[CAUT] Pin drop

[Israel Stein]

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:01 PM Susan kline wrote:

> I think that one problem faced by the profession over the next
> decade or two is the idea that for the full-time positions, people
> either do the whole thing, or they do nothing (retire completely.)
> If we face a shortage of young people training up and getting
> the experience they need to handle concert work, wouldn't it make
> more sense to split the positions, letting today's full-time
> people partially retire but do some concerts, while acting as coaches
> to their younger replacements? (if any can be found ...)
>   
Interesting...   The position here at San Francisco State has always 
been split - two half-time jobs. This allows two technicians to get full 
Calpers benefits (health insurance and retirement) while being able to 
make a decent living in the private market - aside from the measly State 
salary. The manager (we work for a separate technical services entity - 
not the Music Department) let the technicians set their own schedule - 
so working 2 ten-hour days a week leaves us plenty time for our own work.

Tom Winter, who was the senior technician here for a long time, did 
essentially do what you suggest - he would hire relative novices, have 
them work primarily on the old beat up practice room uprights, and 
gradually get experience with concert work and grands as those issues 
came up on their shifts. This way D Jones (that's what she calls 
herself) and Keith Jones (no relation) were two of the young technicians 
who got lots of good training and experience this way. D moved on to 
work on her own somewhere in the Midwest and Keith took over as senior 
technician when Tom retired. Except that Keith did not want to work with 
a novice - so convinced them to hire one of the more experienced 
technicians in the area (Margie Williams). Then Keith got a plum job at 
the University of Denver and moved away - and Margie also did not want 
to share the work with a novice (too much trouble and responsibility, i 
guess) so she convinced me to take the opening. I like to do it because 
I get tired of working by myself all the time - I like the institutional 
atmosphere and the challenges of such work. And the benefits are nice. I 
don't know if I would like it as much full-time.) Anyway, this sort of 
split-job idea may or may not work in the way you envision, Susan - but 
I suppose that the SF State example shows that it might. .
At 62 I have 5 years to go until my retirement gets vested (if the job 
survives the California budget woes - don't get me started) having begun 
here as a youth of 57...   So I expect to stay with it at least until 
then. I have been slowing down in my private service business - turning 
away jobs and clients that I don't wish to deal with, and refusing to 
work at inconvenient hours (except for steady long-time clients). I 
still take on stringing and action  rebuilding jobs (warning the clients 
that it might take a while - what with my school schedule and my other 
institutional and professional clients, which are the backbone of my 
private practice). I manage to have something in the shop most of the 
time... And yes, I will work as late in life as I physically can - 
gradually getting pickier as to what jobs I take on...

Israel Stein