It Doesn't Matter

[Farrell]

Very well stated Ed. I think you hit the nail right on the head. I think
this fella is grappling with some maturity and self-confidence issues - or
should be. It is very easy for one to feel like like an outsider that is not
welcome in an organization like the PTG. One may not have the confidence
that they can pass a test for RPT status, so they simply try to berate it -
kinda like a schoolyard bully might try to pick a fight - it's just
immaturity and a lack of self-worth. The PTG, like the local Chamber of
Commerce, or any other professional organization (In my former life I was a
member of the Florida Professional Geologists Association, and in the life
before that the National Arborist Association), is what you make of it. If
you are afraid of it, or doubt your own ability, you will either ignore the
professional organization or berate it. If you wish to suceed, you will
embrace it and gain from it - even if not everyone in it is your best buddy.
That will never happen anyway - but if you are afraid it may seem like it.

Terry Farrell, Associate Member (I have chosen to not aggressively pursue
RPT status at this time, thank you very much)
Piano Tuning & Service
Tampa, Florida
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com

----- Original Message -----
From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 6:55 AM
Subject: Re: It Doesn't Matter


> 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
>
>