Rob, With 4 contracts for over 25 years I have seen so many come and go I don't even want to count them. For me the only thing that has ever worked well other than doing a good job and becoming trusted is to keep pounding the "Guidelines." The suggestions in there, relating to the issues you raise, are right on the money and can help. Certainly having only one person, the "piano overseer," working with you is first, and setting up a budget that reflects the recognition that maintenance of an inventory includes three parts replacement fund, rebuilding fund and yearly maintenance fund is primary. It can be done with patience over time, with education, and I admit I have spent a few dollars on nicely printed versions of the Guidelines to help impress them, but it has been money well spent. If your replacement (with new) value of your inventory is over $600,000.oo then the recommended 10% gives you 20,000 each for the three areas. I suspect your's is much larger. Should be a good starting point anyway, and whether you're contracted or employeed it works the same way. Once these basics are in place the lumps sometimes materialize to bring things "up to date" or "snuff" or whatever they (the money overseers) call it. I had one school recently, with the above in place for a number of years, suddenly "find" enough money on top of the funds to buy 5 new pianos and rebuild two in one year. Preparing and presenting an Inventory Assessment and a Comprehensive Maintenance Plan, and keeping them up to date, are good starting places with new people. I wouldn't worry too much about who the folks are, but stick to the facts and educate them. Your program should speak for itself. Chris Solliday ----- Original Message ----- From: Rob & Helen Goodale To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:29 PM Subject: [CAUT] New Department Administrators Hello all, Our music department will be getting a new chair this summer. This could mean a lot in terms of pianos. We are in desperate need of new instruments. Lately piano replacement funds have been appearing in occasional various lump amounts which has allowed the purchase of 17 pianos within the last few months. I am told that another lump sum can be expected. The prospect of this trend continuing, however, is not known. We have at least another 25-30 small and medium size grands to purchase in order to remedy our immediate needs. A new Chair could potentially introduce a new way of doing things. My feeling is that there are presently "too many cooks in the kitchen". There are several individuals contributing to the process which in my opinion are hindering more than helping. Although the project involves an enormous amount of money and important decisions, I think this is a task can best be handled by two or three people rather than a "committee" that must debate and argue e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I'm sure many on this list have experienced administrative changes and certainly every university tech has fought the unsung battle of replacing old rotten pianos. This change could either be a blessing or make things more complicated than ever. It seems to me a first step is to find out a little about this person's past philosophies. I would also be interested in hearing other experiences with new administrators. Any thoughts/stories appreciated. Rob Goodale, RPT Las Vegas, NV -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20060616/230a0e0d/attachment.html
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