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)
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC