Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:01 PM Susan kline wrote: > I think that one problem faced by the profession over the next > decade or two is the idea that for the full-time positions, people > either do the whole thing, or they do nothing (retire completely.) > If we face a shortage of young people training up and getting > the experience they need to handle concert work, wouldn't it make > more sense to split the positions, letting today's full-time > people partially retire but do some concerts, while acting as coaches > to their younger replacements? (if any can be found ...) > Interesting... The position here at San Francisco State has always been split - two half-time jobs. This allows two technicians to get full Calpers benefits (health insurance and retirement) while being able to make a decent living in the private market - aside from the measly State salary. The manager (we work for a separate technical services entity - not the Music Department) let the technicians set their own schedule - so working 2 ten-hour days a week leaves us plenty time for our own work. Tom Winter, who was the senior technician here for a long time, did essentially do what you suggest - he would hire relative novices, have them work primarily on the old beat up practice room uprights, and gradually get experience with concert work and grands as those issues came up on their shifts. This way D Jones (that's what she calls herself) and Keith Jones (no relation) were two of the young technicians who got lots of good training and experience this way. D moved on to work on her own somewhere in the Midwest and Keith took over as senior technician when Tom retired. Except that Keith did not want to work with a novice - so convinced them to hire one of the more experienced technicians in the area (Margie Williams). Then Keith got a plum job at the University of Denver and moved away - and Margie also did not want to share the work with a novice (too much trouble and responsibility, i guess) so she convinced me to take the opening. I like to do it because I get tired of working by myself all the time - I like the institutional atmosphere and the challenges of such work. And the benefits are nice. I don't know if I would like it as much full-time.) Anyway, this sort of split-job idea may or may not work in the way you envision, Susan - but I suppose that the SF State example shows that it might. . At 62 I have 5 years to go until my retirement gets vested (if the job survives the California budget woes - don't get me started) having begun here as a youth of 57... So I expect to stay with it at least until then. I have been slowing down in my private service business - turning away jobs and clients that I don't wish to deal with, and refusing to work at inconvenient hours (except for steady long-time clients). I still take on stringing and action rebuilding jobs (warning the clients that it might take a while - what with my school schedule and my other institutional and professional clients, which are the backbone of my private practice). I manage to have something in the shop most of the time... And yes, I will work as late in life as I physically can - gradually getting pickier as to what jobs I take on... Israel Stein
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