Folks, You should probably understand how this setup works in practice, and what it is, before criticizing. Those of you who think that stage electricians, scenery builders and the technical personnel in the various Fine Arts departments are "mere repairmen" are plain wrong. They are skilled members of the teams that produce the works of art (be they sculptures or stage plays) who are highly skilled in the disciplines that are being taught to the students in their departments - and in some cases teach them. In many cases they are graduates of the very schools with which they work - and to be truthful, many of them get a lot more respect from the publicly "visible" artists in their disciplines than we piano techs typically do - because there is more of a "teamwork" attitude in those disciplines than in Music, and students of those disciplines actually learn many of those technical skills as part of their training. The employees of CATS are not "mere repairmen" and are not seen as such - we do not maintain the building or the facilities. And because of the administrative setup, we are treated with deference by the music people, because they have to ask us to do what they want and to confer with us regarding the manner in which it will be done - rather than being able to order us to do whatever they wish. And because this pattern has been established, they tend to confer with us in matters where they really don't need to - such as piano purchase and deployment. In practice this meant that nothing in that area has been done contrary to our advice ever since I have been here. Here at SFSU the decisions regarding long-term piano maintenance and rebuilding are all in the hands of the Music department, since the parts cost comes out of their budget and they "own" the instruments. But because they are not our direct supervisors, they have to consult with us about any work that is done in this area - rather than order us around. In practice, what happens is that we initiate the projects and come to them for the funding. To date none of our requests have been refused, and the only reason the two of us have been able to maintain a consistent upgrade program for the instruments is that it has not been subject to the changing whims of "musical chairs" administrators. The funding for tools and equipment, however comes from the CATS budget - so people with knowledge and respect for tools control this budget and have provided pretty much everything we need. And the administrative setup gives us access to the tools, supplies and skills of the other schools' technicians - the scene shop, the metalwork people in the Art School, etc. without the need for negotiations with other administrative units - as at CATS we all help each other as a matter of policy. We have recently done a lot of key restoration work in the Theater Scene Shop during the summers, when plays are not produced, using that equipment and with the assistance of the scene shop manager - a very skilled woodworker. Couldn't do this if we had to buy a table saw for ourselves...There are other examples of such synergies created by the setup. Also, because of our being administered by a separate department, there are still two staff technicians doing this job, and therefore the level of routine service is set by our assessment of the needs - and not by the budgetary concerns of the School of Music and Dance.And we have the means to provide this level of service, in spite of California's ongoing budget woes. Had the technicians been under the direct control of the SMD, they would have long ago been cut down to one - or even eliminated in favor of the occasional contractor to tune the pianos once per semester - and for really important concerts (heck, they just let go most of the nontenured faculty...) We are in the happy position of not being subject to the budgetary pressures of the music school - and not being vulnerable to the ax due to budget pressures at CATS, because they would have to fight the School of Music and Dance to reduce the level of service that they have become accustomed to - at no extra cost... Those of you who work at institutions where the music administration respects you and your skills and is knowledgeable about the proper levels of piano service probably have little to gain from such a setup. But we all know that this is not always the case... Israel Stein caut-request at ptg.org wrote: > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:50:08 -0500 > From: "Mitch Staples" <staples.13 at osu.edu> > To: "Jeff Tanner" <tannertuner at bellsouth.net>, <caut at ptg.org> > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments > Message-ID: <ALEKJGGBOGGLMJJHNKGHCEHCEFAA.staples.13 at osu.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > Jeff, > > I disagree. The piano technician is as much part of the music department as > anyone else and should answer to the music administration. If the > administration doesn't respect the piano technician that's it's own problem. > > I don't see any benefit in a service department, it's just another layer of > bureaucracy, and makes us look like a run of the mill fix-it guy. In my > school I constantly fight being pigeon holed as a maintenance person. > Granted much of what we do is maintenance, but the most important things > (bringing out the expressive potential of performance pianos) are art. > > Maybe my situation is rare (I thought it was the norm) but I have just as > much sway in relevant matters as any professor and more than many. Now If I > was paid as much as most professors I'd be happier, but that's a different > thread. > > Happy New Year, > > Mitch Staples > Ohio State University > > > -----Original Message----- > From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org]On Behalf Of > Jeff Tanner > Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 4:16 PM > To: caut at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments > > > I understood that your boss is not affiliated with the music department. I > would be 100% in favor of every CAUT situation in the country not answering > directly to music admin, but to a similar type of situation as what you > have. Just like service departments in dealerships shouldn't answer to > sales staff, maintenence people shouldn't answer directly to anyone who > doesn't really understand maintenance. > Jeff > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:49:59 -0800 > From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> > To: <caut at ptg.org> > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments > Message-ID: <007501ca8a63$333f9200$99beb600$@net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > 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 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Mitch > Staples > Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 12:50 PM > To: Jeff Tanner; caut at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments > > > Jeff, > > I disagree. The piano technician is as much part of the music department as > anyone else and should answer to the music administration. If the > administration doesn't respect the piano technician that's it's own problem. > > I don't see any benefit in a service department, it's just another layer of > bureaucracy, and makes us look like a run of the mill fix-it guy. In my > school I constantly fight being pigeon holed as a maintenance person. > Granted much of what we do is maintenance, but the most important things > (bringing out the expressive potential of performance pianos) are art. > > Maybe my situation is rare (I thought it was the norm) but I have just as > much sway in relevant matters as any professor and more than many. Now If I > was paid as much as most professors I'd be happier, but that's a different > thread. > > Happy New Year, > > Mitch Staples > Ohio State University > > > -----Original Message----- > From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org]On Behalf Of > Jeff Tanner > Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 4:16 PM > To: caut at ptg.org > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments > > > I understood that your boss is not affiliated with the music department. I > would be 100% in favor of every CAUT situation in the country not answering > directly to music admin, but to a similar type of situation as what you > have. Just like service departments in dealerships shouldn't answer to > sales staff, maintenence people shouldn't answer directly to anyone who > doesn't really understand maintenance. > Jeff > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > CAUT mailing list > CAUT at ptg.org > http://ptg.org/mailman/listinfo/caut > > > End of CAUT Digest, Vol 15, Issue 1 > *********************************** > >
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