CAUT in KC

[Ron Nossaman]

At 08:33 AM 11/25/98 EST, you wrote:
>I won't repost Ron's responses to Rolf.  But I do say thanks to both.  Each
>has valid points.  I experience both points of view.  No one to take our
>places when we are gone and part-timers who screw things up because they think
>they know more than they do.  
>
>There must be a better way to find people to fill our places when we are gone.
>
>Tim Coates
>University of South Dakota
>



I guess I don't understand the thrust here. I see no indication that we are
in any danger of becoming extinct. Our local chapter has three, soon four,
associate members working to build the knowledge and experience to upgrade
to RPT. That's about the same percentage of chapter membership that it's
always been. I think what bothers me as much as anything in this discussion
is the implied premise that the entrenched base (that's us) have reached
such an exalted level of skill that we can't take the chance that anyone out
there will be interested unless it is presented at such elementary levels as
to not scare them away. I, personally, don't see much evidence of
exaltedness among the technical population, so I'm not sure that's a factor.
I agree that piano owners are sorely in need of education regarding the
need, and reasons, for care and maintenance of their instruments, but they
have very little reason to be under the hood. When I get calls from casual
shoppers looking for an easy change in careers, I do my level best to
discourage them if they aren't ready to make a full commitment with the
knowledge of how demanding the profession really is, and how unlikely it is
that they will reach a high level of proficiency before they become
discouraged and quit (or part of the problem). If that scares them off, I
feel I've done the profession a service and saved some working tech a lot of
time somewhere down the road. Those that walk into the process in spite of
the caveats have usually proven to be hard headed, dedicated,  and fearless
enough to stick with it. Some become good techs, and some do not, but they
knew what they were getting into up front. I would surely hate to be the
responsible tech for an institution that's arming music students with the
means to make my job more difficult by removing their natural hesitance to
muck about in the instrument and "fix" the regulation. I guess my point is
that interested parties will find us by the means with which they always
have without being sold a simplified, warm and fuzzy, sugar coated, self
esteem bolstering, pseudo enabling classroom experience. This kind of thing
can only increase the amount of chaff that must, inevitably, be sifted
through to uncover the potential in any applicants to the trade. It will
also increase the number of unqualified and downright incompetent people
working round the clock doing damage to helpless pianos. I assure you the
tech isn't trading a little classroom time in exchange for the students
taking care of the pianos' problems themselves, thereby lightening his work
load. There's enough of that going on already without encouraging it.

Sorry 'bout that, guess I wasn't purged yet.

 Ron