[CAUT] Protecting pianos from student and faculty beverage spills

[Zeno Wood]

Go to www.ptg.org and enter a good key word (spills, spilled, coke, etc.) in
the archives search box in the lower right hand corner.  It comes up fairly
often.


On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 2:11 PM, Newhouse,Larry R. <lrn at sfcm.edu> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I have not been subscribed to CAUT for many years and I apologize in
> advance
> if this question has already been discussed to exhaustion.  We have more
> than 100 pianos with approximately 88 practice rooms, classrooms and
> studios.  While I have had placards placed on a wall of each room stating
> no
> food of beverages allowed and discuss this at the beginning of each
> semester
> we invariably have a few spills a year on average.  I haven't found away to
> search for past threads on the subject.  If that is possible I would
> welcome
> some direction.
>
> The most recent spill was a large volume of hot chocolate into the keys and
> keybed.  The only reason I found out soon afterwards was because a student
> walked into the room and found it dripping from the keybed and didn't want
> to be blamed (not that this action eliminates that possibility.)  Of course
> this was a piano on which I had recently replaced the key
> bushings...Murphy's Law and all.
>
> We have keycards that are assigned to everyone so facilities knows who
> enters a room at any given time and date but the reality is that students
> hold doors open for each other and there is no way to have reliable hall
> monitors on 5 floors without it costing a lot and seeming like a prison.
>
> One would think that musicians would think clearly and follow policies but
> they are also in their 20's (although faculty has been guilty of this too
> at
> times.)
>
> The concert manager and I are trying to come up with suggestions to try and
> change the culture since it is very hard to catch these accidents as they
> happen.  Therefore, It would be helpful for me to know how other
> universities, colleges and conservatories handle this and what systems they
> use, if any, to minimize the damage.
>
> Thanks for any input.
>
> Larry
>
> Larry Newhouse|Senior Piano Technician
>
> San Francisco Conservatory of Music
> 50 Oak Street
> San Francisco, CA 94102
>
> 415 503-6282
> 415 383-7690 (home office)
> lrn at sfcm.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
> NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY
>
> This e-mail message and its attachments (if any) are intended solely for
> the use of the addressee hereof.  In addition, this message and the
> attachments (if any) may contain information that is confidential,
> privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Unless you are
> the addressee (or authorized to receive for the addressee), you are
> prohibited from reading, disclosing, reproducing, distributing,
> disseminating or otherwise using this transmission. Delivery of this message
> to any person other than the intended recipient is not intended to waive any
> right or privilege. If you have received this message in error, please
> promptly notify the sender by reply e-mail and immediately delete this
> message from your system. Thank you.”
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091202/8b333100/attachment.htm>