NASM review

[Fred Sturm]

My music department is undergoing NASM accreditation review this year
(what fun for us all!) I have been lobbying my chair for some time that
we should use this as an opportunity to try to squeeze money for new
piano purchase out of the university (the department will never have an
adequate budget, and we've bought a total of two pianos in my 15 years
here). So, of course, the chair asked me to write an evaluation of the
piano situation. 
	I thought I'd share an outline of what I did in case it might be useful
for others involved in the same.

I) Current condition
A) Inventory: I described the number and type of piano owned by the
department in some detail, including dates of purchase. (As in many
universities, most of our inventory was purchased when the building was
built, over 35 years ago). I opined that the types, numbers, quality
level and models of pianos we have are generally appropriate to a music
department of our size and type.
B) Condition of inventory: I restated in general terms the age of our
inventory - average age of grands, average age of uprights, % over x
years old. I noted how many (very few) had had any degree of
rebuilding/replacement of parts. I opined that the general condition of
the pianos was far below acceptable standards for a music department of
our size and type. 
C) Personnel: I described my workload as a ratio of pianos per FTE (80
for .5 FTE = 160 per 1 FTE). I compared that with the Steinway
Guidelines recommendation (40/FTE), the CAUT Guidelines (60 to 80/FTE),
and the results of the CAUT 1990 and 2000 surveys (90 - 95/FTE).
D) Humidity: I described the range of humidity in the building, noted
the size of changes I have measured within a 24 hour period. I described
the affects of this instability of tuning and on deterioration of
instruments.
II) Recommendations
A) I recommended instituting a regular replacement budget. I proposed as
a goal arriving at and maintaining an average age for uprights of 20
years, with a maximum of 40. For grands I recommended an average age of
30, maximum of 60, with an additional budget for periodic parts
replacement. I crunched figures and came up with an annual budget to
arrive at and maintain these average ages. (Pretty easy. Take the total
replacement value of the upright inventory. Double the target average
age. Divide this number into the total replacement value. Similarly for
grands, but I added a budget for parts).
B) Personnel: I recommended increasing my half time position to full
time. Alternately, I suggested hiring contract technicians to do
practice room tuning and/or contracting out some rebuilding.
C) Humidity: I recommended including some degree of humidity control in
any future upgrade of the building's HVAC system. Alternately, I
recommended budgeting for humidity control systems to be installed in
many of the pianos.

	So there you have it. Hope it's of some use to one or more. Wish me
luck (the most I'm really hoping for is a one time, fairly major
replacement budget. But who knows?)
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico