John One thing about having an arrangement like yours, which is the case in many institutions, is that with the current department chair, everything seems to run smoothly. You send him a quote, but does he give you an acknowledgement of that quote? What happens when the department chair changes, and he/she could care less about maintaining the pianos on a regular basis? Do you have it in writing that says "I'm supposed to tune these pianos according to this schedule, get paid so much for the work, and I am authorized to do this amount of additional work"? I think that is what the CAUT Committee is trying to put together. Wim Willem Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician School of Music University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL USA -----Original Message----- From: John R. Granholm <granholmjohnpian at qwest.net> To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org> Sent: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 10:25:13 -0700 Subject: Re: [CAUT] Bid Process (was Re: becoming a university tech. HELP!) On Jul 5, 2006, at 7:27 AM, Fred Sturm wrote > Whether or not this discussion leads to a Journal article, the > caut committee would welcome a wide ranging discussion of these > issues as we work toward development of a "CAUT Credential." Is the CAUT committee going to consider only full-time university techs, or are you going to include people like me, who are part-timers? I maintain pianos for a local community college. The work involves the usual Baldwin 243s in practice rooms, two 7-footers in classrooms (one Baldwin, one Steinway), and two 9-footers (D and old M&H CC) in a concert hall. It's a strictly part-time arrangement, and compared to what I've read in this thread so far, it's very simple. I don't deal with bids or parts budgets, which I think must be an unusual situation. I deal directly with the department chairman, who wants me to send him a quote once a year that covers the next year's projected work. His basic directive to me is that he doesn't want to have to worry about pianos--he wants them in tune and working. I don't do any rebuilding, just tuning, regulation, voicing, and any necessary repairs. My feeling about this work is that as long as the money holds out, and as long as my work keeps the chairman happy, I've got the job. It's all pretty informal. The M&H in the concert hall does mostly accompaniment duty, but needs rebuilding to get back to fulfilling its potential as a concert instrument. It would take grant money to get that done--nothing in the budget for work like that. I mention this need occasionally, but I don't push it. I suspect there are many techs out there doing CAUT work at this lower level, as contractors rather than employees. John R. Granholm, RPT Registered Member, Piano Technicians Guild Assistant Editor, Piano Technicians Journal jtuner at qwest.net ________________________________________________________________________ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.
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