Guidelines/workload formula

[Fred Sturm]

David (and perhaps others),
	A suggestion for improving this type of "on-call" situation: I service
a fairly large private school here with about 15 pianos. What I do is
call each "tuning" a service, and define it as including 20 minutes of
work in addition to tuning. I may use that 20 minutes on that piano, but
more often "bank" the time. When enough "tech time" has accumulated,
I'll spend a day, or half a day, doing what seems most pressing:
recondition a particular piano, run through all the practice uprights
and tighten, adjust capstans and let-off, things of this nature.
	As a result, I only have to ask the administration when I want to do or
buy something major. I do charge accordingly. I find I can keep up
pretty well with the day to day wear and tear this way. It _is_ a
middle/high school, so not nearly the demands and wear of a performance
oriented university/college. 
	Hope this helps.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

Vanderhoofven wrote:
> 
> I  am tuning on an as needed basis for two colleges locally.
> 
> One college has climate control on most of the pianos (although not kept
> filled with water on regular basis).  I can expect a 10 to 20 cent pitch
> change at every tuning at this college.  I do little to no repairs or
> regulation because of budget constraints, and because of budget cuts this
> year, the tuning budget has been cut again.  Some pianos there haven't been
> tuned in two or three years.  The concert pianos get tuned about once a
> month or less.  The practice room pianos get tuned about once a semester,
> or once a year.  Teachers studios get tuned once a semester, or once a year.
> 
> At the other college, there is no humidity control, and I can expect a 20
> to 35 cent pitch change at every tuning, usually twice a year.  I am just
> filling in at this other college and am not sure of how often the pianos
> are usually tuned.
> 
> I don't have time to work out aony of the Guidelines formulas for these
> situations.  I am concentrating on my private customers, who pay more and
> for the most part keep their pianos in better regulation etc.  Plus, with
> my private customers, there are less pitch raises necessary, and I don't
> have to do the pitch corrections for free.
> 
> I get no coffee breaks, unless I do it on my own time and pay for it
> myself.  Currently the only office work I do is to keep track of the work I
> do and send bills.  I have in the past spent lots of time writing detailed
> reports about every piano, along with recommendations for repairs and
> regulation, but since my reports get ignored (and I don't get paid for the
> time) I stopped doing this a while back.
> 
> Just my two cents.
> 
> David Vanderhoofven
> Joplin, Missouri, USA