<html> Hello Fred and other fellow CAUTs, Thanks for all your work and thoughts on this. Your idea of approaching NASM is excellent. I also think they will be interested in working with us on this, and they are in the very best position to gather the data we need to be more effective in our over all efforts, as well as being the best vehicle for putting some meet into the process of implementing the guidelines, so long as they are reasonable and represent a real world standard that they agree on. We (the MSU music department) are in the process of doing our "Self Evaluation" for NASM re-accreditation right now, and I agree that adding the related piano information would be completely in keeping with the rest of this process. Fred wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><x-tab>        </x-tab>My suggestion is that we approach NASM, and propose to work with them in developing guidelines for evaluation over a period of years. We would propose that guidelines be based to some extent on what is practical, ie what is happening today in the real world. That in order to do this, we need to collect accurate information. Would they collect the following data for the next few years as part of their on-going accreditation process? (Things like number, age and type of pianos, annual replacement budget, annual maintenance budget, # of FTE technicians). <x-tab>        </x-tab>NASM is in the business of collecting such data. Every year about 1/10 of the member institutions is up for re-evaluation. Each of these schools is required to provide a lot of data. Adding a few piano-related questions would not be a big deal. The other info - number of faculty, number of majors/degrees, performance vs academic emphasis, etc - they already know. So two or three years of data gathering would provide raw material for a pretty good idea of what's out there, on the basis of which we could come up with some broad guidelines. <x-tab>        </x-tab>Worth a shot, anyway. </blockquote> It really is worth a shot. Where do we go from here?  My chair has been involved as one of the NASM accreditation visitors and I could ask him about this. Any one else have any closer connections to NASM? Scott <x-sigsep></x-sigsep> Scott E. Thile, RPT Piano - Instrument Technician ---------------------------------------- Murray State University, Murray, KY <a href="mailto:scott.thile@murraystate.edu" eudora="autourl">mailto:</a>scott<a href="mailto:scott.thile@murraystate.edu" eudora="autourl">.thile@murraystate.edu</a> (Work Website) <a href="http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/index.html" eudora="autourl">http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/index.html</a> (Ham Radio Website ) <a href="http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/k4set/index.html" eudora="autourl">http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/k4set/index.html</a> (Family Website)  <a href="http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/family/index.htm" eudora="autourl">http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/family/index.htm</a> (Nickel Creek Website) <a href="http://www.nickelcreek.com/" eudora="autourl">http://www.nickelcreek.com/</a> </html>