Not everyone is welcome !

[Richard Brekne]

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LHSBAND440@AOL.COM wrote:

>> *Anyone* may join PTG.
>
> This is incorrect I have a friend who was going to join the
> Pittsburgh
> chapter of the PTG.  This chapter requires an interview and
> then they vote as
> to if they are going to accept you as an associate member.
> They also give a
> written test to accept associate members.  He informed the me
> that they told
> him that after the test and the interview that they are asked
> to leave the
> meeting and not return until the are voted in or out.

Well,,, its not incorrect that anyone can join the PTG, tho I
have to admit that your description of your friends experience
sound a bit like induction into the  Demolay or something of that
nature. That aside anyone who wants to join, and is serious about
learning the trade is going to be more welcome amoung this gang
of gals and guys then you could possibly imagine. Now that doesnt
mean we dont have our spats... and it certainly doesnt mean we
dont individually make totall and complete jackasses out of our
selves from time to time. Having a big family has its downsides
for sure, but the up sides far outweigh them.

I spent a little over 20 years going it alone, convinced that
organizations like the PTG were too busy with internal bickering
and petty nonsense to be able to do me any good... and hey....
who could tell ME how to tune anyways... I satisfied lots of
customers... good ones too.. I remember my little stint in
Seattle in the early 90's where a Jazz festival in Norway flew me
back and forth with a nice salary and how I felt struting around
Sherman Clay when this became known amoung the RPT's working
there.  Looking back I am sure I paid much more attention to that
then any of them. They were in the end more busy doing their own
thing... sharing a fellowship that I closed off. And of course
bonking each other over the head about something silly from time
to time.

I can only tell you that those years were in so many ways
wasted... sure I got pretty good on my own.. and indeed could
please many of the best ears around, often times better then my
more schooled colleagues, but if I am to be honest.... just as
often as not I suppose. Point is regardless of what I had
achieved or hadnt... I had little or no idea about what I was
doing... and from that stand point I hadnt really learned
anything new for years... the job was getting routine, boring and
increasingly isolated.

I suppose thats part of why I go on a bit about meeting some
basic education requirements before starting to tune for money. I
feel cheated. Cheated because of my own stubborness and stupity
in closing off all these people (essentially because they were
human like me)... Cheated because the "system" so easily allowed
to me do so.  All the things I have just started to learn these
past  4-5 years, all the new friends I have made that share my
interest and my work.....

Tell your friend this. Tell him to think himself twice about. In
the end, all these things we talk about matter very much indeed.
Grin... and tell him to loose the golf tees.... (that was meant
as a joke by the way folks...)

--
Richard Brekne
RPT, N.P.T.F.
Bergen, Norway
mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no


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