Bill Garlick's Diatribe

[Steve Brady]

Tom,

I, too, am glad to see some open discussion of Bill's document. I do not
find it particularly abusive, but the tone is without doubt quite bitter.
The term "diatribe" was, of course, used by Bill himself.

When someone of Bill's stature and expertise takes the time and effort to
express his feelings in a document of this size, it must merit our time
and consideration. After having lived with the diatribe since July,
however, it seems to me that we must also ask what his motives are. It is
truly a pity that he isn't on-line to participate in this discussion.

When people raise the alarm that the Guild is going to hell in a
handbasket, I have to wonder who they are worried about: the profession?
or their own niche within the profession? Reading the diatribe with that
question in mind leaves the answer, at least in this case, painfully obvious.

Does PTG still serve the needs and interests of professional piano
technicians? This is the crucial question as far as I am concerned. I
believe the steps we have taken in the marketing effort do just that. I
believe the resource manuals and reprint books we have now also help
professional technicians to grow as technicians. There are obviously
other areas in PTG which need attention, and some are being addressed.

Finally, and please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't help but
wonder if someone like yourself, who remains an Associate member after ten
years in PTG, has REALLY explored all that the Guild has to offer?

Thanks for listening,

Steve Brady, RPT
University of Washington


On Wed, 9 Nov 1994 twinter@mercury.sfsu.edu wrote:

> Ron,
>
> Thank you for taking the time and effort to transcribe and distribute Bill
> Garlick's "diatribe".  I hesitate to use the word "diatribe", because I did
> not find it to be either bitter or abusive, though others may think
> differently.  In fact, I found it refreshing.  We may question Bill's motives
> for writing it, but the points he makes are still valid.
>
> This document generated a most interesting conversation with Max, the other
> piano technician here.  I have become increasingly more uncomfortable with the
> PTG over the last few years, as I seem to be getting less and less from the
> organization. I have often questioned whether this is the result of a trend in
> the Guild or my maturing as a technician and thus needing less from the
> organization.  Max attended PTG meetings in the early sixties, and remembers
> them as a group of professional piano technicians sitting around, consuming
> coffee and donuts, and discussing issues of importance to them: the IRS,
> business licenses, who was willing to tune birdcages, who was willing to do
> shopwork for other technicians, and all the latest information on sources of
> materials and supplies.  In short it, was a support group, not unlike this
> forum.  There were never chapter technicals; those were presented at the
> regional and national conferences.  Even when I joined the PTG ten years ago,
> a little of this collegial atmosphere remained, though usually it occurred in
> a bar across the street after the meetings.  Alas, now it is all but gone.
>
> When viewed on a scale of thirty years, there is no question that the guild is
> changing and it raises the question of whether it is continuing to serve the
> needs of the professional piano technician.
>
> Tom Winter
> San Francisco State University
>
>