<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <font face="Arial">Strong points.  I have been a part time technician for twenty seven years. I have just taken a Voluntary Severance package from my full-time teaching job. Going full-time with the piano work is one of the options I am considering.  As an International member of the PTG, I enjoy reading the Journal very much.  And I was delighted to be able to attend MARC back in April.  But here in the UK I cannot offset the cost of PTG membership against income tax (I checked).  If dues were to double, I would really have to think twice or three times about whether I could justify continuing my Membership.<br> <br> Best regards,<br> <br> David Boyce.<br> <br> <blockquote type="cite"> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica; color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> <blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid blue; padding-left: 3px;"><span class="093545018-01072011"><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial" size="2">Less than half of our membership are full time technicians, check the surveys</font></span></blockquote> </div> <div>Not only that, but our median age in almost 60. That means there are part time technicians for whom this profession is a second career, which they got into after retiring form another lucrative career, from which they are receiving retirement benefits. They belong the to PTG for a variety of reasons, but if the dues become more than they think justifies their benefits, they will drop their membership.  <br> </div> <div>I agree with Dale, a $100 increase in dues will drop our membership to below 3000, if not 2500.</div> </blockquote> <br> </font> </body> </html>