Wimblees@aol.com wrote: > With all due repsect, Fred, this is a cop out. > > Wim Wim, Nope, not a cop out. Just the plain truth. I am a congenitally overcommitted person. With respect to PTG, in addition to my involvement in CAUT, I am an active CTE - did one tuning test and three pre-tests since January, have two more tests before convention. I am also Regional CTE, meaning some adminstrative duties and committee work. And I am active in my chapter - we're putting on an all day seminar in one week, and my role has been to recruit an outside instructor and do ongoing liaison. In my private life, I am involved in my local community - over the past three years have been an active member of the citizens advisory committee revising the master plan and zoning ordinance, a process which is coming to completion this summer. I am a serious performing pianist - most recently, three weeks ago I performed a solo recital devoted to works by Villa Lobos, where I "released" a CD of the same music which I had recorded at the end of last summer and privately produced. I have a wife and children, and an extended family including elderly parents and in-laws. I won't bother to go on. With respect to my comment that "it is unlikely that any effort I might undertake in that regard would be worth my while," I have found my interchanges with you extraordinarily unproductive, producing much more heat than light. In fact, they seem to have subtracted light and made issues more obscure. You are the only person corresponding on this listserv of whom I would make such a statement. It is my impression that you love to argue and squabble, to "make points." I don't care to carry on conversations in that vein. You complain of not being listened to because of being a newby to caut, and having limited experience. Well, I'm sorry, but to be taken seriously in any venue, you have to "pay your dues," demonstrate you are worth listening to. A good way to start is to make sure you do your homework - for example read what is available, and read it _carefully_. But more importantly, you need to show just a wee bit of humility. Maybe it's just possible that the brilliant idea you think is the cat's pyjamas would be obviously faulty to anyone with broader experience. Coming on aggressively and claiming everyone else involved in the discussion is heading in the wrong direction, well, it just isn't an approach that's likely to win you friends and make people listen to you. The CAUT field is very different from any other. That's why we have a caut committee and a separate listserv. It takes many years to get a real handle on what the job entails. Partly this is because of the increased demands for quality in this milieu (to one extent or other, all pianos are expected to be top-notch all the time). Partly it is the "on-going" nature of the work incomparison with the "outside world." You don't just rebuild or recondition a piano when that is needed, you do a very large number of incremental "touch-up" operations to try to keep all pianos at the best level they can be all the time, given time available. And, by the way, this is a basic reason I don't think your approach is a viable substitute for the one I am working on. It deals in discrete operations rather than a continuum. Well, that's plenty enough along these lines. I hope this clarifies my position and my previous comments. If not, well, you'll just have to make do, as it is my final word on the subject. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico
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