Agree with Jim and Eric, More critical is that the populus is also in need of education. Every opportunity to promote is helpful from every angle at every time. RPT means something, getting the acceptance of the term to the masses is the achilles heel. It will be the same with CAUT certification. Time and more time will be necessary to gain acceptance. The term "RPT" has many meanings unfortunately to common folk the least known is Registered Piano Technician. I was told not to use the term on my Univ Biz cards as it has the meaning "Regular Part Time" and I'm a "Full Time" staff. So much work to do for all in the relations department. IMHO every tech has the duty to promote the craft and having another certification may be another tool to bring the craft to a higher level of knowledge. Perhaps additional discussion in Mich. Back to the trenches. Gerry C As a PS to the thread of No Tools. How about techs willing equipment to the school. Something I'm contemplating as my aging continues. From: jim_busby at byu.edu To: caut at ptg.org Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:50:34 -0600 Subject: Re: [CAUT] Caut Certification (was Re: Steinway or Forgery? now CAUT Certification 100% with you! Jim From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Wolfley, Eric (wolfleel) Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:01 AM To: 'caut at ptg.org' Subject: Re: [CAUT] Caut Certification (was Re: Steinway or Forgery? now CAUT Certification Hi Wim, What if?....20 years ago (just a guess) when you had just gotten your RPT and were considering getting into institutional work, there was a program you could plug into that would give you the opportunity to get specific knowledge about managing inventories and databases, humidity control systems in institutional buildings, tuning and voicing concert instruments, dealing with faculty and administrators, maintaining harpsichords and fortepianos, tuning historic temperaments, using proven methods for longevity of work on pianos that are played hard 18 hours a day, and a longer list of CAUT-specific skills we will be offering? All of us who have been working in this environment for many years have gradually picked up these skills at the school of hard knocks but I’ll tell you right now that if there was such a program available to me 20 years ago my life would have been a lot easier and my work would have been more effective at an earlier date. Everybody complains about the salary levels CAUT technicians make…Our premise is that if administrators perceive that there is a technician who has made the effort to further qualify him or herself in this specialized field it will be worth it to them to pay a better salary for a proven higher skill level. Credentials do matter in the academic world. As an example, I don’t know of any other situation in the piano world where RPT is required for employment other than at a college or university. Back during the Reagan recession in the early 90’s when I decided I wanted to work at a college job, it was clear to me that I had to join the PTG and get my RPT before I would be considered for any of the jobs I wanted. I think this is even more so now and the CAUT Committee has been working very hard for many years to improve the lot of college technicians by publishing and revising the Guidelines , offering classes at conventions and seminars and now by establishing a curriculum, the certification and accompanying academy. We (the CAUT Committee) believe that in time the benefits of this endeavor will be threefold: The institutions will benefit by getting better service, we technicians will benefit by getting better salaries, and the musicians will benefit because the pianos will be better cared for. Eric -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090618/0fc1bae2/attachment.htm>
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