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<DIV>Wim:<BR><BR>I don't think anyone could hazard a wild guess as to how long
the instruments will last with X amount of maintenance as opposed to Y amount of
maintenance. The thing I have tried to communicate is 1> they will last
somewhat longer with proper maintenance 2> if the school is pretending to be
teaching artistry, there is a certain amount of maintenance that has to be done
to keep the instruments suitable for artistic use. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think it wise of the committee to leave out speculation that can't be
verified by research data. You'd have to set up two similar schools, buy
identical instruments and have a disparate maintenance program to verify how
much longer they will last. That's not going to be done. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I also try to emphasize that I can take a 15-year-old practice room grand
and trade it for $30,000 or rebuild the essentials for $10,000. You don't
have to have a Ph.D to understand that. A lot of this can't be
documented.....it can only be explained to people who want to understand.
Anyone who wants documented proof of this kind of information doesn't really
want to understand, and as you said too many don't care about 10 - 20 years down
the road. Most in the upper levels of management will be retired by
then.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>dave<BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR
***********<BR><BR>On 6/9/2003 at 5:26 PM Wimblees@aol.com wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"><FONT
face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF">First
of all, thank you Fred and Bill for putting together this Guideline. This
document will go a long way towards helping universities cope with the piano
maintenance problem. <BR><BR>In reviewing this plan, there is one thing that I
keep looking for. Perhaps it's in there, but I can't find it. What I am
looking for is perhaps the same thing university administrators might be
looking for, and that is a cost vs longevity ratio. <BR><BR>What I mean is, if
a university spends x number of dollars on inventory, and spends x number of
dollars on a technician to maintain this inventory, how long can the inventory
be expected to last? And what would happen to the inventory if the university
spends less on maintenance? How much sooner will the inventory need to be
replaced?<BR><BR>The workload formula tells an administrator how many
technicians are needed for the number of pianos the school has. But let's say
a school needs 2.5 technicians for its inventory. What will the effect be on
that inventory if only 1 full time technician is hired? How much more will it
cost them in the long run?<BR><BR>I realize this might not be something that
can be predicted, but maybe we can give it a shot. The other problem we might
run into is a disturbing piece of information I learned last year.
Unfortunately, what I found out is that even within the music department, much
less the university in general, most professors, and even the chair of the
department, don't care what happens 20 or 40 years from now. Most only care
about what happens next year. Will they have enough money for their pet
project, or scholarships, and will they get the raise they were promised? Most
of them would rather spend $10,000 now on scholarships for next year's
students, to justify their teaching schedule, than $10,000 for parts for the
pianos so they will last another 20 years. <BR><BR>So I realize that providing
the information I am looking for might not do any good, but I think this is
the kind of information a school would need to adequately protect their
inventory. <BR><BR>Wim <BR><BR></FONT><FONT size=2
Arial></BLOCKQUOTE>**************** END MESSAGE FROM Wimblees@aol.com
*********************</FONT> </FONT></BODY></HTML>
<PRE>
_____________________________
David M. Porritt
dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275
_____________________________</PRE>