Diatribe Plus

[Ernest Juhn]

Diatribe Plus

To all,
Believe me it takes a lot of tongue-biting not to jump in and answer right away.
Permit me to say that I am grateful that my memory is in fairly good shape and I
am in a position to comment about PTG as it was and how it changed.
Let me start with Bill Garlick. Bill had quite a reputation as an instructor and
proprietor of the North Bennet School in Boston. Only AFTER he became known and
successful, he was asked to teach at PTG conventions and seminars. Just like
Fred Drasche, Frank Stopa and later Dr. Sanderson. These people were approached
because of their reputation in various fields. No doubt, they became popular in
PTG, but it was not PTG that "made" them, they were "made" before. There are
others who became famous exclusively due to their exposure in PTG - I am
speaking from personal experience, but not Bill. Incidentally, both kinds of the
above mentioned instructors have been written up frequently in the PTJournal and
probably never in the sports pages anywhere.
On parliamentary procedure and "to convey to the Board.." as well as voting for
the right people etc.. may I just remind you that Mr. McCarthy was an elected
Senator and he remained in office for ten years.. A lot of people were
disappointed..
On dialog.
I certainly feel that bringing things into the open should be a welcome
opportunity. Those who believe that criticism is equal to complaining and
complainers should be stopped from expressing their opinion, can always withdraw
from the discussion. They can of course, continue to benefit from everything
that the Guild has to offer without contributing themselves.
But, there were always those who tried to keep membership at the highest
possible level. In fact some of our most successful teachers and writers got
(admittedly) almost all of their education during times when we did not have the
PACE program, the "home study course Journal" nor the crash course convention!
They received their education from instructors who were later "grandfathered"
into remaining RPTs..
Finally, I am asking. Should PTG continue to keep on drifting away from the
original concept by neglecting the advanced technician in favor of educating new
people in the field or, should the organization leave the teaching to schools
and concentrate on what it was intended to be when founded. It grew from a mere
few hundred members to a respected, prestigious organization with over 3000
members.
At this point I would like to emphasize that PTG has ALWAYS gained members -
REGULARLY! That is why we have all these members.
On the other hand, PTG has had a few financial "downs".  From time to time
various groups or individuals wanted PTG to go into the school business. That
inevitably caused problems. PREDICTABLY!
I will admit that IN CERTAIN AREAS (only) there is a shortage of
tuner-technicians. PTG is however not only a national but an international
organization. It has obligations to it's members - all it's members not to those
who may want to become tuner-technicians.
Ernie Juhn