[CAUT] CAUT position announcements, CAUT Academy

[Jeff Tanner]

Hey Eric,
This all sounds fantastic, and certainly a step in the right direction.

As I've told a couple privately, really, the purpose of my rants is not for 
my own benefit.  I want to see us all come up, because we've all trained 
very hard and worked very hard to develop the skills it takes to do 
univerity work.  In the rest of the world, that kind of hard work is 
rewarded by compensation levels that don't qualify for Medicaid.  I really 
don't think music faculties grasp that you just can't go to the local tech 
school, take a course and be ready for university level piano work like you 
could if you were an electrician or HVAC tech.  Training schools in our 
field are rare, extensive, and for most of us, a long way from home, so for 
most of us it takes years of hard knocks education to get to the level of 
competence they expect.  It's tough to learn what to do on a Steinway 
concert grand when you're accustomed to a diet of old uprights, spinets, 
consoles and occasionally a decent grand piano, but a diet that pays better 
than working on the Steinway concert grand at the college.

Now, I'm not talking about all of us, of course.  Certainly there are many 
among us who do have very good exposure to good concert instruments and 
concert prep.  But that doesn't mean they will be the same technicians who 
are interested in a pay cut to go to work for a university across the 
country either.

I certainly respect and agree with all the great perks to the university 
work.  And yes, I know some of us aren't the kind of entrepeneurs who are 
capable of going out and earning 6 figures.  In many cases that income is 
simply limited by low demand in your local markets.  That was certainly the 
case for where I grew up.  And the formula I suggested won't come to 6 
figures, in our local market anyway (not until tuning equivalent value hits 
$113.63, which is likely several years away yet).

But, even with the perks, don't we all want to see our profession attain 
more respect from a salary point of view?  It looks to me like the next 
generation of Americans is going to have a much tougher time than our 
generation, as the cost of living continues to skyrocket.  It really is 
going to be up to us to lay groundwork that will make our profession an 
attractive one.

Got a full day of tunings.  Ya'll have a great day!
Tanner

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel)" <WOLFLEEL at ucmail.uc.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 9:53 PM
Subject: [CAUT] CAUT position announcements, CAUT Academy


> Jeff and All,
>
> You've touched on some things here which I am convinced should be
> included in our "CAUT Academy" as part of the basic curriculum aimed
> towards a CAUT endorsement. For those who haven't heard yet, we are
> planning our first CAUT Academy seminar to be held at the home office in
> the Spring (probably late March). It seems quite obvious that we should
> include courses aimed towards employment enhancement topics such as how
> to figure out what you ought to be worth in salary as an employee and
> how to successfully apply for jobs and negotiate starting salaries and
> benefits. There are certainly similar classes taught at business
> seminars and I could even see hiring a job professional to teach that
> segment.
>
> How many people out there would be interested in attending such a
> seminar? It would be very instructive to learn just how many technicians
> out there are contemplating applying for a CAUT job, either for the
> first time or hoping to move up to a position of greater challenge that
> could truly be helped by attending a CAUT Academy seminar. If anyone out
> there is in this position, please contact me privately. We'd really like
> to hear from you.
>
> My perception is that a lot of schools are having trouble finding
> qualified technicians to apply for positions that don't have attractive
> salaries. Some positions have gone unfilled for quite a while. Such a
> scenario should put upward pressure on salaries but as you point out
> Jeff, as long as somebody eventually takes the low paying jobs (for
> whatever reason) the institutions have no incentive or need to raise the
> salaries. Our hope with establishing the CAUT credential is that
> institutions will recognize the value of hiring a technician who has
> demonstrated a desire to gain the large pool of knowledge needed to
> perform CAUT jobs effectively and will pay them accordingly. By
> including curriculum aimed at improving job negotiating skills,
> hopefully we can give a CAUT endorsee some more leverage to be able to
> put some upward pressure on salaries. Institutions should be bidding
> against each other to get the most qualified and highly trained
> technicians.
>
> As you say Jeff, this will likely be a long, slow process but I am
> optimistic that we can make a difference.
>
> Eric
>
> Eric Wolfley, RPT
> Director of Piano Services
> College-Conservatory of Music
> University of Cincinnati
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
> Jeff Tanner
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 6:00 PM
> To: College and University Technicians
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Position Announcement, SIU, Carbondale, IL
>
>
> Ric B wrote:
>> Heaven Help Us.  Essentially the above words claim that workers have
> no
>> rights anymore... and any attempt by workers to band together to look
>> after their common interests is a federal crime.
>
> What I essentially meant was that it seems to me to be in the best
> interest
> of our profession as a whole, and thus the Guild, to somehow find a
> legal
> way to encourage members, and nonmembers alike (because their market
> value
> also affects that of members), that when they are seeking out a full
> time
> college position, to bear in mind that the salary they accept will
> affect
> the salaries of all other CAUTs, at least in their geographical region,
> and
> to be able to provide some tools to assist in that process.  To bear in
> mind
> that just because they are single and nearing retirement, and have
> everything paid for and have no debt that that may well not be the case
> for
> a young talented technician who may be trying to start a family, and
> that
> his worth will be decided by the concessions of the tech who simply has
> a
> lower cost of living and is at a different place in life.
>
> That is not market econ for the value of the skill, folks.  That is
> demographics econ.  Has nothing to do with the value of our skill.  It
> isn't
> much different from the Wal Mart greeter.  Doesn't it seem legal for us
> to
> simple encourage one another to negotiate based on the value that our
> skill
> would bring elsewhere, rather than by our age, health, marriage and
> family
> status?  Otherwise, it is no surprise that human resources departments
> will
> determine that that is what our skill is worth.
>
> It seems legal that we should be able to encourage others to take into
> account the value of the skill they possess and how that pertains to
> others.
> The Guild publishes a brochure designed to peak interest in our craft,
> and
> it is available for download off of the PTG web site.  Historically, the
>
> lucrative nature of this occupation has always been one of its most
> enticing
> characteristics (my former dean indicated that the lucrative nature of
> the
> market for our skill is THE reason he intends to pursue our craft after
> he
> retires).  That brochure (now at least 4 years old?) indicates that
> established technicians can average between $35K and $75K (I am quite
> curious where those figures were derived), and that that income can be
> further supplemented with sales of accessories or retail piano sales,
> etc.
>
> It seems somehow that we should be able to suggest to those among us
> pursuing university employment that a reasonable method of negotiating
> salary should be to take the number of pianos one can reasonably service
> in
> the private sector in an 8 hour day, multiply that by an average fee in
> the
> local market, and by how many one can reasonably schedule in the same
> number
> of workdays or hours that one would be required to be present at the
> university job per year (and not discount what one would charge for the
> unusual hours often required of FTEs if he or she were self-employed),
> account for the value of the benefits that the employer will contribute,
> as
> well as the amount the employee will be required to contribute and you
> should be able to come to a reasonable figure.  (I figure 20 piano
> equivalents a week at 44 weeks a year to account for leave and holidays,
>
> then subtract benefits)  It does not matter whether we are actually
> performing 880 tuning equivalents a year.  What matters is that we have
> that
> capability and that that is the value of the time we are yielding by
> committing that same amount of time to the employer. It also seems that
> we
> should be able to look at the current offerings and see just how far
> short
> of that figure these salaries have been falling.
>
> Folks, the value of benefits is not forty to fifty thousand dollars a
> year
> and a complete willingness to have someone else dictate your life
> schedule.
> There should also be a value we place when the odd hours of university
> work
> prevent us from pursuing other interests and make it difficult for us to
>
> commit to other things we could otherwise commit to enjoying.  For
> example:
> if they require you to frequently come in to do one tuning on a Sunday
> morning, that could be preventing you from committing to being a Sunday
> School teacher or church choir director or even choir member or other
> musician -- there is a value there, and the reality is, when you do the
> math, you may see that you are doing that tuning for free, AND it keeps
> you
> from committing to something else that may be very important to you.
>
> As we contemplate the necessity for a CAUT endorsement, it seems to me
> in
> the best interest of the PTG and the CAUT committee that there be an
> economic reward for an individual to pursue such an endeavor.  It will
> not
> be an easy pursuit and it will not be something that will be able to be
> accomplished in a short period of time.  The truth is that colleges
> already
> expect such a level of knowledge and skill from the technicians it hires
> and
> we have seen very clearly the value colleges that have been recently
> posting
> vacancies assign to what is supposedly the cream of our crop.  (Although
>
> there is currently no mechanism in place for establishing what we
> consider
> to be "cream of our crop", that is what the college search committees
> are
> looking for and these are the salaries they apparently believe should be
>
> sufficient for compensating the "ideal candidate".)
>
>> Perhaps I misread the above... but it sounded to me like the author
> was
>> quite willing to accept bending big time over in order to have the
>> privilege to smile through the entire proverbial shaft.
>
> No.  The author who wrote that is not an employee.  He is a very well
> respected and well established self-employed technician, which explains
> his
> perspective on the matter.  As a self-employed business, he is
> absolutely
> correct.  But it seems to me that his answer in this case reflects
> exactly
> what the laws were designed to prohibit -- that businesses or college
> entities are actually engaging in what would seem to me to be an illegal
> act
> of collusion, price-fixing, whatever you call it, by communicating with
> one
> another to set salaries for employees.  Isn't that exactly the argument
> he
> is claiming is illegal, just on the other side of the employer-employee
> relationship?
>
> Ed's point about CEOs is quite easy to rebut.  Don't for one second
> think
> that the CEO at Ford doesn't know exactly what the compensation package
> for
> the CEO at GM is, and don't think it isn't brought up when it is time to
>
> negotiate his compensation.  That is exactly what I am suggesting that
> the
> PTG should be able to assist with.  We need to be able to have some sort
> of
> database for those among us to research when negotiating salaries.  I
> realize that FTE CAUTs represent a pretty small percentage of PTG
> membership.  But in many ways, they may also hold some of the most
> visible
> and prestigious positions in our field.
>
> There is no reason why we can't provide a database where if someone is
> looking into a job, they can take tools with them to the negotiating
> table,
> and advice on how to use those tools to negotiate for higher salaries.
>
> Tanner
>
>
>
>