Formula Concerns

[Bdshull@aol.com]

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In a message dated 4/22/02 5:51:41 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
vem@email.byu.edu writes:
Wim wrote:

(Major snip)

> It is by knowing how often a piano should be tuned, and how long it should 
> > take, an administrator will more closely be able to determine how much 
> time, 
> > and money, is needed to maintain the pianos. That is what they want to 
> know. 
> > It is also their right to find someone who can do that work in the 
> prescribed 
> > amount of time. 
> 

And Vince wrote:

> If you are a contracted tuner, maybe.

Vince, I think even the contracted tuner should expect to have a high degree 
of expertise.  That is one of the things I have been trying to say the last 
couple years:  the CAUT contract tech is (or should also be) an expert.  The 
Guidelines and formula should function as a tool for both employed and 
contracted technicians to provide a school with good information.  We should 
all be able to knowledgeably provide a school with an assessment of their 
needs.  This doesn't ignore the reality of the school's budget 
considerations, but unless we provide our school(s) with our professional 
judgment (the school's crunched numbers) about their situation we are not 
really doing our professional duty, and we may also be putting ourselves in a 
position of vulnerability.  

Administrators are, indeed, intelligent people.  Unfortunately, many are not 
inclined to take piano technicians seriously, assuming the recommendations of 
the piano professors, or the way things have always been done -- the 
prevailing wisdom -- is preferable to some technician's study.  That doesn't 
mean we have to go along.  Either we need to work to better represent the 
value of our expertise, or, if the school is not interested, we are better to 
walk away.  That might be easier for a contract tech than someone already 
employed full-time, but some kind of clarity about where you stand is 
important.  The school's workload numbers provide an important means of doing 
this.  Even if we are in a process of revision, those numbers provide an 
authority derived from the best work of our profession in the area.

Bill Shull, RPT
La Sierra University



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