Hello Nevin,
I did speak in part about what you stated. You are right, many of us don't get enough time off. I can think of a couple of techs that have salaried jobs at colleges and universities around here going three days a week. One of the gigs I heard a lot of bad things about, the other, nothing bad about. A shorter work week could help solve the problem, but the pay would need to still be considered. If pay is reduced with the work week in most cases, it would not solve the problem. In addition to this I would have to also say yeah, Nevin, we need to get guys like you out to the woods once and a while to play your guitar and sing. These university jobs turn you into workaholics, and make you forget some of the things you are best at. As for me, I ran out of gas for the two job approach pretty quick after moving from contract labor to "full-time". I don't think the two job thing will ever be something I have energy for. Until I am married maybe. Ha ha. Gets ya out of the house. Some institutions expect you to do it so much, they let you do private work in the school shop. They figure, better you are at least there while you do it.
I can say in addition that I am concerned about some of what I am hearing go around about the next CAUT committee proposal for certification. In relation to school budgets, a CAUT certification at CCM for me would mean absolutely positively nothing. I would not get another dime. I know the last two guys who had the job. You can jump through hoops for years protracting and increasing your education. You won't get a raise. Going through the time and expense, and time is an expense for us, for a CAUT academy, would in relation to my job just make my life more difficult. Some of the specifics for certification sound more like a somewhat ingratiating effort of techs getting on their hobby horse than anything to me. I suppose I could get on my hobby horse if I was on the CAUT committee, and propose we introduce something like a required performance for a set of piano pieces, by memory, one baroque, one classical, one romantic, one twentieth century. Then get a couple of judges with piano degrees to score your performance, if not good enough, you don't get certified. Sounds good to me. Playing piano taught me more about regulation than specs. But too many of the people on the committee aren't good at that already. In other words, piano performance seems as germane to the Piano Technicians Guild to me as harpsichord technology. Then again, I had the opportunity of helping with organ tuning at Oberlin on a few occasions. Introducing something like organ technology would turn me into an apologist for the CAUT academy and certification. I also am an organist, though my skills have diminished considerably since college. But again, probably, not enough people on the committee good enough at that already. Yet if we are talking long range improvement for our status in the University setting, why would including harpsichord tech skills be more pertinent than organ tech skills? I did get the majority of my undergraduate education at an evangelical college, and I suppose at a secular school an instrument that is more relevant to sacred music may seem less important, but far as the people we are working for, students (they pay), particularly at evangelical schools, they will find work in sacred music most easily, and therefore, benefit most from organ skills, the most lucrative opportunity when reaching the stage where they need to pay back school loans. Harpsichord won't do a whole lot for them. Besides that, I acknowledge a much greater interest in organs. Better tuning jokes too. Why not include organ technology? How is that less significant than harpsichord technology in the Piano Technicians Guild?
For all its drawbacks, the testing for Registered Piano Technician is unbelievable. It is very difficult for piano technicians to judge one another's work. It is considered unethical for members of the guild to make judgments of one another's work. But the guys who started the PTG actually managed to get together a system everybody agreed on, and with as many problems I might have with the test, I am still impressed that it exists already.
Furthermore, it is impossible to compare the piano tech trade schools with higher education. You can get in those places with absolutely no knowledge about the piano, while it takes years of study to get into a good school to study piano performance. And there is so much apprenticeship in piano technology. If you create a school where you need to know something about piano technology first, then you have something like higher education for piano technicians. Thus, CAUT academy. But another problem we have to face is that so much of what piano techs. do is just doing it, not knowing how. Knowing how to do everything necessary will not get me the best gigs. And so, those with the best gigs I could also do get the best work from the reputation gained, and begin delegating when possible and taking all the credit. And so, the piano technician becomes leech in relation to another. This is happening in schools all over the country. It is difficult to trust other piano technicians to play judge, or for an altruistic effort to rescue other piano technicians from being repressed at schools across the country, because in so many of these schools, the piano technician is as responsible for the repression as the school itself.
Faculty status is probably the best way to go. A CAUT academy will not give us that. Del was talking about acoustical engineering. He is on the right track in that if we want to be in a better position as piano technicians in a university or college; teaching will help. That is one thing most people associate with faculty positions. Turning us into administrators juggling inventory monitoring humidity levels, important as this is, will not change things much for us, or give us more time off.
Hope to see you soon Nevin,
- Ben
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of nevin essex
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 6:51 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] University Budgets and Payroll
Hi Ben, Aren't you gonna say Hello to me? I'm with you. I resent the fact that university pay scales for piano technicians are such that it seems they assume we will work two jobs and 12 hours a day. I wish I didn't have to. That said, I feel pretty well treated here, and my hours are flexible. I just have a lot of them. N
On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Sloane, Benjamin (sloaneba) <sloaneba at ucmail.uc.edu<mailto:sloaneba at ucmail.uc.edu>> wrote:
Hello Rob and Ron,
First of all, I need to make clear that I am a very fortunate person and piano tech. to be employed at CCM; I am genuinely lucky. That having been admitted, I have an observation about the following statement:
"We have the unique ability among many educational employees
of being able to generate income on our own - outside of
the system"
Actually, the people we work with most consistently, Piano Profs, can make a tidy sum with a piano gig. Some of the ones I've talked to do on a regular basis. E.g., all expense paid trip to Buenos Aires for a performance, 5000 dollars in cash after only one performance to fly back with. And at most institutions the piano profs get the time off to do it, winter, spring break, summers, sabbatical for the tenured profs, artist's in residence. In addition, many of the instrumental instructors at CCM play for the orchestra as well. Set design, lighting, sound, electronic media, all metropolitan areas have a variety of performance areas where these tech people find contract work beyond the university. Dance instructors can teach private lessons at better hourly rates than us, theatre faculty have the opportunity to work beyond the school in acting. Computer tech people have lots of opportunities beyond the confines of the Conservatory.
I am not too sure we are unique in the conservatory arena with the opportunity we have to do work elsewhere. Just in the unwarranted reputation for abusing the privilege, and not being given the time to do it. It is to an extent most in piano technology that the pay in the institutional setting carries with it the assumption that we will pace ourselves for outside work. Absolutely no reason to feel guilty about it.
I already feel like I am too busy just to do what I do at the school. I am of the conviction that more time off would help.
Concerning the rubric "University Budgets and Payroll," I look at it less like a budget and more like a food chain. The question, who is at the top, the parasites or the host? Wilkipedia uses this pertinent description of the relationship:
"Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between two different organisms where one organism, the parasite, takes favor from the host, sometimes for a prolonged time. In general, parasites are much smaller than their hosts, show a high degree of specialization for their mode of life, and reproduce more quickly and in greater numbers than their hosts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite
I suppose being the parasite has its disadvantages too. I am also concerned the fervor for a CAUT certification will turn out to be another opportunity for parasitism. Last thing I need is another expense. In fact, I gave up self-employment for employment at a University to cut back on expenses, not create new ones. Though in many disciplines knowledge in the field must remain current, when is the education over? How many piano profs are still taking piano lessons?
Respectfully, and maybe too sardonically,
- Ben
-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org<mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org> [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org<mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org>] On Behalf Of Ron Koval
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 4:09 PM
To: caut at ptg.org<mailto:caut at ptg.org>
Subject: [CAUT] University Budgets and Payroll
Rob, you caught me at "the right place at the right time"...
WTF? You take potshots at California, seemingly espousing
fiscal responsibility and then try and find a way to
game the system?!?
Shame on you.
We have the unique ability among many educational employees
of being able to generate income on our own - outside of
the system. Suck it up, help them save some money and
make some calls. I'm sure you can make up the lost income.
By the way, my system cut my summers a few years back...
(It makes the fall rush that much more 'exciting'!)
Ron Koval
Concordia University
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