[CAUT] Tired wippens/Tom Sawyer

[Jim Busby]

Hi Conrad,

Remember when Tom Sawyer got the boys to paint the fence? This may sound
bad but I've got students here who dearly want to "learn the business"
so what we do is trade them one hour of tutoring for two hours labor. We
train them, then they get to practice for two hours. They learn, we get
menial work done... Win Win! Everybody's happy. 

It might sound like we're taking advantage of them but they're happy as
clams and the stuff that "ain't rocket science" gets done w/o paying
anyone. As long as you supervise closely it works. Now and then you have
to redo some work and you might not invite that student to paint the
fence again...  Most of the time if you supervise very well in the "hour
of tutoring" the other two hours produces good work. No budget needed! 

At the annual convention I'll be giving a class (CAUT) on using
students, mentoring, apprenticing, etc..

Jim (Tom S.) Busby


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
Conrad Hoffsommer
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:33 AM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tired wippens

Cauters,

Don't know about you folks, but around here student workers are paid, a 
pittence to be sure, but it still is a budget item.  That shoestring
only 
goes so far.

Conrad


At 08:02 AM 11/15/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>uh-oh..what does that mean if I REALLY like doing that kind of stuff??
>
>:D
>On Nov 14, 2006, at 6:37 PM, Jim Busby wrote:
>
>>Isn't that what they make student assistants fer??
>>
>>Jim Busby
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
>>ed440 at mindspring.com
>>Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 3:17 PM
>>To: College and University Technicians
>>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tired wippens
>>
>>When I was a salaried CAUT the parts budget was used up quickly but my
>>salary kept running. Rather than twiddle my thumbs I reconditioned old
>>wippens, releathered old knuckles and rebushed old flanges. Better
>>that
>>than let things deteriorate for another 30 years.
>>