Several years ago, when I lived in Québec, the local Québec piano technicians group attempted to lobby the provincial government to have piano technicians licensed. They spent a lot of money and in the end were told (as I heard the story) that as no one is likely to die or be injured because they hired an incompetent piano technician, it was not the government's business to license piano technicians. Many of us are in the profession because, among other things, it's a bit below the radar, that is, we can do our work without a lot of bureaucratic interference. I'm no libertarian, but I can't believe that government licensing of piano technicians would result in anything but money out of our pockets. There's no other reason the government would want to get involved. And you better believe that we'd lose control of the requirements for licensing in short order. Also, once the government got involved in this, there would be no going back. Aaron At 11:14 AM 11/23/2009, you wrote: >I was not aware PTG ever lobbied to prevent >government licensing of our trade. Is this >true? One can imagine how at first impression >gov regulations would not be attractive, but >with hind sight.... I agree. I wonder if this >something that could ever be revisited, with >careful new perspective of course. > >best, > >Dennis Johnson >__________ > > > >On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 1:56 AM, Diane >Hofstetter <<mailto:dianepianotuner at msn.com>dianepianotuner at msn.com> wrote: > >Mark, > >What does your wife do? I became a hearing >instrument specialist to learn more about >hearing and how piano technicians and musicians >can protect their good hearing and get help when they have problems. > > In order to keep my license, I have to have > continuing education units also. As soon as I > saw that, it occurred to me that maybe it > wasn't so wonderful that PTG worked so hard to > keep the government from licensing us. The > hearing industry _uses_ the government > regulatory boards to require their > practitioners to keep their education up to > date. The government boards are only too happy > to allow the professional organizations to > specify what the continuing education units consist of. > >Manufacturers have trainers that travel around >the country giving seminars on their >products. There are regional conventions, which >give classes you can earn CEU's in and national >ones that you can earn even more CEU's >in. There is a national hearing research center >near me and I attend monthly seminars >there. You can even earn cEU's taking online >classes. The online ones are wonderful because >they cover a broader spectrum of subjects than >they are able to do at the conventions. > >Diane Hofstetter > > > > > >CAUT] Jeanie's brain storm - was Boston changed to dealers... >Mark Wisner markwisner at <http://earthlink.net>earthlink.net >Sat Nov 21 23:02:40 MST 2009 >Previous message: [CAUT] Boston changed to dealers techs mfgrs and other such >Next message: [CAUT] Servicing guide rail bushings >Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Jeanie, >Your "brainstorm" is a little like my wife's >profession. In order for Stella to keep her >license valid every year she has to pick up a >specific number of continuing education credits, >which she earns by attending classes at any one >of a number of professional conventions, classes, seminars, etc. >I'm not seriously suggesting we can apply this >to PGT at this time, but in a world where pianos >are more important than they are.....what a >great way to increase skills, event attendance, >and importance to the "RPT" title. >Mark Wisner > > > >Diane Hofstetter > ------------------------------------------ Aaron Bousel Registered Piano Technician, Piano Technicians Guild abousel at comcast.net (413) 253-3846 (voice & fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091123/f1b1e2e6/attachment.htm>
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