<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html>   Wimblees@aol.com wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>So the ONLY impact a piano tuner has on the instrument is on the longevity of the investment. Most technicians can only do so much to impress the faculty. Even with outstanding facilities, and an excellent technician keeping the pianos in tune, the money needs to be justified. Keeping the pianos sounding and playing great isn't going to be enough if the university decides it doesn't want to spend the money to keep their investment in top working condition, unless it can be shown that without the technician, their investment will need to be replaced in 20 years, instead of 40. Wim</blockquote> This can never be <<shown>>, nor can it be <<shown>> that a greenskeeper is worth his pay, nor can it be <<shown>> that a good coach is worth his pay.  There are always a zillion ways of coming up with counter arguments to any position. The truths are a bit more cyncal.  Nebraska hires a new coach for a ridiculous amount of money, and spends even more ridiculous amounts of money of football recruiting, scholaraships, bail money... doctors and paraphernailia for the injuries... etc etc. ad absurdum... not because it makes them tons of money... but because the powers that be at Nebraska WANT a big time football program. You look hard enough you can certainly find they loose money on the deal one way or the other. Same thing goes for most anything else. Music isnt glamourous, at least not the kind we are talking about... and that is the problem. This whole bean counter tangent is besides the point. Bean counters only get called into the picture in the first place when the administrator does or doesnt like the looks of the bean. RicB   -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A> <A HREF="http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html">http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html</A>  </html>