[CAUT] Job Opening, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

[Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel)]

Jim, et al,

As I've been reading these posts I find truth in all sides of the
arguments but I keep thinking back to 1992 when I took my first position
at a University after being an independent tech for 10 years with my own
rebuilding business. My income had dropped 40% over the 2 previous years
due to the Reagan recession and I was tired of the feast-or-famine, no
such thing as a vacation routine. I wasn't in the Guild at the time so I
joined because I saw a couple of ads for university jobs that
"suggested" RPT status. I wasn't a tuner either but I got a copy of the
Sanderson/Baldassin 2-octave A temperament from a friend in the PTG and
commenced to practicing tuning on a nice Baldwin L I owned that I had
rebuilt but couldn't sell to save my soul.  I practiced like hell for a
couple of months, passed my exam aurally with flying colors, became an
RPT, got a job and then really started learning what a piano technician
was. I began tuning for concerts and recitals, rebuilding concert grand
actions, dealing with action geometry problems, tuning and regulating
for musicians constantly, etc, etc...I took advantage of every possible
educational opportunity the PTG made available and applied it to my
craft. I became a member of the CAUT committee because I saw there were
some pretty savvy people there that I could learn from. In the 15 years
since I took that first job I have successfully applied for equity
review, changed jobs (once), gotten a job offer with better pay and
threatened to leave if my salary wasn't adjusted upwards(once), and just
recently went through the process of getting myself a promotion through
a comprehensive position review. Through these 4 methods I have doubled
my salary since I began in the Ohio state system. I'd like to think that
the PTG and CAUT have had a great deal to do with my success. In my last
position review the Human Resources person who was given my case
contacted the PTG home office (I didn't tell her, she is pretty smart
and found it herself while looking for professional organizations that
could give her some demographic information on piano technicians). She
became aware of the income discrepancies and professional demands we
write about in this forum all the time. The home office gave her some
(good) names of techs in positions similar to mine to contact and I
benefited from their past work at improving their positions. I was
promoted and got a raise.

I've given this kind of long-winded personal history because I am
positive about a couple of things. Being in the PTG has helped me
immensely along my path BOTH by helping me educate myself and by
promoting the profession to the public in general and academia in
particular. The more we promote PTG, RPT or a CAUT credential to
institutions, the more credibility those titles will have. I've already
seen the results in my brief tenure. Institutions don't seem to care too
much about credentials if the pay-scale is low, but if we start to be
paid as well as some faculty (and some technicians are) they are going
to start looking more closely at qualifications. WE are the ones who
must push the salaries up. Nobody is going to just give it to us, we
have to fight for it. You have to do it yourselves. When one of us gets
themselves a big raise or negotiates a better starting salary it helps
everybody because the HR people go around looking for comparisons and it
will put upward pressure on salaries everywhere.

At any rate, a good CAUT curriculum with targeted classes at the
regional and national level will be of benefit to all who aspire to
improve themselves whether it leads to a CAUT credential or not. The
more you know, the more ways there are to make a good living...

Eric

Eric Wolfley, RPT
Director of Piano Services
College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Jim Busby
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:19 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Job Opening, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Alan, List,

As you may know the CAUT Committee is working on such a credential. I
hope I'm not overstepping anyone by this post but it seems a timely
topic seeing as how we're approaching deadlines for council proposals. I
would GREATLY appreciate a dialogue on this. Is it "pie in the sky" to
develop a CAUT credential? Is it too exclusive? I don't know if this is
a good place for this discussion, but any private emails to me would
also help. Eric is now the chairman of this committee and I'm a
committee member (along with Alan McCoy) given the charge of developing
a curriculum. 

Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
ReggaePass at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 12:02 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Job Opening, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

List,

Having some kind of CAUT certification may well run into the same
problems as 
RPT.  On the other hand, the places where such a credential would be 
meaningful are far fewer and more predictable (than "the general
public"), so maybe 
this is a realm in which establishing and publicizing certification
actually IS 
feasible.  If, knowing that it exists and what it means, a given school 
decides not to require it (or, at least, express a preference for it),
"Oh, well..."

Alan Eder



In a message dated 10/9/07 1:31:49 PM, edoss at utm.edu writes:

<< It all comes down to educating University Faculty and Administration.
Is the head technician at UMich an RPT?  I checked his vita on the
School of Music website and it stated he was a "craftsman in the Piano
Technicians Guild," but said nothing about being an RPT...and there's
good reason for that since he is not.  He's listed in the 2006 directory
as an Associate.  That may be why the job description does not mention
RPT status.  Here the faculty is aware of my RPT status and it garners
some respect for me.  Even if CAUT members were certified at a higher
level of competency than an RPT, who would know what that meant without
a huge amount of education on the part of PTG and CAUT?  It would be the
same as we now find with RPT.  I don't think we need more initials after
more intensive exams, we need more education about the present
designation.  We keep wanting to fix something that "aint broke."

Joy!
Elwood  >>

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