RE: Late charges for unreturned badges

["Jim F. Herrold" <Herrold@uwyo.edu>]

Joe:

Getting back to your ORIGINAL questions about late badge charges...

Back in 1982 the University of Wyoming initiated a late badge charge-back
policy. We don't use it any more, but it's still on the books as an
"official" university fee. I started here in 1985, so I don't know how bad
things got before the program was started, and I don't know if it
significantly improved afterward. It was a stepped-up approach: The first
late badge, a warning was given but no charge.... The user got a $6.00 fee
and a nasty letter for the second late badge in a year.... after the third
time in a year, the user was charged $10.00 and his authorization to use RAM
was removed until he wrote a letter saying he was sorry.

Like I said, we don't use this policy anymore. We have intermittent problems
with late badges, usually at the end of the semester or near holiday and
summer breaks. It's rarely the same people every time. We have decided it is
easier to make a phone call and even send one of our student workers to get
the badges than to raise a big stink. Sending out letters and bills and
collecting petty cash are a bigger headache than dealing with late badges.

I guess it all depends on why you issue dosimetry in the first place and how
many you issue. Based on exposure records from the past 15 years, we have
never had anyone receive 500 mrem in a year. So technically we should not be
required to issue dosimeters. We do it because of ALARA and liability
issues. We've re-evaluated and have cut back on the number of dosimeters. In
1982 we issued over 250 badges. Last year we only issued 90. We found that
many of the habitually late badges were issued unnecessarily in the first
place. Now we may have a couple late badges each month, but we just send
them in to Landauer with a second control.

I'm not saying you should follow our example. I'm just saying to use
whatever works. For us, the softer approach works just as well as the
traffic cop approach did.

Jim Herrold, Radiation Safety Officer
herrold@uwyo.edu

University of Wyoming
Environmental Health & Safety
303 Merica Hall
Laramie, WY 82071-3413

(307) 766-3277


-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Kane [mailto:jkane@ehrs.upenn.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 7:19 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Late charges for unreturned badges


 Mail*LinkŪ SMTP              Late charges for unreturned badges
To all Radsafers:
We are thinking about charging for late returned film badges to try and
encourage people to return them on-time.  I know others have tried this and
I would appreciate feed-back from them about their experiences with it.
Some of the specific things we were thinking about were, what was the
return rate before implementing and after implementing your program.  Also,
what level of charges did you decide on.
Please contact me in person, or on this list.

Thank in advance for your help.
  

Joe Kane
Health Physicist
Environmental Health and Radiation Safety Office
1412 Blockley Hall
University of Pennsylvania
Phila. PA  19104-6021
Phone:  (215)898-2107
Fax:  (215)898-0140
email:  jkane@ehrs.upenn.edu


************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html