<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>take this job and shove it (was let's cut..)</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> >From the "if your job is so bad, why don't you get a new one" dep= artment: I have to admit, I tire easily following this type of discussion.  I'm= sick of hearing about what a lousy life we have as piano technicians. &nbsp= ;It's like we are the Rodney Dangerfields of the service industry.  The= way I see it, we have three choices: 1.  Change nothing and keep complaining about it. 2.  Be creative and find a way to make our individual situations work = for us. 3.  Take all the time wasted whining, writing about how important we a= re, and proposing new and improved guidelines, and use it to upgrade our edu= cation and find a new job! That way we will all be better off.  Some wi= ll no doubt have a better job and, according to the laws of economics (suppl= y and demand), those of us who remain can expect to see higher wages:-) It seems to me that real job security (and a decent salary) in our professi= on comes from two sources:   1.  Making ourselves indispensable.  Administrators (bean counter= s, or whatever else you want to call them) tend to listen to one voice - fac= ulty.  Charts mean nothing - I find it rather ironic that though we des= pise the bean counter mentality, we would want to become such ourselves (&qu= ot;If I could draw your attention to chart 3b, you will see that an increase= in funding of 25% will lead to an overall instrument longevity factor of 32= .6% a net increase of 7.2% without taking into account inflation.  To d= o so please refer to chart 37c" - GAG!).  Faculty is concerned abo= ut the performance hall, the studio, and sometimes the practice rooms. &nbsp= ;They don't care how long a piano will last, they want it performing now. &n= bsp;If they really cared about longevity we would never have to harp about l= imited practice time on teaching and performance instruments or putting cove= rs back on pianos.  If we can convince faculty, by demonstration of our= skills, how much better their teaching and performing lives are with us aro= und, they will do most of our bidding.   2.  Comparing our program to peer institutions.  Someone else has= briefly mentioned this, but it needs to be included in our discussions with= administrators.  Nothing gets faculty or administration hotter than sh= owing them how much better off one of their peer institutions is.  Acad= emia is kind of silly that way, but it thrives on this constant comparison a= nd "keeping up with the Jones" mentality.  We need to use it = to our advantage. Funds in the arts will always be scarce.  We can either whine about it= or be creative and find new revenue streams - good ideas Rolf! Gotta get back to work, Rick on 6/18/03 7:50 AM, Wimblees@aol.com at Wimblees@aol.com wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE>In a message dated 6/17/03 9:= 03:23 PM Central Daylight Time, pianos@traverse.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE>We need to thin= k creatively not only about ways to spend money but ways to raise it as well.  To that end Interlochen Cen= ter for the Arts recently created what I think may be the first endowed chair of piano<= BR> technology in the country.   </BLOCKQUOTE> While on the one hand this is a great idea, what bothers me about this is t= hat not only do we have to work for a living, if this trend continues, it lo= oks like we will also have to work to find the money to pay us. Unfortunately, this is not just a minor problem with finding funds to pay t= he piano technician. This falls under the larger umbrella of funding the art= s. In the United States, funding for the arts has always been a problem. Whi= le people will pay hundreds of dollars to attend athletic events, and think = nothing of plunking down $20,000 to buy a fishing boat, which they use twice= a year, asking them to give $50, much less $5000, to help pay for the arts,= falls on deaf ears. If we are going to have to raise our own salary, it become even more impera= tive that we can show how the money is going to be used, and used judiciousl= y. That is why we need to have in place charts showing how properly maintain= ed instruments will not only play and sound better, but last longer. Wim </BLOCKQUOTE> _____________ Rick Florence Piano Technician Arizona State University, School of Music </BODY> </HTML>