It Doesn't Matter

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings, 
   I feel an exception coming on as Leo writes: 

<< To the PTG it is not the final
> result but more or less beloning to the brotherhood. <<

   Hmm,  the sisters might want to challenge that on account of the wording, 
but I have a problem with it from a point of simple logic.  Joining the PTG 
is usually done via testing at the chapter level,(disregarding, for the 
moment, the convention testing) and the decisions to accept are made on a 
local level.  This makes it hard to establish what a "brotherhood" would 
actually be.  At the conventions, it is not uncommon for an applicant to be 
accepted into the RPT ranks by the total strangers that just graded the last 
of his tuning tests.  This hardly supports a personality requirement.  
   In 1973, when I became interested in the trade, Kelly Ward told me that 
all tuners are square pegs, and the conventions were really interesting 
because there was virtually no common denominator to the crowd BUT pianos.  
That has changed a little since then, but I would still be hard-pressed to 
describe a "typical" tuner, (think Nossman, Brady, Grassi, Coleman, etc !  
These are distinct individuals with different personalities, but they all 
have the  professional chops it takes to be rated as RPT's !) 
   So Leo, though it appears to you that the PTG is a singular entity that is 
more interested in an applicant's "fit" to the organization than technical 
prowess,  in reality, it requires about as impersonal a set of imperatives to 
join as I can imagine.  

 >And yes the man with the golf tee tunes for
> custormers in this fashion and charges.  And you know what, the customers
> keep calling him back.>>

  Hmm,  a few questions about this guy, ( he must be on the ball...)   Does 
he use a driver to get to work?  And I am not some Eagle-eyed Bogey man,but  
has he Ironed out all the wrinkles of reaching the green? Maybe he has it all 
in the bag and it is caddy of me to question, but still, if he is on a par 
with the others, I would have to say putter there, pal.  I mean, he is facing 
the shanks all day, it must fit him to a tee.  ( he couldn't have been the 
golfer whose hard-of-hearing wife sent him out with a tuna fish sand-wedge?) 
REgards, 
Ed Foote RPT