Chicago Convention

[Allan L. Gilreath, RPT]

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Mr. Bremmer and the list members,

Thank you for your questions.  As volunteers, we always want to get as much
information out to the membership, to make the best use of our invested
time, and this affords me an excellent opportunity to provide some
information to the list members.

Perhaps some elucidation is in order.  The Institute Committee is made up of
individuals just as is the Piano Technicians Guild.  Each year the Director
is responsible for making choices concerning what classes and subjects to
include and exclude.  Therefore, each Institute's makeup is based on the
decisions of the director for that year, with input from many others, and
not necessarily upon the decisions of prior directors.

We attempt to balance the course offerings based upon experience, prior
attendance, new opportunities, requests and available facilities.  I'm sure
that no one ever thinks we get exactly the right mix but my goal is to meet
the needs of the greatest number of individuals as I can perceive it at this
point in time.

I'm not exactly what is meant by the thought of giving "lip service."  Every
communication and request is given serious consideration even if each one
can't be accommodated.  In very short order the entire membership will
receive the complete convention schedule in the mail and the website will be
up and running.  In order to attempt to meet the members' desires I
requested proposals while in Reno, with a notice in the Journal and by
posting to the email lists.  After receiving the responses to those requests
we also sought additional classes in an attempt to balance the course
offerings as I saw fit.  Mr. Brooks is no longer serving on this committee
but I have great respect for his commitment and service to PTG and the
Institute.

The vitriolic comments about players confuse me as well, this year we have
Norman Cantrell offering one class on pneumatic players.  This is an
important area for some and I'm sure that the folks who spend a lot of time
in this area feel that we don't offer adequate coverage for that particular
subject compared to the number of classes offered on tuning.

Yes, this is a fairly large task, I just finished proofing articles,
replying to messages and working on other details after I got my son to
sleep.  Actually, I feel quite honored to be fortunate enough to work in the
ranks of the past and future Institute Directors.  Their dedication to this
organization and this field serves as a constant source of inspiration to me
in carrying out this task.  In fact, I am constantly pleased by the level of
volunteer dedication within our organization to teach, experiment,
communicate, work together and advance our science and art.

This year's offerings include David Lamoreaux presenting his very
well-received presentation on Choosing a Temperament.  Margaret Hood and Ed
Kottick address issues concerning historical instruments.  The rest of the
tuning lineup includes such luminaries as Jim Coleman, Sr., Al Sanderson,
Virgil Smith, Gina Carter, Dean Reyburn, Fengsheng Chen, Sandy West, Carl
Lieberman, Tom Sheehan, Jim Geiger, Dan Levitan and more.  Many of these
folks are more than familiar with Historical Temperaments and include the
subject in their presentations.  Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I don't view
Equal Temperament and Historical Temperaments as mutually exclusive.  I see
all temperaments as part of a continuum that we as piano technicians can use
as tools to meet the needs of out clients.  At one point in time, it was
commonplace to place a similar distinction on Aural versus ETD assisted
tunings.  Over the years, many of us have learned that these methods can be
integrated into a whole rather than opposing points.

We also cover regulation, repairs, voicing, moving, materials, business,
health, technology and other areas.  The balance between these areas is
carefully planned and scheduled in an attempt to offer a wide variety to all
attendees at all times.

We look forward to input and I always enjoy receiving emails and forwarded
emails concerning what our members want to see offered in the Institute.  Of
course, I will be serving only one more year on the committee after this but
I will always be glad to forward information to the director and/or
committee at the time.

I hope this answers a few of your questions and I further hope that you as
well as everyone else can attend the Convention and Institute in Chicago
this June.  The opportunities to learn and advance are numerous and varied.
Most of the classes are new or entirely revamped.  Considering everything
being offered, I truly feel sorry for the individuals who don't jump at this
chance to learn and grow.

Allan
Allan L. Gilreath, RPT
Director - TEAM2002
June 26-30, 2002 - Chicago, IL
agilreath@mindspring.com
http://www.ptg.org/conv.htm
Assistant Directors: Gary Neie, RPT - Claude Harding, RPT - Joel Jones,
RPT - Laura Olsen, RPT

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." - Benjamin Franklin

 -----Original Message-----
From: owner-ptg-l@ptg.org [mailto:owner-ptg-l@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Billbrpt@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 12:14 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Cc: ptg-l@ptg.org
Subject: Chicago Convention


  In a message dated 3/14/02 10:41:55 AM Central Standard Time,
A440A@AOL.COM writes:



    Side  by side comparisons with ET have
    never failed to waken significant percentages of listeners to the added
    resources of the WT's, and in my experience of the last 9 years, this
applies
    to technicians, teachers, and pianists alike.


  I'll bet anything that nothing of the kind is planned for the PTG Annual
Convention in Chicago.  Despite claims to the contrary, the Institute
Committee historically has resisted HT presentations as much as it could get
away with doing.  "There's no room", "not enough interest", "too much
stress"...etc.

  Now, they can provide for full day or multiple day presentations on
rebuilding but what percentage of piano technicians are involved with or
even interested in rebuilding vs. the percentage interested in tuning
advancement?

  When has the *ever* been a recital featuring HT's besides the one in
Dearborn with Owen Jorgensen?  For that one, I had to call and complain that
*no action whatsoever* had been taken on organizing the event.  Nothing in
the schedule, no advance write ups, no nothing.  I recall that the person I
had to deal with on this matter was the very same as the one whom I had a
great deal of trouble with later, trouble to the point of me being in
jeopardy of being *kicked out* of PTG.  The room was packed with a standing
room only crowd as HT related events usually are.  This, with only word of
mouth and passing out flyer advertising.

  The Current Director has given lip service to wanting to be responsive to
what the membership wants and needs but I haven't heard anything at all
about what may be in the works regarding this topic.  What ever happened to
Skip Becker's hugely successful, standing room only, Festival of
Temperaments?  They tried as hard as they could to make sure that as few
people as possible would attend by putting it on the last day of classes
when many people had already left. The Institute Committee refused to
continue anything like it.   To even get my tuning done, I had to endure
repeated harassment from Wally Brooks who is well known for his hatred of
the very idea of what he calls, "Hysterical Temperaments" and "tuning the
piano out of tune".

  Any complaint about this brings the usual, "I tune HT's myself", "we've
had that before", "we have 4 classes on this subject" (but 5 on player
pianos) [the kind with the paper rolls], "we're all volunteers, you wouldn't
believe the amount of work we do, blah, blah blah..."

  So, Institute Committee, what really is in the works?  I keep getting mail
asking *me* why these things are not on the agenda.  Haven't you gotten any
lately?

  Bill Bremmer RPT
  Madison, Wisconsin
  Click here: -=w w w . b i l l b r e m m e r . c o m =-

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