WOW! Reading all the messages over the last few days one might think that the PTG is all about the e-mail lists - Pianotech and CAUT-L. It isn't. What you are seeing on the lists is - as Allan Gilreath and Norman Cantrell attempted to explain - a side effect of a comprehensive attempt to deal with a situation that has become untenable, and to position the PTG so that it could appeal to a much broader demographic than it has to date. It seems that some subscribers to this list expect the list to be the tail that wags the PTG dog... This change is not about "improving the list". This change is about moving the entire organization into a much more efficient and effective mode of operation. We all need to realize that the only reason the lists and their archives have been able to exist and develop to date is because Andy Rudoff has set up and managed the PTG server gratis, free, for bobkis. Andy is not even a piano technician - this was a labor of love for him. For whatever reason (probably because it has become overwhelming), he is no longer going to do it (and I don't blame him). Add to this the facts that the PTG website - managed on a part-time basis by Ron Berry - has become inadequate for all the tasks that it is expected to accomplish, and its management has for a long time has been too large a burden for a part-timer. So the choice - as I see it - is hire professionals to do these jobs (and bump up everyone's dues accordingly) to maintain a cumbersome, outdated and inadequate organizational electronic technology setup - or go to a comprehensive up-to-date solution. As I understand it, the PTG server will eventually be shut down, and the entire operation is moving into a "cloud computing" mode, that lives on servers out there somewhere with professional contract management. Thist will propel all aspects of the PTG - finance, marketing, member relations, communication, management, etc. - to the most efficient and effective level, enhancing the PTG's capability to reach a larger public, reducing the overall cost and easing the burden on the overworked PTG Home Office staff (and, having worked with them on committee stuff for years, I know how hard they work). I'll digress a bit now. Current research shows that straight e-mail communication is these days favored only among the Baby Boomer generation. Younger people who are much more computer savvy use more specialized media for various aspects of their communications - IM, social networks, forums and other web-based tools. If we are not to remain an organization of old fogeys typing into our e-mail clients, we must move into those formats that appeal to the younger demographics. This is absolutely crucial if the PTG is to maintain or expand its membership and its influence in the world of pianos and piano technology. Let's face it - we old fogeys aren't going to be here forever, and the future belongs to the young. I am 63 years old, and am starting - for the first time in my life - to have trouble with new technologies. I recently switched from my clamshell to a smartphone. I am still trying to figure out all its ins-and-outs - but hell if I am going back to the old dumb-phone, because it's easy and comfortable... And yes, I am not all that fluent with this new interface yet - but I am beginning to see where I can configure it to work for me. And yes there are issues there - but I see that Ron Nossaman has gotten out of his "this is crap" mode and started asking constructive questions about how it could possibly be made to work. And Fred Sturm - one of us old fogeys himself - immediately saw the potential of this format and bade this old e-mail list-chatroom-flamewar arena-discussiongroup goodbye. And I see him on the new forums happily developing well focused discussions pertinent to the purpose of those particular forums. And I suspect that they will soon draw all those people who have left these old lists because they got tired of pushing the "delete" button all the time, plus a lot more who really weren't interested in having discussions forced on them through their e-mailboxes - and would rather look at them at their leisure, without having their other communications clogged up, digest). Most of the complaints I have seen so far are due to lack of desire to adapt. This mode of communication is a lot more flexible than just plain e-mail - you can configure it to work for you in any of a number fo modes suited to your preferences (plain text, HTML, whatever), your platform of choice (computer, PDA) and look at it in any number of views. You can get it through e-mail or on the web. This is going to reach a great deal more people than the current lists, because it can suit a greater range of preferences - if you only bother to learn how to use it. This sort of thing is now replacing straight e-mail in large corporations and various organizations - and if clerks and secretaries can learn how to deal with it, so can we. Stopping all this in its tracks because a couple dozen members don't want to learn how to use it is folly. What's tied up in this this is of much greater consequence than the comfort level of list members who got used to what is fast becoming exclusively the province of old fogeys like me and some of my good friends whom I saw kvetching about the new format. So why can't we have the old and the new together? Simply because the PTG server and its no-cost management are going away. The listserves would have to live somewhere - and the PTG would either have to pay for someone to manage that old server just for the benefit of the web-phobic, or buy hosting from some commercial outfit. And maintain a corps of administrators and moderators to administer the lists. Having participated in the management of several exam-related PTG lists, I can tell you that it is no picnic. Fortunately for me, those lists are active only intermittently - but whenever they were, I would get inundated with all kinds of help requests - most of them about simple actions that anyone could do for themselves if they only bothered to read the list info and follow the instructions. I can only imagine the volume of such totally unnecessary work that administrators of busy lists such as Pianotech and CAUT-L had piled on them over the years by PTG member subscribers who neglected to learn the most elementary things about taking care of their own listserve issues whenever possible. Well, folks, the cost-free e-mail nanny is going away. It's time to leave cyber-kindergarten and go to web-school. It isn't that hard. If you can't do it on your own - well, buy your 11-year old grandson or niece an ice cream cone, and they'll show you. Or do it for you in 5 minutes. I know that I am being a bit harsh with some of my good friends - but, hey, it's a wake up call, and trumpets work a lot better than clavichords for that... The bottom line is that maintaining the old lists imposes costs on the organization that weren't there before - and the preferences of a couple dozen members (and some non-members) is not a good enough reason to bear those costs. Maybe if members want to hang on to the old lists they should pay a dues surcharge for maintaining them. If the city replaces public stables with parking lots for cars, if you want to keep your horse-and-buggy you need to pay for your own stable and shovel your own s--t... There is one thing for which I will fault the PTG administration with regard to this rollout. Much greater efforts should have been made to prepare the membership for it in terms of explaining exactly what is happening and why and offering tutorials in how to operate in this new environment. I suspect that had this been done, the change would not be so traumatic. Change is difficult, and people need to be prepared for it. It is not too late - an internal PR campaign needs to be launched explaining all these changes andn offering members help in adapting to them. I am posting this to both CAUT-L and Pianotech, and through bioth modes - e-mail and web-based. Let's see what happens... Israel Stein
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