Advice? Opinions? Guidance?

[J Patrick Draine]

No, there is nothing that you, or I, or the PTG should directly "do  
about" this fellow's advert. Well if you're really motivated you  
could give him a call and ask him what he means by "NYS AUTHORIZED  
PIANO TECHNICIAN." If you pose as a potential customer, he should be  
willing to enlighten you. Then  you'll have more information.
Indirectly, individual chapters can choose to run ads in their local  
Yellow Pages. Our late friend Guy Nichols promoted this idea;  
technicians in his local area had been doing it for a while, as I  
recall (it's somewhere in our archives). The Boston Chapter tried it  
in the 1980 Greater Boston Yellow Pages -- once. Folks with more  
business than they could handle, or who lived in the suburbs and  
didn't feel it benefited them much pooh poohed idea, and it withered.  
A bit of group altruism and forward-thinking is good stuff, but often  
falls  by the wayside.
You can always suggest to the tech in question that he's welcome to  
learn about what your local PTG chapter has to offer, and that you'd  
be eager to challenge him as to who takes and passes the RPT exams  
first.
That's my half a cycle (at A-440)
Patrick Draine

On Apr 6, 2006, at 6:40 PM, James H Frazee wrote:

> So today I run across an ad in our local "shopper" newspaper which  
> I repeat here verbatim:
>
> "NYS AUTHORIZED PIANO TECHNICIAN: Thorough, precise, honest.   
> Tuning $100." followed by the man's name, claim that he has a  
> Masters in Music and phone number.
>
> First, New York State does NOT authorize piano technicians,  
> period.  Does anyone know of a state that does?  But the point is,  
> is there anything that we, the PTG, can do about this false/ 
> misleading advertising?  Does the national office have a program or  
> policy statement (yes, I know about OUR ethics but what about  
> others?) Frankly, it makes us all look bad, (and I'm only an  
> Associate, for now).  Advice? Opinions? Guidance?
>