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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My! My! Reality is harsh isn't
it?! :-) Just when I thought we were going to all bleed to death as
part of the ubiquitous, all-american victim class, from the searing heat of
Arizona (do I have the proper asu.edu, Rick?), you come to CAUTerize the
wound. It was beginning to sound like the morning bitch sessions at the
union hall before the guys all go file for unemployment and another round of
coffee, smokes & griping at the local greasy spoon. How quickly we
leave behind (if we ever had it) the drive & creativity that kept us alive
out in the real world, and take on the mentality of academia. Bringing
that sort of entrepreneurial approach to an academic setting is not always
appreciated -- it tends to rock the boat. Timing and tact will be
critical as well. I doubt that you'd have had the same success 5-7 years
ago, Rolf. However, you've been able to achieve a lot, as have many others
across the country, and all are to be congratulated. CAUT is the forum to
share that success, as well as the attempts that fail, and learn together in the
process. As you said, Rick, the faculty (and music admin.) are the key to
future & funding. If we can develope a real rapport where they
recognize that we help them succeed, they will "sing our praise in the city
gates".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Otto</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Rick.Florence@asu.edu href="mailto:Rick.Florence@asu.edu">Rick
Florence</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=caut@ptg.org
href="mailto:caut@ptg.org">College and University Technicians</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, June 18, 2003 11:50
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> take this job and shove it (was
let's cut..)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>>From the "if your job is so bad, why don't you get a new
one" department:<BR><BR>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. It's like we are the Rodney Dangerfields of the service
industry. The way I see it, we have three choices:<BR><BR>1.
Change nothing and keep complaining about it.<BR><BR>2. Be
creative and find a way to make our individual situations work for
us.<BR><BR>3. Take all the time wasted whining, writing about how
important we are, and proposing new and improved guidelines, and use it to
upgrade our education and find a new job! That way we will all be better off.
Some will no doubt have a better job and, according to the laws of
economics (supply and demand), those of us who remain can expect to see higher
wages:-)<BR><BR>It seems to me that real job security (and a decent salary) in
our profession comes from two sources: <BR><BR>1. Making ourselves
indispensable. Administrators (bean counters, or whatever else you want
to call them) tend to listen to one voice - faculty. Charts mean nothing
- I find it rather ironic that though we despise the bean counter mentality,
we would want to become such ourselves ("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 do so please refer to chart 37c" -
GAG!). Faculty is concerned about the performance hall, the studio, and
sometimes the practice rooms. They don't care how long a piano will
last, they want it performing now. If they really cared about longevity
we would never have to harp about limited practice time on teaching and
performance instruments or putting covers back on pianos. If we can
convince faculty, by demonstration of our skills, how much better their
teaching and performing lives are with us around, they will do most of our
bidding. <BR><BR>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 showing them how much better off one of their peer
institutions is. Academia is kind of silly that way, but it thrives on
this constant comparison and "keeping up with the Jones" mentality. We
need to use it to our advantage.<BR><BR>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!<BR><BR><BR>Gotta get back to
work,<BR><BR>Rick<BR><BR><BR>on 6/18/03 7:50 AM, Wimblees@aol.com at
Wimblees@aol.com wrote:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial>In a message dated 6/17/03 9:03:23
PM Central Daylight Time, pianos@traverse.net writes:<BR><BR></FONT></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial>We need to think creatively not
only about ways to<BR>spend money but ways to raise it as well. To
that end Interlochen Center for the<BR>Arts recently created what I think
may be the first endowed chair of piano<BR>technology in the country.
<BR></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT size=2><FONT
face=Arial><BR><BR>While on the one hand this is a great idea, what bothers
me about this is that not only do we have to work for a living, if this
trend continues, it looks like we will also have to work to find the money
to pay us. <BR><BR>Unfortunately, this is not just a minor problem with
finding funds to pay the piano technician. This falls under the larger
umbrella of funding the arts. In the United States, funding for the arts has
always been a problem. While 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. <BR><BR>If we are going to
have to raise our own salary, it become even more imperative that we can
show how the money is going to be used, and used judiciously. That is why we
need to have in place charts showing how properly maintained instruments
will not only play and sound better, but last longer. <BR><BR>Wim
<BR><BR></FONT></FONT><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>_____________<BR>Rick
Florence<BR>Piano Technician<BR>Arizona State University, School of
Music<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>