lance lafargue wrote: > I should have clarified by saying that if the information is more easily > passed around in this format, we may have some associate members who are only > interested in the > Journal for enough information to pose as being qualified, never intending to > prove minimal competency through an RPT certification and we may have fewer > members, fewer qualified techs in the field, I would share your concern here if I thought the CD being made public would influence the situation as you seem to think is possible. However I do not believe there will be any significant impact in this regard. And I think that in dealing with such folks, the best approach is one of encouragment, keeping contact. > and may be doing harm to the customer, etc. In the end, the customer simply has to look out for him/herself. That may sound cold, it is not intended to. There are many things an organization can do to help ease this burden on piano owners, but to some degree piano owners simply need to understand enough about their piano that they know not to let just anybody tinker with it. > Just because you are an associate does not mean that you or all associates > have this mentality. I have seen that mentality among "some" associates, but > if this doesn't apply to you, relax. There are some associates that have no > intention/desire to upgrade and many who do not see value in becoming an RPT. There will always be this element, and probably alway in around the same amount. Not everyone is made for "association life", some are indeed as you point out just not interested in getting good enough. > SOMEONE COULD JOIN 6/16/99, BUY 20 YEARS WORTH OF THE JOURNAL ON CD AND QUIT > 6/17/99. This would be kinda odd. Some few may do this, but not enough to make any real difference. > I'm just asking if they've thought about all of the ramifications. I also > never said we should withhold information from associates, just non-members. It is importand to look at the ramifications, but as to withholding information from non members, I see no reason why the PTG should start doing that now. They never have and never should. The advent of the CD should change nothing in that regard. The negative ramifications of such a policy would in my view far outweigh any slight benifits (and indeed they would be slight) of restricting the sale of this to some definition of who "qualifies" to buy it. > > > Someone could read one article on repair one day and buy a yellow page ad > the next. This is possible today and it would not be any easier with the CD. Actually it may be harder as it would take considerable PC savy to hunt down appropriate information, sort through the many articles and print out so as to be able to sit down with the piano and information to work on a piano. > If it were harder to get and transfer and only available to > members on hard copy, it would lessen the chances of these things > occurring. . And here is the real crux of the matter. On what basis do you make this assumption ? What evidence can you present to support this ? Really Lance, this kind of thing has been tried again and again throughout the world in many regards. The result is always the same. It may on the surface seem logical, but it doesnt work. Instead it causes so many negatives that in the end the idea dies upon its own unreasonableness. We DO need to address the problems of "phoneys", "lazy associates" "lone-ers" or whatever. The question is how can we improve upon that which is already done. To restrict the CD, will become known and if anything worsen the problem with these kind of folks. > Anything that may lessen the value of membership and furthering > all of our level of craftsmanship, we should look closely at. I only meant > to ask if non-members would more easily get it, and if control of sales, > free copying etc had been considered. (my red-faced explanation) I aggree 100 %. > > LANCE LAFARGUE, RPT > LAFARGUE PIANO SERVICES > New Orleans Chapter > Mandeville, LA. > _________________________________ > II III II III II III II III II III II III II III II III II III II > ----------------------------------------------------------- > lafargue@iamerica.net > > "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to > make them all yourself." > This particular mistake has already been made a few thousand times by humans. Richard Brekne ICPTG
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