CAUT

  • 1.  Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-21-2018 09:20

    CAUT Goals

    I've been following the discussions on PTG-L about previous CAUT efforts and reviewing the CAUT committee charges. I <g class="gr_ gr_32 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="32" data-gr-id="32">admit,</g> I have some homework to do.  I want to know your thoughts regarding the committee objectives, what PTG can do to assist the CAUT community, and how we can energize CAUT technicians.  I know we will need to recruit some new committee members as well.  Some folks on the committee have moved out of the CAUT environment back to the private sector.  Before I start twisting arms (tongue in cheek), I would love to have some volunteers. 

    Here is what is currently on the committee's plate:

    "This committee shall serve to promote the specific interests of college and university technicians. This committee shall maintain an updated list of college and university technicians. Additional activities may include publication of a regular newsletter, development of educational opportunities, and/or other special projects."

    • Propose classes for College and University Technicians at the PTG Institute and encourage continuing education. Submit plan and budget to Institute Director by Institute deadlines.

    • Suggest creative ways to market RPT and CAUT-specific services to institutions and non-member technicians.

    • Produce newsletters to post on the CAUT website in November and April.

    • Report on progress to the PTG Board of Directors.

     

    I would like to look at the work previous committees have done regarding a CAUT curriculum.  I am woefully ignorant of what transpired and what exists.  Help, please.

     

    Thanks in advance



    ------------------------------
    "PTG - Expand your Horizon. Share the Vision"
    "Providing Quality Service for the World's Pianos"
    "Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest. 'Til the good is better, and the better best."

    George W.R. "Bill Davis", RPT, SERVP
    2315 Rocky Mountain Rd NE
    Marietta GA 30066-2113
    CP: 770-778-6881
    bill@pianoplace.net
    www.pianoplace.net
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Member
    Posted 04-21-2018 10:21
    I think it is important to keep the guidelines and standards up to date and to share ideas about writing effective proposals, specifications, bid invitations, forming piano selection committees and giving Cauts tools to make sure they have decent shop space and a real budget. I have done some occasional work for university and colleges but mostly have done piano work for the local school district. I thought I had finally broken through and had a five year piano replacement plan to get new pianos in our district inventory. It seems the only way we can get pianos these days is by donation since schools do not put piano purchases high on the list. A dilemma we all face is convincing powers to be the need to purchase institutional models of pianos that can last and removed around so a good white paper or best practices guidelines kept up with the current piano offerings would help out. same goes for benches, lamps, covers, piano trucks. from what i have read it seems many new Cauts have no idea how to navigate the bureaucracy in their new position and are left in no win situations with poor pay, long hours, crazy demands and pianos that get the tar beat out of them. on top of that they have to put up with things like prepared pianos , coordinating moves, environmental extremes, food and drink policies . although it may not be doable it could be helpful to have some type of list like consumer reports does that rates various brands and models based on real world experiences . it would be helpful to know that certain models of certain brands have the durability and features needed to hold up. i am also of the belief that there should be a variety of brands and models so all eggs are not in one basket . it would be great to know that model x of brand yy  requires little tech prep out of the box or that it needs hours of regulation before joining the fleet  














    ------------------------------
    James Kelly
    Pawleys Island SC
    843-325-4357
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-21-2018 12:30
    George, 
    I don't mean to sound rude, or disrespectful.  Having recently been engaged in trying to sort out the background of the recent governance changes and being told, basically, that the information is all there, on the site, I'm inclined to advise you similarly.  Fred Sturm recently referenced some of the extensive work the committee did about 10 years ago, attempting to develop and cohesive curriculum.   (PTG-L discussion on recertification).  
    Also, I'm wondering why you would describe yourself of woefully ignorant, given that, according to the committee rosters, you've been the Board liaison to CAUT since 2016.  Is that just literary flourish?
    Looking at the current committee, I'd think you have a remarkable resource right there.

    James - Having 'been there', for a number of years, in different settings, I can tell you that there are more differences than there are similarities.  Judging from the job notices that have been posted recently, I think that CAUT efforts have had some effect.   
    Basically, the greatest leverage a new CAUT will have is the window between being offered the job and accepting it.   It's much more about knowing enough to reduce the surprise factor (hours expected, overtime compensation, salary increase opportunities, insurance,  un-mentioned responsibilities, working facilities (promised vs. actual)).  Much less leverage once you're there.  Ultimately, one's happiness and effectiveness are very much a function of the immediate supervisory structure (enlightened Dean (or Head Custodian, depending upon how job is classified), along with the quality of available assistants.


    ------------------------------
    David Skolnik
    Hastings-on-Hudson NY
    914-231-7565
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-21-2018 12:50
    Hi George,
    We are talking about 10 years ago. Fortunately, I never actually get around to cleaning out my email inbox (I do try to weed out to keep it below 10,000), so I did a quick search and found the following as the proposal for a "CAUT Academy" in 2009. This is just to give you an idea of what we were thinking at the time, the "we" meaning mostly Eric Wolfley, Don McKechnie, Alan McCoy and myself. Eric was talking the lead at that point.

    CAUT Academy  March 27 – 29, 2009

    Friday – Morning Session

    Workplace / Career
                Applying for jobs, constructing resumes
                Negotiating salaries
                Working with contracts
                Benefits
                Etc.

    Friday – Afternoon Session

    Working with the Administration
    Facilities Management
                Humidity control
                Improving an existing space
    Planning for a new space
    Etc.
    Equipping a shop, maintaining parts inventory

    Saturday – Morning Session

    Inventory Analysis and Management
                Constructing and using databases
                Loaner programs
                Budgets
    Etc.

    Saturday – Afternoon Session
    Using the Guidelines for Effective Institutional Piano Maintenance
    Using the Workload Formula
    Developing a maintenance strategy

    Saturday – Afternoon, evening
    Tour of UMKC with Kent Swafford (I haven't asked him about this yet)

    Sunday – Morning Session + After lunch session

    Techniques for servicing high-use pianos
    Special Topics for Institutional Work
                    Exit  Exam?




    ------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    http://www.artoftuning.com
    "We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-21-2018 13:05
    Going back a little farther, to 2002, we had a "CAUT Colloquium" at the Chicago convention that year, with roundtable discussions including music administrators, music faculty, piano manufacturers, and piano technicians. That took a full day of class periods. 

    From that point, the CAUT committee managed to persuade the PTG board and the institute committee to allow us to do the same in subsequent years. We had the idea of a sequence of specifically CAUT-related classes, and a notion of possibly documenting attendance at those classes (relatively informally) as a way to communicate professional development to our administrators. At Dallas, 2003, we focused on humidity control. During the following years, we have typically had three classes plus a CAUT Forum.

    The documentation thing was attempted for a while, then died for lack of interest/energy/motivation when we decided to try to come up with out CAUT Academy. As I wrote earlier (on PTG-L), we thought of the curriculum in my last post as "CAUT 101" (the administrative side), and were considering sessions on things like action prep, voicing, and the like, done at a music department. At that point, the PTG board charged the CAUT committee with developing a CAUT Credential. We did our best to persuade them to accept a series of four sessions as the basis for such a credential. Some chapter proposed changing the long term plan to eliminate a segment that encouraged creation of additional credentials. That proposal passed. The CAUT Credential proposal was withdrawn.

    That is probably a good enough overview for now.

    ------------------------------
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico
    fssturm@unm.edu
    http://fredsturm.net
    http://www.artoftuning.com
    "We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Casteneda
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-22-2018 10:41
    At the Technical Institute of the Annual Convention, it has been the practice since 2013 to reserve three CAUT-specific class slots plus the CAUT forum, all on a single day. As a former Institute Director, I can say that the single day restriction causes a great deal of scheduling difficulty with minimal benefits (the perception of a "CAUT Day"?).

    Scheduling four CAUT classes, instructors, and the pianos and resources they need in successive time slots on a single day, while trying to avoid scheduling other classes of potential CAUT interest on the same day, puts yet another resource headache into institute <g class="gr_ gr_132 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar multiReplace" id="132" data-gr-id="132">scheduling</g>.

    I'm sure future Institute Directors would be fine with keeping the minimum requirement of four classes, but eliminating the single-day restriction would make scheduling much easier, would allow more than four CAUT classes to be held, and might allow more CAUTs to attend these classes.

    --Cy--

    ------------------------------
    Cy Shuster, RPT
    Albuquerque, NM
    http://www.shusterpiano.com
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-22-2018 16:57
    Bill:

    CAUT training/classes are a microcosm of PTG's efforts to find a way to make it possible to improve educational offerings and to document the participation in continuing education. In regard to the first point I think it is possible to plug into some of the ideas that credentialing groups use to guide the structuring of courses. From what I've read that's what Norman Cantrell's task force was exploring In regard to the second point it seems to me that the participant should be in charge of getting and disseminating his own documentation. But PTG should have a systematic way of providing documentation if and when a participant has the need for that documentation. And CAUTs are the very group that could make use of outside documentation to justify a potential salary increase or other advancement.

    Let's say, for example, a person signs up for the Grand Regulation Class at the home office. To my knowledge that class meets organizational requirements that outside credentialing agencies might set. If a person attends, he gets proof of attendance that can be used to document the participation in continuing education. This could be used by a CAUT to show outside activity and improved knowledge and skill. The participant decides if she wants to have a proof of attendance and she decides what to do with the documentation. PTG only makes the document available without having to prove its value with a stamp of approval from an outside credentialing agency that knows nothing about pianos. PTG's goal is to improve teaching and teachers and provide documentation.

    The same should hold for any class that is offered on any level, although that would be harder to set up and monitor. I gave a chapter presentation recently that I titled Grand Regulating for Tone. I think I had some good things to say, but for it to be a source for members in attendance to use as documentation of continuing education would be a stretch. Some sort of criteria would have to be created by PTG by which to measure my presentation or any class, local, regional, or national. And it might be necessary to have some internal PTG controls to be sure the criteria were met. There could possibly be a PTG credentialing committee to whom I could submit documents. The committee would judge the quality of the materials and make a decision about qualifying the materials as something that meets our internal standards and could, therefore, be a source of documented continuing education. 

    Preventing people from gaming the system would also be necessary. Would a signature on a "official" proof of participation document be enough? 

    My basic point is that PTG should improve it's teaching standards using widely acceptation credentialing criteria and members should not be forced to document what they learned. PTG should have a system to prove participation, but leave it up to the individual to decide if documentation is important and useful.

    What I've left unsaid is this: Did the person actually learn anything? Sitting in a lecture class might not be as valuable as a hands-on class. The degree of importance in a lecture class would seem to me to be less than a hands-on approach. Any proof of attendance should openly state the nature of the class and perhaps even give a degree of difficulty to delineate knowledge imparted and knowledge practiced.

    Richard West



    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Seeking Ideas and volunteers for PTG CAUT committee

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 04-22-2018 17:40
    As much as I appreciate the classes offered by PTG at not only seminars and conventions, and even at the HO, they do not carry the same "weight" as classes offered at a university.  

    When I was at Alabama, I would show my department chair the classes I took at conventions, but that didn't do anything to give me a raise. They even paid my expenses to attend the Steinway week long seminars, but I still only got was a cost of living raise every year, not a raise because of the additional training I got. 

    This is might be a long shot, but what CAUT should consider is to develop an advanced education curriculum at a university where techs could earn hours towards a degree. That is what a university recognizes.  More or less what Ann offered at FSU.

    To make it more attractive to more CAUTs is to offer those classes at our Anual Conventions, in addition to at a school.  The problem is, most courses are 10 weeks long. How is a tech going to be able to take a 10 week course in 3 days?  They would need to be broken down into shorter segments.

    Anyway, something to consider, if it's worth considering at all.  








    ------------------------------
    Willem "Wim" Blees, RPT
    Mililani, HI 96789
    ------------------------------

    Original Message