[CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

[Richard Brekne]

A perfect reaction Kent.  Yes !! Indeed.

Dale does touch on a couple key issues about the whole CAUT 
certification discussion.  First and foremost he, as do you, point out 
that affirmative action does indeed pay off. Sure its an uphill battle, 
but slowly but surely one makes an impact.  I believe this echos 
something I stated very early on in all this when I said something along 
the lines that I thought the PTG and CAUT were doing an amazing job 
against a loosing battle.  Perhaps the impact made is after all worth 
enough to keep on keeping on.  I certainly hope so.

And it is just in that same spirit of positiveness that I believe a 
"specialty" certification, as Dale puts it, can succeed.  Again... slow 
steps. But steps none the less.  CAUT salaries and job conditions will 
improve slowly, but surely as institutions begin to see the cost 
effectiveness of using someone who actually IS qualified and motivated 
to do the job.... to take on the actual task at hand.  Dennis Johnson 
also makes a good point which I wish to quote:  

    "Imagine this accreditation being listed as part qualification for a
    particular school to join the list of "Steinway Schools" - or to
    engage in the Yamaha or Kawai loan programs."

It is just this kind of attention we should be after in any CAUT 
certification.  To accomplish that any certification will just plain 
need to be a mark of Quality that becomes recognized. Associating it 
with already recognized programs such as the three mentioned above is no 
dumb idea IMB.

Some very fine stuff written this past couple days.

Cheers
RicB


        On Nov 17, 2007, at 11:39 AM, Ward & Probst, Inc wrote:

         > That will be what changes our marketplace - quality work and  
         > accurate marketing.


    Yes!

    Dale touches on something very important that has yet to come up much  
    in the discussion. An accomplishment of the PTG in 50 years has been  
    to raise the general quality of piano service that is available in the  
    marketplace. And of course the effort is ongoing; RPT means more today  
    because of the tuning and technical exams with their objective  
    measures of tuning and tech ability compared with PTG's early years.

    One goal of any certification program for CAUTs should be to improve  
    the general overall quality of work done by institutional techs. We  
    all know techs here and there that have been unsuccessful in CAUT  
    work. To the extent that a CAUT credential can improve the success  
    rate of CAUTs, institutions will receive better work, CAUTs will enjoy  
    more job satisfaction, the credibility of PTG will be improved --  
    everyone should benefit. Perhaps even CAUT salaries will improve; we  
    can tell techs not to take low-paying jobs, but one of the best thing  
    we can do is to get our act together and offer as a group better  
    skills. I suspect that one thing "keeping us down" is the reality that  
    some CAUTs don't do work of high enough quality; perhaps once PTG has  
    better identified and taught  the skills of the successful CAUT, fewer  
    under-qualified techs will take CAUT positions.

    This is an important discussion.

    Kent Swafford