List; Perhaps this letter from Ernie to Mike will give us some insight to Ernie's reasoning vis-a-vis James Williams. I present this to you with no editorial comment. You decide what it means or if it means anything. ------------------------ ERNEST JUHN, RPT (RPT LOGO) 109-01 72ND ROAD FOREST HILLS, NY 11375 "The reason the RPT emblem is more valuable than the PTG logo is this: The logo is bought; the RPT emblem is earned." (Danny Boone, RPT) Registered Member Telephone: (718) 268-7263 Sunday, April 09,1995 Michael k Drost RPT V.P. PTG 1052 South Fork Drive River Falls, WI 54022 Dear Michael, As you may remember, I wrote to you after your election in Kansas City. A year has passed, and we should assess our situation. After reading your letter and answer dated July 26,1994,1 feel that there is a need to bring out a few facts. The first, and most important one is that your hope that "the balance of RPTs-to-Associates has bottomed out" was wrong. (In spite of Leon's misleading statistics in the Journal.) I still agree with you that "The human product of the 1960s is raising havoc everywhere: including PTG". What I disagree with is that we have to join the crowd and swim with the stream! I am fully convinced that if we do not make a change now, it will be too late and we will not have a PTG as you and I saw it when we joined. There is a trend to "return to values" and the trend is growing. Michael this year there will be quite a few changes on the board. Many who have supported the present trend will be leaving. lt is time to abandon the `follow the leader blindly' theory. It did not work! No PACE program helped and no taking over of the Journal did either. I am glad to see that Steve Brady is trying to make the Journal look more like something we were used to. He obvious ly recognized that the PACE articles belong somewhere in the back of the magazine - and he had the guts to put them there. At this time I would like to express a thought which I did not discus much with others yet. As you probably know or remember), I was one of the group who unseated an Executive Director because he was running PTG (his way rather than the members way). I feel that if we disregard the need to pay a big staff and support an expensive board, PTG would be better off being an organization of "first class piano tuner technicians" than be a group with a lot of members. It is not a big achievement to get "as many members as possible" if the requirements to belong are basically none. What some people do not recognize is the fact that an organization with low standards also can demand less respect. We certainly have lower standards than ever before - don't be surprised if we get less respect. The time has come to make changes! Frankly, I have not been able to figure out what the motif of this entire scheme was. I can not believe that putting Bill Spurlock into the limelight in order to make his supply business grow, is a valuable argument. (Although his advertisements have been prominently displayed next to the Pace articles). In fact, I am willing to believe that Fern Henry did everything she did because she thought that it was the best thing to do for PTG! Her methods to achieve these goals are something else.. In any case, it is time to admit that it was the wrong direction to go -- and -- change the trend while it is still possible. We seem to have come accustomed to going to stores we were used to shop in, only to find that they no longer exist. Let PTG not become an organization people did count on and no longer can! Michael, I believe that I have kept my promise. It is your turn now. Sincerely (Ernie Juhn ?) CC: Leon only -------------------- Jim Bryant (FL)
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