Not to say, "I told you so", but what Israel is proposing is something I mentioned about 4 weeks ago. First of all, CAUT should be offering more classes at seminars and the convention on managing. Time management, inventory management, personnel management, teacher management. But this is also why I think we need to upgrade the educational requirement to more than just a high school diploma. Perhaps not in all situations, but a college degree is more than just regurgitating information back to the professors. It shows an administrator that you're able to manage time; time to get home work done, time to go to classes, concerts, etc. That in itself is a very valuable skill and quality to have.
Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Honolulu, HI
Author of
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Israel Stein <custos3 at comcast.net>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:45 pm
Subject: [CAUT] CAUT job description vis-a-vis salary level (was:
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:37:56 -0500 Eric Wolfley wrote:
State systems don’t recognize merit, they go mainly on job descriptions and are
upposed to align job
responsibilities with salary levels. If your job description says you are a
echanic that works on pianos,
they will equate your position and salary to the state car-pool mechanic. If
our job description says you direct
and manage budgets and inventories, advise and consult with faculty, supervise
tudent help, prepare
instruments for visiting artists, etc, etc, they’ll be comparing you to
upervisory or managerial positions.
In the past you’ve said that you are the only piano technician in the state
ystem…you’ve got to convince
them to look at other state institutions for comparisons. That’s what they did
ere for me. In the end, they
had to create a new position in which to put me because I didn’t fit anywhere
lse.
Eric,
his is an interesting perspective, which perhaps has been neglected in the
urrent discussion, and may have broader implications. Perhaps we have been
arking up the wrong tree all along, thinking that by proving ever higher-level
iano skills - whether through testing or curriculum certification - we may
omeday convince "management" that we are worthy of a professional-level
ompensation. Perhaps the CAUT accreditation - whatever form it takes - needs to
tress management skills in order to position the job description in a higher
aying classification. As you imply, the most skilled mechanic is still just a
echanic...
here are many precedents where practitioners repositioned themselves into
igher job descriptions by augmenting the skill set associated with their
rofession. The classic example would be nurses who in the early part of the
0th century raised their job description from bedpan carriers and bandage
hangers to direct deliverers of health care - by developing a science-based
urriculum. Just about any other "profession" raised itself to its present
tatus by a similar expansion of its skill set beyond the craft itself. Fact is,
e piano people are still working and presenting ourselves the same way as just
bout all other professions did in the 19th century...
o perhaps the CAUT credential needs to stress ancillary skills - such as
anagement related to pianos - that would push us above being mere mechanics.
ecause as long as we try to be only the best possible piano technicians that we
an be - well, great piano technicians are still just very specialized
echanics... From what Eric writes above, perhaps we need to be thinking beyond
hat...
ust food for thought...
srael Stein
Attached Message
From:
caut-request at ptg.org
To:
caut at ptg.org
Subject:
caut Digest, Vol 1104, Issue 35
Date:
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:39:14 +0000
Today's Topics:
1. Re: slick keytops (Douglas Wood)
2. Re: CAUT credential vs. academic program?
(Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel))
Attached Message
From:
Douglas Wood <dew2 at u.washington.edu>
To:
College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] slick keytops
Date:
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:35:47 -0800
I believe that the buffing compounds typically used on ivory are bees-wax based. So the buffing leaves the ivory very smooth (feels good) but with a small amount of "tack" (also feels good). It also seals the ivory surface. Have you any experience with buffing ivory?
Doug
On Nov 13, 2007, at 5:36 AM, Jim Busby wrote:
Hi Wim,
Yeah, they feel slick.
JIm
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Willem Blees
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 7:35 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] slick keytops
Do the keys feel slick to you? If not, perhaps you might ask the professor what hand cream he/she uses. Too much of that stuff on hands will make sandpaper feel slick.
Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Honolulu, HI
Author of
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Busby <jim_busby at byu.edu>
To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:40 pm
Subject: [CAUT] slick keytops
List,
A professor says the keys on our CF are “too slick” or “slippery”. This is real ivory. And they were dirty too. I cleaned them with “Keybrite”, and now they’re even more “slick”. Any quick solutions? (Light sanding? Hairspray?)
Thanks,
Jim Busby BYU
p.s. I couldn’t find anything for ivory on the archives.
size=2 width="100%" align=center>
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail!
Attached Message
From:
Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel) <WOLFLEEL at ucmail.uc.edu>
To:
College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>
Subject:
Re: [CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?
Date:
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:37:56 -0500
“It is free market economics. But salaries are what they are because CAUTs are too willing to lowball their worth. It has nothing to do with qualifications or certifications or the lack thereof, and it has nothing to do with how good a concert technician we are.”
Jeff,
This is part of the point of trying to establish a CAUT credential…it’s how we value ourselves as well. Perhaps people will be less likely to accept low salaries if they have made the effort to upgrade their skill level and know what a value they can be to an institution. A CAUT credential should be a bargaining chip when negotiating beginning salaries.
If you are so down on the current situation, why do you want to accept it as the status quo? All your arguments against a CAUT credential seem to go this way. You can’t look at the present conditions and say what we are attempting won’t work. It’s kind of like saying, “I can’t go to school…I don’t know how to read.” We are trying to change the way institutions value piano technicians.
Guilty as charged. I made the mistake of taking a lower salary during the first year until my skills had been evaluated with promises of salary improvement if everyone liked my work. Nine years later, we are finally starting to get the the salary to where it should have started. That's my fault. I honestly didn't know any better at the time. But that salary improvement is not coming about because in the meantime I became an RPT. It isn't coming about because everyone likes my work. That was established in year one. It is coming about because I am threatening to leave because the university job is keeping me from being able to properly provide for my family. The amount of moonlighting I'm having to do to compensate is compromising the quality of my work at the school, and I have made no secret of that. So far, that is all that has worked. Flashing my RPT certificate didn't do a darned thing. Getting rave reviews from visiting artists and comments along the lines of "I'd fly him to Oklahoma to work on my pianos," or "your pianos are better than at Eastman" had nothing to do with it. They don't want to lose me because of the quality of work I've shown. But I've had to be a real pain in the behind around here to get raises. But at the same time there will be a brick wall in the process. At some point, the dean is going to say, "no, I can get another technician for less than that."
Jeff, perhaps they haven’t told you to take a walk precisely because you have upgraded your skills and made them realize how valuable those skills are to their program. What you have described above is precisely what we all must do to improve salary levels. You’re contradicting yourself when you say that your getting “rave reviews” from visiting artists had nothing to do with your raise, and yet “They don’t want to lose me because of the quality of work I’ve shown.”
State systems don’t recognize merit, they go mainly on job descriptions and are supposed to align job responsibilities with salary levels. If your job description says you are a mechanic that works on pianos, they will equate your position and salary to the state car-pool mechanic. If your job description says you direct and manage budgets and inventories, advise and consult with faculty, supervise student help, prepare instruments for visiting artists, etc, etc, they’ll be comparing you to supervisory or managerial positions. In the past you’ve said that you are the only piano technician in the state system…you’ve got to convince them to look at other state institutions for comparisons. That’s what they did here for me. In the end, they had to create a new position in which to put me because I didn’t fit anywhere else.
But I've had to be a real pain in the behind around here to get raises. But at the same time there will be a brick wall in the process. At some point, the dean is going to say, "no, I can get another technician for less than that."
In a state system nobody is going to give you anything unless you push for it. It’s completely up to you. You have to keep pushing until you find that brick wall…if you’ve a proven track record and good comparisons for salary equity adjustments, you will have some leverage to move the brick wall as well.
Eric
Eric Wolfley, RPT
Director of Piano Services
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Tanner
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:11 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?
On Nov 13, 2007, at 9:18 AM, Jon Page wrote:
Bottom line for Universities is that they will pay
more only if they feel they are getting enough return.
I see that I missed a perfectly good opportunity
to stay out of this discussion but where some positions
don't even require RPT status what good are merit badges?
Raise the bar on RPT for your desired recognition. In this
association, RPT should be reclassified to Apprentice status
and after the 'tests' a Journeyman, with Craftsman as the
next step to Master Craftsman. (bring back Allied Tradesman).
If the term RPT had real teeth to it there wouldn't be a need to
even have this discussion.
It doesn't matter how many clinics or seminars you attend,
if there is no budget for salary increase those certificates are
simply wallpaper. If the organizations thought your services
were worth more, they'd offer more. But then if no one would
accept the positions, a larger salary would be put on the table.
Supply and demand economics.
Any job opportunity has some sort of coping skills attached.
Time management and schmoozing are not marketable items
for a labor-oriented trade.
Speaking of time management...
I better pound some bridge pins in...
--
Regards,
Jon Page
Unfortunately, Jon is absolutely correct. We are paid what we are paid already because that is what human resources departments are finding the market to be. That market value comes with the assumption that we are already supposed to be equipped with the large palate of skills we are trying to identify with an endorsement.
As long as qualified piano technicians are willing to accept the current pay levels, that is all we will be worth. And what is happening out there is that there are very qualified individuals who are accepting lower salaries because they are in unique positions of being able to live on lower incomes. If we were to equate what is happening out there, it would be like one RPT charging half or less for tuning prices than everybody else, just because he or she doesn't require as much money to live on.
It is free market economics. But salaries are what they are because CAUTs are too willing to lowball their worth. It has nothing to do with qualifications or certifications or the lack thereof, and it has nothing to do with how good a concert technician we are.
Guilty as charged. I made the mistake of taking a lower salary during the first year until my skills had been evaluated with promises of salary improvement if everyone liked my work. Nine years later, we are finally starting to get the the salary to where it should have started. That's my fault. I honestly didn't know any better at the time. But that salary improvement is not coming about because in the meantime I became an RPT. It isn't coming about because everyone likes my work. That was established in year one. It is coming about because I am threatening to leave because the university job is keeping me from being able to properly provide for my family. The amount of moonlighting I'm having to do to compensate is compromising the quality of my work at the school, and I have made no secret of that. So far, that is all that has worked. Flashing my RPT certificate didn't do a darned thing. Getting rave reviews from visiting artists and comments along the lines of "I'd fly him to Oklahoma to work on my pianos," or "your pianos are better than at Eastman" had nothing to do with it. They don't want to lose me because of the quality of work I've shown. But I've had to be a real pain in the behind around here to get raises. But at the same time there will be a brick wall in the process. At some point, the dean is going to say, "no, I can get another technician for less than that."
Because he's probably right. Somebody else will be willing to come in here and sign up to work for half of what they're worth.
Jeff
Jeff Tanner, RPT
University of South Carolina
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