The cost is $10 for Faculty & Students with a valid ID, $30 Chamber Investors, and $40 for non chamber investors. Associated Grocers is providing refreshments and lunch. To register for the event visit the Baton Rouge Area Chamber's website at www.brac.org

Within this intensive, hands-on training program, students will collaborate to produce a short digital film production. Using state-of- the art digital filmmaking equipment, students will learn the basics of digital filmmaking techniques including script development, pre- production planning, camera, lighting, sound, and post-production editing. Experienced filmmakers and educators facilitate the classes.

Although no previous experience is required, students will be held to very high standards. Motivation, collaboration, and creativity will be expected from all participants. Class size is limited and based on first-come, first-served. Pre-registration and deposit required to reserve space. Snacks will be provided but students will be responsible for meals and transportation.

Tuition is $300. Up to five income-based scholarships are available. For samples of previous NOVAC Teen projects, visit PBS's youth network, www.ListenUp.org (keyword "NOVAC"). For more information, visit www.novacvideo.org and select "Workshops Overview" from the menu.

About NOVAC and DFI

The New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit media center. For 35 years, NOVAC has supported the democratization of video by providing tools, technical training and production resources for both children and adult filmmakers in New Orleans. Visit www.novacvideo.org.

The NOVAC Digital Filmmaking Institute (DFI) offers a variety of affordable, hands-on digital filmmaking workshops in lighting, sound, editing, camera, and film/TV production. Experienced filmmakers, commercial producers and certified instructors facilitate the affordable classes.

Why are these initial steps so important? Because they provide a basis for choosing among potential employees - for selecting the ones most likely to succeed in a specific job. The best choice, all other factors being equal, is the person whose knowledge, skills, and abilities provide the closest match to the requirements of the job. If the founders of a new venture (or those to whom they have delegated the task) have not conducted a careful job analysis and formulated a clear description of a particular position, entrepreneurs often go ahead anyway - new employees are needed and simply must be hired. However, it will be more likely to meet the essential job requirements. Instead, for instance, entrepreneurs may be tempted to choose the people they find most congenial or attractive, or applicants who somehow "stand out from the crowd" rather than those who are most qualified. For this reason, it is best to formulate a clear idea of the specific requirements of any job before beginning the search-and- selection process.

Basic Techniques for Choosing the Best People

Once the task of specifying precisely what's needed has been completed - once entrepreneurs have a fairly clear idea of the skills and abilities they are seeking in new employees - the search for these employees can being. Our experience tells us that in many cases, new ventures do a reasonably good job of assembling a pool of potential employees: the founding team's social networks, current customers, and other sources yield a number of people who could potentially be hired. Choosing among them, however, is another story. Making this choice is a difficult task under the best of conditions, even in large organizations that have human resource departments with experts specifically trained to perform this task. New ventures, of course, lack such departments. Further, serious mistakes - hiring an incompetent or unethical person - can be costly for new ventures, more costly than for larger companies that have greater financial resources. How can entrepreneurs accomplish this task effectively? The answer involves two possible approaches: (1) Entrepreneurs can try to accomplish this job themselves through several techniques that have been found to be useful in choosing the best employees, or (2) they can delegate this function to a company that specializes in it - they can outsource hiring of new employees. Which is the better route depends on the experience and skills of the entrepreneurs, as well as the financial resources of the new venture. Outsourcing various functions can be an efficient way to proceed, but it can prove quite expensive, which is a major problem for a new venture with limited financial resources.

Robert A Baron and Scott A. Shane. Entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective 2nd Edition. 2008. Thomson South-Western. p376-377

Franchisor Venue Provisions:
These provisions may require any disputes to be litigated or arbitrated in the home state of the franchisor, increasing the franchisee's travel costs and giving franchisors home field advantage.

Lack of Reciprocal Cure Periods:
Agreements need to provide equal remedies if the other party defaults, but not all do.

Nonreciprocal Noncompete Covenants:
Franchisors have a lot of leeway in placing new franchises wherever they want, but agreements can include oppressive noncompete covenants.

Sole Sourcing Requirements:
Product-oriented franchises often require franchisees to purchase goods only from the franchisor. Allowing purchase from alternate sources (with quality standards) is better.

Mandatory Subleases with Rent Overrides:
Many franchise systems require the franchisee to sublease real estate from the franchisor, allowing the franchisor to gain profit without risk.

Lack of Accountability for Advertising Funds:
Franchisors do not always have to spend advertising dollars in markets where franchisees have paid in.

Lack of Reciprocal Legal Fee Provisions:
Many agreements require franchisees to pay all of the franchisor's legal expenses if litigation arises between parties.

Radically Different Franchise Agreements on Renewal:
Many franchises are surprised to find that they are not really renewing their existing deal, but entering into a wholly new, sometimes very different franchise agreement.

Unilateral Amendments to the Franchise Agreements:
Franchisors have the latitude to change operations and policies from time to time, thereby unilaterally changing the franchisee agreement.

Timothy S. Hatten. Small Business Management: Entrepreneurship and Beyond. 2006. Houghton Mifflin Company. p149.