---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment =20 Lloyd Thanks for for the reply & clearing this up. I know you & Donna & thi= s=20 didnt' make sense. I couldn't imagine your making an arbitrary decision suc= h=20 as this on the spur of the moment especially at the cost you expended to ge= t=20 there in the first place. I hope these matters are resolved for the future=20 as we need our ardent supplier supporters on our side & at our PTG conventi= ons=20 showing new product for our benefit & our clients. Regards Dale Erwin Dale, =20 Thanks for letting me know that the matter of Renner USA canceling their=20 exhibit at Kansas City has been a subject on the List, and for sharing some= of=20 the posts. I sent a letter to Jim Birch, the new president and board, and=20= the=20 PTG staff, but have not commented publicly on the matter in order to give=20 the PTG an opportunity to respond. Jim Birch did acknowledge the letter, b= ut=20 reserved comment for later. Two weeks have now passed without a single=20 response from anyone else, or even an acknowledgement of the problem. Inst= ead of =20 acknowledging our letter, we now understand that their new president sent an= =20 e-mail published on your List stating that Renner had aborted their exhibit=20= in=20 the middle of setup, as though we somehow contributed to the problem,=20 without disclosing what actually happened. That is unfortunate, but Mr. Sw= afford =20 did say in his e-mail that he was a bit baffled, so I=E2=80=99ll give him th= e benefit =20 of the doubt. He seems like a very nice guy. In fact, they all do, but=20 someone there really needs to step up to the plate on this one. Since this= has=20 become an issue on your List and also for our own customers who were very=20 disappointed we were not able to exhibit, I guess we do need to respond bec= ause=20 this is a very serious issue for all of us. We will, therefore, accept you= r=20 offer to publish the letter I sent to Jim Birch, the PTG Board, and PTG Sta= ff=20 two weeks ago. I want to underscore what I stated in my letter which is=20 that we will continue to strongly support the PTG in-spite-of this problem=20= which=20 is best left for their membership to deal with. You=E2=80=99re welcome to=20= include=20 this note with the letter, and your membership can reach their own=20 conclusions. You should probably warn, however, that it is long. Lloyd Letter to: Jim Birch, present and former PTG board members, and PTG staff. Jim, I want to thank you for your concern regarding the sales tax issue which, I= =20 understand, also caught you and the board by surprise. Prior to leaving=20 Kansas City, I contacted the Missouri Department of Revenue and was, frankl= y,=20 astonished by what I learned. First, the DOR advised that the PTG was full= y=20 informed of the sales tax issue more than a month in advance of the convent= ion =20 dates. Secondly, when I explained that this convention is closed to the =20 public and I described the nature of the sales transactions that would be =20 conducted, they immediately agreed that a sales tax should not have been as= sessed=20 under those conditions. Karen Danna, who signed the letter that was=20 distributed to the exhibitors by Shawn, stated that she specifically asked =20= the PTG if=20 sales would be made to the public and was given an affirmative. She also=20 advised that if the sales tax was collected, even though in error, it must=20= now be=20 paid to the State of Missouri.=20 I don=E2=80=99t expect your organization to be necessarily knowledgeable or= =20 experienced about sales tax and other business related issues, but I do exp= ect =20 honesty. If the report I received from the DOR is correct, then the PTG=20 deliberately withheld that information from the exhibitors until they arriv= ed at the=20 convention and it was too late to do anything about it which is =20 unconscionable. We were not advised until we were actually in the process=20= of setting up=20 the exhibit. Jim, this is shameful. Shawn repeatedly stated that he was=20 acting on the advice of your attorney when he served us with the tax docume= nts=20 mandating compliance and advised that the PTG would be providing the DOR wi= th=20 the name of our company to confirm our liability for the tax. Jim, if your= =20 attorney did, in fact, discuss this with the Department of Revenue and came= to=20 those conclusions, he or she is arguably one of the most inept and legally=20 challenged attorneys on the planet, and I will be happy to personally deliv= er=20 that message. In fact, I would like to know the name of that attorney for=20= the=20 record. As I told you at the convention, if I had known even one or two=20 days earlier, let alone a month, this entire problem could have been avoide= d; we=20 could have offset part of the huge investment we made through some sales;=20 and your membership would have saved the additional 7.35% tax. Our exhibit-only related costs will total between $6,500 and $7,000. We=20 have not received all the final bills yet, but that will be the range of co= sts=20 strictly related to bringing the exhibit and additional personnel to manage= =20 it. That does not include the cost of our All Day Class, which is another=20 significant number, or the profit from the sales which would have occurred=20= had=20 this not happened. Please advise how you would like to handle that. On the bright side, we were very pleased with the All Day and the other=20 classes we sponsored. The cooperation and service from the hotel were exce= llent=20 in every respect. Sandy Roady and Rick Florence were particularly helpful=20= in=20 assisting us with our All Day class. I understand convention attendance i= n=20 general was disappointing, but our classes were well attended and I believe=20= =20 we will have very positive long term results for both the PTG and Renner US= A.=20 I have no regrets having supported this convention except for the sales ta= x=20 debacle. Going forward, I am very concerned about the selection of Rochester. The=20 state of New York is about the last place I would choose to conduct busines= s=20 and, based on our prior experience there, we could be looking at another=20 disappointing convention and even more regional in scope. We are very plea= sed=20 about the selection of Rick Florence to head the Institute next year. He h= as=20 some excellent ideas, and we plan to support him in every way possible. I= =E2=80=99m not=20 sure we will exhibit. If we do, I am considering a different way to do it=20 and on a much smaller scale. It would be a departure from what we have don= e=20 in the past, and less expensive, which would enable us to put more dollars=20 behind our educational classes which I hope the PTG would support. Our maj= or =20 emphasis as a company continues to be education because that=E2=80=99s how w= e=E2=80=99ve built=20 our business, and where we see the future. =20 I didn=E2=80=99t intend to write such a long epistle, and do so only becaus= e I=20 continue to feel so strongly about the potential the PTG represents for our= =20 industry. I want you and the board to know that we will continue to suppor= t the=20 PTG, in-spite-of this problem, and that we do plan to attend next year. I= =E2=80=99m =20 very concerned about the negative trend we=E2=80=99re seeing with convention= =20 attendance, and I want to make clear our continued support well in advance o= f next year =E2=80=99s convention, and look forward to working with Rick in developing =20= the most=20 effective educational program we can. I believe it is very important,=20 however, to fully investigate the problems that occurred in Kansas City, be= cause=20 you cannot afford any more problems like this in my opinion. We just got o= ver=20 the July 4th problem, and now this. Something went terribly wrong here, an= d=20 you need to get to the bottom of it. We are, essentially, all in this=20 together and there is simply no reason not to be totally open and honest wh= en=20 problems develop. In this case, we could have helped, and we deeply regret= and=20 resent the fact we were not given that opportunity. Sincerely, Lloyd Renner USA ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/46/b5/e0/f3/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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