Maintenance Schedule

[Fred Sturm]

Avery,
	I won't weigh in with specifics here. I think those you've received in
earlier responses are about as reasonable as you could hope for. But I
do have a couple points to offer.
1) I think capital and maintenance expenses should be separated. The
former includes both replacement and some degree of rebuilding expense.
I have found it useful (or at any rate rational) to offer an average age
to aim for, for each category of piano (upright, grand, concert grand at
least. Maybe a couple more levels). For uprights I suggested trying to
achieve a 20 yr old average, range of zero to 40 years. For grands I
recommended 30 yr average, 60 yr oldest, with rebuilding factored in.
Something a little less for concert grands. This can be used to generate
an annual capital purchases budget (and if it ever is used that way here
at UNM before hell freezes over. . .)
2) With respect to maintenance - tuning, regulation, reconditioning,
etc. - I have to wonder how your provost's office is going to use those
figures. How much does a tuning cost at a university, eg  (I do anything
from 15 minute or less touch ups to 45 minute once through pitch raises
to up to two hour rough/fine/really fine)? The only real question that
matters is how many personnel hours are required to achieve the desired
level of quality. If I am .5 FTE taking care of 80 pianos (which I am),
then all that work costs my salary - to achieve the current level of
quality. If you want an _ideal_ level of quality, then using the
Guidelines makes sense. 
Avery Todd wrote:
> 
> List,
> 
> Our business manager for the music dept. just called and told me
> that the Provost's office wants some kind of maintenance schedule
> for our pianos. Things like:
> 
> 1. How often should they be tuned
> 2. How often rebuilt
> 3. How often replaced
> 4. etc., etc.
> 
> She said they are in the process of evaluating the fees charged
> to students and wanted some kind of information pertaining to this.
> Even generic info would be helpful.
> 
> I have a few ideas but would appreciate some feedback from you are more
> experienced in dealing with this type of beaurecratic @#$%$^&. :-)
> 
> Any ideas? Thanks.
> 
> Avery
>