<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Oct 11, 2007, at 2:19 PM, Ed Sutton wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">There is more. As long as administrators are so ignorant of the maintenance needs of pianos that they think a custodian with a tuning hammer and an accutuner can do the job, they'll continue to hire people who are glad to work for custodial pay.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">It's gonna take a while....</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"></FONT> </DIV><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="2"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; ">Ed Sutton</SPAN></FONT></DIV></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>It also goes back to Doctored Musicians in tenure-track positions that pay peanuts. Those folks think we shouldn't be paid as much as them. It is a very big mountain to move, and I don't think any PTG endorsement or continued education will ever be seen as equal to a doctorate from a university. We will always be seen as beneath them.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Further, Human Resources classification departments just don't have an accurate classification for us, and the systems most states, if they haven't already, are switching to use job "families" to classify employees. What that generally means for us is that they've got to group us with somebody we don't match with. For other occupations, that's great. But we don't match anything in any state classification I've seen. And there is good reason for that. We have one, ONE piano technician on the payroll of the state of South Carolina. Why bother?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>But I will have to side a bit with the administrators on what is real world vs ideal. You give me a good coachable beginner or novice tuner, ideally someone who has at least taken the Potter course, and I'll give him a VTD and put him in practice rooms. In a short time, I can teach him (or her, of course, as long as the wife doesn't get jealous) enough to have him making a big difference to the inventory I can't get to. There isn't a much better piano technician training ground than to be an assistant CAUT. That doesn't mean I think the pay should be so low. Tuning spinets and old uprights pays better if you're willing to take that kind of work on. That's a training ground too.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>My dad worked for 37 years as a lineman for the power company. He didn't have to be trained before he could be hired. They had then, and still have, a two year apprenticeship program to journeyman lineman. And that apprenticeship program today pays as well as some head CAUT positions with better benefits than state benefits, and when you have to work past 4:30, you're paid time and a half -- not comp time.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>This work isn't rocket science, folks. But it is a very unique skill combination. It is also a very rare occupation. That's what they should be paying for -- supply and demand, and the value of the alternative -- the private sector market. We gotta keep in mind 99+% of us are not F/T CAUTs. Where else is a music professor going to work as a music professor, though? Degreed musicians are a dime a dozen -- at any given time we have some 450 students studying music here at USC Columbia alone. How many are studying piano tuning in all of the state? That is what should drive up the salaries -- supply and demand. A good rebuilder and concert technician, yes, is ideal. But the real truth of the matter is that even somebody who can do good solid tuning and general repair would be of great value to most universities, and that is still an extremely rare find compared to the other folks working in these departments. We have such people making very good money in the private sector, where the work isn't nearly as necessary.</DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>