The RFP Sliding Scale
An "RFP" is shorthand for "Request for Proposal," a letter that most organ builders receive from prospective clients with regularity. On the one hand, some are exciting and invigorating. They represent a chance for the builder to do something special that enhances their expertise and experience. On the other hand, some are tragic in their shortsightedness. They are an invitation to add to the opus of indifferent or misinformed organ building that is so prevalent across the land.
I have coined the term "RFP Sliding Scale" to describe a downward trend that occurs when each successive phone call represents a stranger request than the time before. I can say from personal experience that this can happen. I am not making this up.
I would like to give a verbatim request, but privacy issues prevail, and examples must suffice. Here are some of the "truth is stranger than fiction" RFPs.
Items that have been requested for a small unit organ
* Fit new "digital grade" contacts to each manual and pedal note. (Question: What is meant by "digital grade" ?)
* Fit new rocker tablets to accommodate a much-expanded stop list. (Why do folks want to obtain 33 "voices" from 3 ranks of pipes?)
* Install 12 new pistons and toe studs in the thumb-rails and pedalboard. (What's the organist going to use all those buttons for?)
* All pistons and reversibles are to be of the lighted type. (For candlelight services?)
* Install a chime relay in the Great and Swell. (You don't want to be far away from the chimes!)
* Connect the organ power supply to the building security system. (This one stumps me. I guess it has something to do with pews that "creak" in the night. Would the organ shut down when the building alarm was sounded?)
* Provide multiple memories, lockable with digital passwords. (That's it, you can use your ATM card to set combinations!)
* Provide a clock that "autocorrects" via a microprocessor for accuracy. (My VCR does that, but I have no idea how to hook up the organ to Channel 9.)
* Install a transposer with a warning indicator. (Perhaps the building alarm would do.)
* Set all console keys and switches to factory standards. (Problem: this is a Möller Artiste--no more factory.)
* Extend the Trumpet rank to give a 16-8-4 reed chorus on the Swell. (How to provide a Willis "full Swell" with one rank. This reminds me of the "one rank mixture.") [See White, "The One-rank Mixture; The Diapason, November, 1961, p. 25.]
* Add a Cymbale III. (That would double the size of the organ from 3 ranks to 6 ranks!)
* Here is a request that is a keeper: Engrave all stop tabs with preparations "masked with a semi-permanent, non-staining, semi-opaque material." (Could this customer be asking for masking tape?)
These are honest-to-gosh examples that illustrate what I call the "RFP Sliding Scale." I am a believer in the adage that the customer is mostly right, and in these cases, I call back to inquire if we could stop by and have a look at the organ. I call attention to the fact that unit organs are "stand-alone" affairs that don't take too well to multiple additions and "improvements." This is my "Let sleeping dogs lie" approach. Nevertheless, I have to learn to control my passive-aggressive impulses in these situations.
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