[CAUT] Piano juries on concert instruments

[Israel Stein]

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:37:35 -0500 Jeff Tanner wrote: 
<tannertuner at bellsouth.net

>> >> And, I'd say under the circumstances that it's a good thing you're a 
>> >> union worker.
>> >> Tanner
> >The reason I say that is that if your "boss" is changing every year or 1/2 
> >year, no one knows from one to the next what your agreement with the 
> >administration is. It wouldn't matter what you had in writing, if one dean 
> >comes in and decides he wants you to do things differently, all he's got to 
> >do is make things difficult and make you want to leave.
> >Jeff 
>   
Jeff,

I don't work for the School of Music and Dance. I work for a central 
service department, called Creative Arts Technical Services (CATS) that 
provides technical services to the component schools of the College of 
Creative Arts - Music and Dance, Theater, Fine Arts, Design, Broadcast & 
Electronic Communications, etc. So my boss is in charge of all the 
technicians who serve these departments (stage techs, electricians, 
electronics guys, piano techs, etc.) and the Music people have no 
jurisdiction over me - anything over and above the routine they want has 
to go through the CATS office and be paid for. In practice what happens 
is that my boss (who came up through the ranks as a stage electrician) 
essentially protects me from any additional demands made by the Music 
people, because he will charge them an extra fee for my services that 
are outside the routine - such as tunings outside regular working hours 
- because that's how all technical services are provided, on an 
inter-departmental fee basis. And if I cannot provide service due to 
lack of access - it's the not his (CATS director's) problem and 
therefore not mine either. If they want service, they need to allow 
access, during working hours (or pay for overtime) - those are the CATS 
service terms. The only reason there are issues is because I want to 
accomplish something there - not just go through the motions and collect 
a check. If I just wanted to be a clock puncher, I wouldn't be doing 
this work...  Because my direct supervisor is a Director-level 
administrator who is not part of the School of Music and Dance,  I am 
protected from any such shenanigans by interdepartmental politics. My 
boss protects me as part of protecting his turf. However there is a 
possibility that this new Dean may decide to abolish CATS as a cost 
saving measure and move all the technicians under the direct supervision 
of the various schools' Directors. In such a case I may very well 
consider quitting...

Israel