[CAUT] student assistants

[Jim Busby]

Alan,

430 pianos
140 school of music pianos
                2 major concert halls, 4 (or so) minor venues
                34 practice rooms, 18 grands, the rest uprights
                All dorms have pianos
                Nearly every building has pianos for church services
4 student assistants (They mainly tune "church pianos" across campus and practice rooms, and "shop work" )
2 fulltime technicians (Faculty pianos, concert halls, classrooms, others, training and supervision of students)
1 part time contract technician (Tunes dorm pianos)

Our program has developed into a great program for training RPTs. We try to hire one new Freshman every year with the agreement that;

1.       They will stay with us for at least 3 years (After a probationary, or trial period)

2.       They will work 20 hours per week

3.       They will not do "outside work" until and unless we give them permission

4.       They will follow a learning track to become RPTs

By the end of the second year they should be RPTs or close to it. We start them out sweeping the floors, key bushings, repinning, etc. and tuning unisons on practice room uprights with supervision from advanced students and/or us. We "tutor" each student one hour per week, and have a training session for one hour. The first year (or 6 months, depending on ability) they are more of a liability than an asset. After that, they are really productive and actually pay for themselves because we bill other departments, so it comes back to the shop. This funds the student program, essentially.

At first it's hard to get such a program going, because of all the training, etc. but after students are trained and start teaching new students it really pays off. Students learn more by teaching, as they have to codify and understand things at a high level. We supervise all this, but for the most part it all runs well as long as we can keep the "higher level" students employed and not off tuning pianos on their own. (A couple times it has happened) Students who stay and do well are rewarded with pay increases which make their pay higher than most other "on campus" jobs. So far, 6 have graduated with degrees (not all have been music majors) AND as RPTs! Win/win all around. They will have tuned (in 2 years) about 500 or more pianos, repinned about 20 - 30 actions, rebushed about 20 sets of keys, regulated dozens of grands and uprights, and done many other things. We generally send out belly work, but they will have replaced a pinblock or two, etc.

Hope that helps. There is a lot I could write...

Jim Busby BYU


From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of reggaepass at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 4:50 AM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] student assistants

I would like to get a "show of hands" of all the CAUTs who utilize student assistants in some capacity or other.  Please indicate whether your CAUT position is full-time or part-time, and the kind of tasks you have been able to train your assistants for.

Many thanks,

Alan Eder
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