETHING for my time and paints, but I just can't keep doing it for free......here's where the old addage comes in, "Freebies beget more freebies".....once someone finds out that you'll do it for free, they all want it for free. So, I'm not the most tactful person in the world and I need help in telling them something before they call me again. Exactly what do I say to them? I don't want to just do this for free anymore, even though it IS my church. I've donated my services before on occasion. Although, for one of the programs they did pay me, I think it was $100 a few years ago. Like I said, I could spend the entire summer doing this for free almost on a daily basis. (My church probably has 12,000 people that attend on a weekly basis, so you can get an idea of how big the church is....and how many programs they could have that could use my services.) Help me solve my problem of what to say. I'm open to suggestions!
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