<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"> <title>Re: [CAUT]  CAUT Endorsement</title> <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> Of course all of our experience comes from a fairly small segment of the world.  Even if one has had a job a 2 or 3 music schools, that’s not universal knowledge of academia.  My experience in that regard is pretty limited. Here our head of the Keyboard Studies area is a quite knowledgeable pianist whose father was a piano technician.  The other three of the piano faculty have had or still have their performing careers and have worked with piano technicians a lot to get what they each want in a piano.  I really think they could work together to find a replacement for me.  I’d love to think that they did that job well 21 years ago but having read the interesting article on incompetence I’m reluctant to say anything!  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> In other words, the committee has to find a warm body that seems to have the qualifications, references, documented education and character to do the job.  Even if a test were conceived that actually could measure a person’s aptitude for this work, how much weight should it have in the hiring decision?  Candidate A has passed the CAUT test but has a poor credit history.  Candidate B has a good work record and good references (happy musician customers) but never bothered to take the CAUT test.  I’d bet credit history would trump CAUT test.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> dave<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <div> David M. Porritt, RPT<o:p></o:p> <a href="dporritt@smu.edu">dporritt@smu.edu</a><o:p></o:p> </div> <o:p> </o:p> <div> <div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'> From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 7:50 PM To: caut Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT Endorsement<o:p></o:p> </div> </div> <o:p> </o:p> On 10/23/07 3:12 PM, "David M. Porritt" <dporritt@smu.edu> wrote:<o:p></o:p> I think college administrators have to interview, check backgrounds, do their do-diligence but I really have my doubts that any testing PTG could do would do as well as a good college football scout can do and they miss a lot.  <o:p></o:p> Hi David,     The problem is that there is no animal in the music department who is the equivalent of the college football scout. Who in your music department do you think qualifies as a good scout for piano technicians? And even if they actually know what to look for, where is the opportunity for them to witness a game or two in a real life analogy? (Okay, the candidate can come and do a tuning or something, but that doesn't say a lot, even if the “scout” can evaluate it reasonably well). Not to say that the administrator doesn’t need to do the normal due diligence in any case, checking recommendations, etc. But one of the problems we face is that the person usually doing the hiring has no concept of the skills needed, and has to rely almost entirely on a best guess of what references and experience set might mean. Probably doesn’t really even know what questions to ask. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico <o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>