[CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments

[Jeff Tanner]

Oh, I completely disagree that the music administration clearly has much 
more vested in the care and maintenance of pianos than of photocopy 
machines. All of the faculty and students depend heavily on the photocopy 
machines.  A significant percentage rarely touch a piano.

And, if you'll check the budget, I'll wager they spend more on the 
maintenance of the photocopy machines than they do the pianos.  Especially 
if you put it into perspective of cost of inventory.

What I mean is this: cost of maintenance of photocopy machines is set by 
someone who understands what is involved in photocopier maintenace and what 
it costs to actually staff a team of skilled technicians. Cost of 
maintenance of university pianos is set by whatever amount is leftover after 
everything else is paid for. If you answer to music faculty, your salary and 
working conditions are going to naturally be treated as beneath that of 
those who have doctorate degrees, because that is how they learn to evaluate 
each other.

Wouldn't you rather that your salary and working conditions were managed by 
someone who understands the concepts behind maintenance, what is actually 
necessary for the inventory and knows what the market is for your skill?  I 
mean, I'm thinking in terms of what's best for the technician and inventory 
here, not just using other school's situations to keep costs down.
Jeff



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
To: <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments


> Perhaps we should clarify just who exactly we mean by the "music
> administration" but I don't think photocopy maintenance is a particularly
> good analogy.  The music administration clearly has much more invested in
> the care and maintenance of pianos than of photocopy machines.  Plus it
> seems like you're suggesting that we should be answerable to a service
> agency even further removed from the music departments in terms of 
> assessing
> their particular needs, feedback, priorities and, budget decisions which
> invariably need to be made.  Ultimately we are "answerable" to those who 
> use
> our services and I would prefer a general dialogue which, I think, leads 
> to
> better decision making than simply trying to stake out one's territory. 
> But
> your situation might be different.
>
> David Love
> www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeff
> Tanner
> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 8:50 AM
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments
>
> David,
> Should the photocopy maintenance also answer to the music administration?
> Jeff
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
> To: <caut at ptg.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 4:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments
>
>
>> Agreed, I think it depends on the music administration.  Eliminating them
>> from the loop seems pretty difficult.  At Stanford I've always had very
>> good
>> experiences with the Music Administration and invariably they need to
>> coordinate use and budget requirements anyway so it's hard to ignore 
>> them.
>> My experience is that the farther away you get from the department
>> involved
>> the more bureaucratic it gets.
>>
>> David Love
>> www.davidlovepianos.com
>>
>