Unfortunately, when you have large, complex systems with multiple handoffs, there are a lot of places where things can go wrong. In the institutional environment, you can expect to find records of mistakes and actions taken to fix them. That’s part of institutional locksmithing. In the commercial shop, we rarely track keys to the keyhold- er level. Even if we were to track keyholders, it’s unlikely that number of keyholders would be in the tens of thousands. In the institutional environment, that’s common. An institution may have 40,000 keys in use at any given moment. Information about key issues is constantly added and never discarded. Institutional locksmiths oſten feel like they are swimming in key records. Master key systems live longer than computer soſtware, and both environments experience legacy issues due to soſtware and hardware upgrades. The problem is generally worse for the institutional locksmith. Many were early adopters of master keying and key control soſtware, and commonly use programs developed by programmers (sometimes students) in their own institutions. Over time, these systems become hard to support, and the IT departments will push to discontinue them. When this happens, in addition to maintaining 40-year-old key sys- tems, the institutional locksmiths are saddled with complex and time-consuming soſtware changes. Documentation in both environments may be difficult to understand, but perhaps the worst is a commercial shop that is on its second or third owner. Locksmiths of past generations kept a lot in their heads. They leſt behind records that were easy for them to work with, but seem cryptic and incomplete to the locksmiths who follow in their footsteps. Naturally, you don’t know what they didn’t write down. This is one of the bigger challenges faced by locksmiths in the field. One advantage to life on the institutional side: You can gener- ally set policy on what kind of keying you will accept and what you won’t — for example, cross keying or master keying with low-cost or poorly serviced cylinders. On the commercial side, if you turn down this work, it hits you directly in the wallet. Sometimes, you can explain to the customer that the keying they want is just too risky … and other times, they will go to the competition, who will happily master key those cylinders without the slightest concern for occupant safety. While there are differences between master keying in the commercial and institutional environments, there aren’t a lot of differences between the locksmiths. Locksmiths can find them- selves in either environment at any time. In the institutional environment, it’s common to find people with a background in commercial locksmithing. On the flip side, it’s common to go into a small-town lock shop and find someone who worked in an WWW.ALOA.ORG institution prior to relocating to their dream spot. It’s good for locksmiths to keep up to date on issues in both environments, because we never know where life will put us. Ralph Forrest-Ball was a math teacher for 12 years before becoming a full-time locksmith. He joined ALOA in 1997 and earned the CML credential in 2009. From 2009 to 2019, he was the owner of Emerald City Locksmith in Eugene, OR, and he was the winner of ALOA’s Best Shop contest in 2011. He currently works as an instructor and an author in Corvallis, OR. Lloyd Seliber, CML, has worked in the industry continuously since 1975. Seliber spent his early career as a commercial and institutional locksmith, then joined Schlage Lock Company as a master key analyst in 1988. For the next 21 years, Seliber cre- ated and maintained thousands of key systems at Schlage and later at dormakaba before starting Keying Solutions in 2008. Seliber is past president of the Door Hardware Institute Greater China Chapter and has taught master keying at ALOA since 2008. Residential. Commercial. We have you covered. Great customer service | Quality products Same-day shipping | Competitive pricing Educational seminars Tel: (800) 225-7405 www.stoneandberg.com Fax: (800) 535-5625 OCTOBER 2022 KEYNOTES 21
