The problem to be solved, as I see it, is that many university administrators don't know or appreciate what it is that we do. We work for a small percentage of the population who knows and appreciates the difference between good pianos and bad. (Within the small percentage that cares about pianos at all) The caut committee is talking about selling the value of our craft, that which is specific to the needs of a university music school; needs that they may or may not know they have. We are still trying to sell the value of our skills to pianists, teachers, etc., and in this case, we are hoping to reach administrators. First we have to designate what those skills are, which the caut committee seems to have done here, and then we have to sell them. If we succeed at selling our newly designated skills (not new skills) in a big way, and search committees actually know to ask for caut qualified people to do the refined work that we know we can do, we will be on the way to improving our lives in some important ways; rather than asking us to tune 100 clunkers the week before school starts, maybe they will make more of an effort to find money to pay us to *service* those clunkers and make good pianos out of them, and they will approve funds for shops and tools and parts, because they will value good, musical pianos. Maybe more of us will be asked to manage the piano inventory, with a budget, rather than do endless piecework tuning, with no budget for anything else and no hope for overall improvement in the piano program. How many of us feel like our job is to supervise the deterioration of pianos? Maybe with increased awareness in the specific nature of the work that we do, at universities and everywhere, we will be *asked* to provide a more comprehensive service. Wouldn't that be nice? On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 8:59 AM, Porritt, David <dporritt at mail.smu.edu>wrote: > I’m not Fed, but let me chime in here. If taking the training or the > tests is not beneficial for you, I’d highly recommend not taking the > training or the tests. They should be and undoubtedly will be taken only by > people for whom they will be beneficial. > > > > Secondly, the problem of outliving your certification is a problem in every > skill. I meet people every day who have passed their drivers test, but who > are obviously not still qualified to drive and this is a problem with more > public safety issues than the CAUT certification. Any certification only > says that “at one time you had a certain skill” and this includes doctors, > lawyers and accountants. > > > > I am one who will undoubtedly pass up this certification. I’ve been at > this too long, and I’m too close to retirement for it to matter to me. > However, when I do retire, the school will have to find someone to replace > me and it will undoubtedly be someone who has less experience. The specific > training outlined in this proposal not only would be very beneficial for a > skilled technician entering the academic realm for the first time, it would > have been very good for me 23 years ago when I started here. > > > > Sometimes we have to provide opportunities for people in PTG that are not a > perfect fit for me personally. This curriculum will not be taken by the > vast majority of PTG members. I hope that each of us is not so self > absorbed that we’ll vote it down just because it’s not for me. That would > say more about our membership than I want to contemplate. > > > > dave > > > > David M. Porritt, RPT > > dporritt at smu.edu > > > > *From:* caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] *On Behalf Of * > wbis290 > *Sent:* Friday, June 19, 2009 8:27 AM > *To:* caut at ptg.org > *Subject:* Re: [CAUT] Caut Certification (was Re: Steinway or Forgery? now > CAUT Certification > > > > Hi Fed, > > > > This on the surface sounds good but there are a few things that need to be > addressed. First of all, those who are not full time technicians at a > university and have to do work in homes, schools and churches do not have > the luxury of being able to take all those days off just to try to prove to > someone that they are qualified. I am also reminded of what I was told by > some folks at Yamaha some years ago. When they started their list of people > who where qualified to service their concert and artist pianos I was told > that I was on their list even though I did not take their three day training > that these people were supposed to take. I asked why and was told that some > of the people at Yamaha knew me and that I was qualified. then they took my > name off. Then I was put back on again. Later I was taken off again since I > did not take their three day course. I was later told by one of the Yamaha > people that they were having problems due to the fact that they had people > come who we re not qualified but they passed the three day course and when > they did not use what they learned in those three days for a while, they did > not do the job that they were supposed to do due to lack of keeping up these > skills. I think that this plan is going to run into the same thing. The > third thing that I am thinking is, are we trying to make too big of a deal > with this? How many universities are going to look at this and care. Fourth, > would it be worth my while to loose $4,800 in work as well as the expense of > the hotel room? I do not think so. > > > > God bless > > > > Bill Balmer, RPT > > University of Findlay and Ohio Northern University > > > > > > > > In a message dated 06/17/09 19:59:24 US Eastern Standard Time, > fssturm at unm.edu writes: > > As long as Ben has introduced the subject, perhaps a slightly more > salient description is in order. As those of you who are politically > involved in PTG are aware, there is a proposal before council this > year to establish a credential for cauts, under the name of College > and University Technicians Endorsement (CAUT-E). This is the result of > many years of discussion, and various efforts to put ideas into > practical form. It is different in form from anything I remember being > discussed in this forum, though maybe that is just my bad memory. > In any case, the proposal is based on a series of four intensive > training sessions, each to be three days in length, under the name > "CAUT Academy." They will cover, under a prescribed curriculum, topics > to do with administration, management, planning and the like; concert > level tuning and prepar ation; historical instruments and related > topics; and a miscellaneous category that will include techniques for > maintaining high use instruments at a high standard. Each of these > sessions will have an exit exam related to it. Passing the four exams > will constitute receiving the endorsement. > The fact the there is a practical proposal before council is pretty > remarkable. Kudos to Dale Probst and many others for pushing to make > this real, rather than just a lot of continuing talk. As to what > council will make of it, that remains to be seen. But we hope that > most of you will take a positive view of this, as a step in the right > direction. > Regards, > Fred Sturm > University of New Mexico > fssturm at unm.edu > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Dell Inspiron 15: Now starting at $349<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222435718x1201460505/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B215748553%3B38126199%3Bs> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090619/d31a65e2/attachment-0001.htm>
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