<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: = Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>  Lloyd</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>   Thanks for  for the reply & cleari= ng this up.  I know you & Donna  & this didnt' make sense.  I couldn't imagine your making an arbitrary decision such as this on t= he spur of the moment especially at the cost you expended to get there in the f= irst place. I hope these matters are resolved for the future as we need our arden= t supplier supporters on our side & at our PTG conventions showing new pro= duct for our benefit & our clients.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>  Regards</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3>  Dale Erwin</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR>Dale,                =         <BR><BR>Thanks for letting me know that the matter of= Renner USA canceling their exhibit at Kansas City has been a subject on th= e List, and for sharing some of the posts.  I sent a letter to Jim Birc= h, the new president and board, and the PTG staff, but have not commented publicly on the matter in order to give the PTG an opportunity to respond.  Jim Birch did acknowledge the letter, but reserved comment = for later.  Two weeks have now passed without a single response from anyo= ne else, or even an acknowledgement of the problem.  Instead of acknowledging our letter, we now understand that their new president sent = an e-mail published on your List stating that Renner had aborted their exhibi= t in the middle of setup, as though we somehow contributed to the problem, with= out disclosing what actually happened.  That is unfortunate, but Mr. Swaf= ford did say in his e-mail that he was a bit baffled, so Iā€™ll give him = the benefit of the doubt.  He seems like a very nice guy.  In fact, they all= do, but someone there really needs to step up to the plate on this one.  Since this has become an issue on your List and also for our own customers= who were very disappointed we were not able to exhibit, I guess we do need to respond because this is a very serious issue for all of us.  We will,= therefore, accept your offer to publish the letter I sent to Jim Birch, th= e PTG Board, and PTG Staff two weeks ago.  I want to underscore what I stated in my letter which is that we will continue to strongly support the= PTG in-spite-of this problem which is best left for their membership to deal with.  Youā€™re welcome to include this note with the letter, a= nd your membership can reach their own conclusions.  You should probably warn= , however, that it is long.<BR><BR>Lloyd<BR><BR>Letter to: Jim Birch, presen= t and former PTG board members, and PTG staff.<BR><BR>Jim,<BR><BR>I want to thank you for your concern regarding the sales tax issue which, I understa= nd, also caught you and the board by surprise.  Prior to leaving Kansas C= ity, I contacted the Missouri Department of Revenue and was, frankly, astonishe= d by what I learned.  First, the DOR advised that the PTG was fully inform= ed of the sales tax issue more than a month in advance of the convention dates.  Secondly, when I explained that this convention is closed to = the public and I described the nature of the sales transactions that would be conducted, they immediately agreed that a sales tax should not have been assessed under those conditions.  Karen Danna, who signed the letter = that was distributed to the exhibitors by Shawn, stated that she specifically a= sked the PTG if sales would be made to the public and was given an affirmative.  She also advised that if the sales tax was collected, e= ven though in error, it must now be paid to the State of Missouri. <BR><BR>I d= onā€™t expect your organization to be necessarily knowledgeable or experienced ab= out sales tax and other business related issues, but I do expect honesty.   If the report I received from the DOR is correct, the= n the PTG deliberately withheld that information from the exhibitors until t= hey arrived at the convention and it was too late to do anything about it whic= h is unconscionable.  We were not advised until we were actually in the process of setting up the exhibit.  Jim, this is shameful.  Shaw= n repeatedly stated that he was acting on the advice of your attorney when h= e served us with the tax documents mandating compliance and advised that the= PTG would be providing the DOR with the name of our company to confirm our liability for the tax.  Jim, if your attorney did, in fact, discuss t= his with the Department of Revenue and came to those conclusions, he or she is= arguably one of the most inept and legally challenged attorneys on the pla= net, and I will be happy to personally deliver that message.  In fact, I w= ould like to know the name of that attorney for the record.  As I told you= at the convention, if I had known even one or two days earlier, let alone a month, this entire problem could have been avoided; we could have offset p= art of the huge investment we made through some sales; and your membership wou= ld have saved the additional 7.35% tax.<BR><BR>Our exhibit-only related costs= will total between $6,500 and $7,000.  We have not received all the f= inal bills yet, but that will be the range of costs strictly related to bringin= g the exhibit and additional personnel to manage it.  That does not inc= lude the cost of our All Day Class, which is another significant number, or the= profit from the sales which would have occurred had this not happened.&nbs= p; Please advise how you would like to handle that.<BR><BR>On the bright side= , we were very pleased with the All Day and the other classes we sponsored.&nbs= p; The cooperation and service from the hotel were excellent in every respect.  Sandy Roady and Rick Florence were particularly helpful in assisting us with our All Day class.  I understand convention attenda= nce in general was disappointing, but our classes were well attended and I bel= ieve we will have very positive long term results for both the PTG and Renner USA.  I have no regrets having supported this convention except for t= he sales tax debacle.<BR><BR>Going forward, I am very concerned about the selection of Rochester.  The state of New York is about the last plac= e I would choose to conduct business and, based on our prior experience there,= we could be looking at another disappointing convention and even more regiona= l in scope.  We are very pleased about the selection of Rick Florence to h= ead the Institute next year.  He has some excellent ideas, and we plan to= support him in every way possible.  Iā€™m not sure we will exhi= bit.  If we do, I am considering a different way to do it and on a much smaller scale.  It would be a departure from what we have done in the past, a= nd less expensive, which would enable us to put more dollars behind our educational classes which I hope the PTG would support.  Our major emphasis as a company continues to be education because thatā€™s how= weā€™ve built our business, and where we see the future.    <BR><BR>I didnā= €™t intend to write such a long epistle, and do so only because I continue to = feel so strongly about the potential the PTG represents for our industry. = I want you and the board to know that we will continue to support the PTG, in-spite-of this problem, and that we do plan to attend next year.  I= ā€™m very concerned about the negative trend weā€™re seeing with conventi= on attendance, and I want to make clear our continued support well in advance= of next yearā€™s convention, and look forward to working with Rick in d= eveloping the most effective educational program we can.  I believe it is very important, however, to fully investigate the problems that occurred in Kan= sas City, because you cannot afford any more problems like this in my opinion.  We just got over the July 4th problem, and now this.  Something went terribly wrong here, and you need to get to the bottom of it.  We are, essentially, all in this together and there is simply no= reason not to be totally open and honest when problems develop.  In t= his case, we could have helped, and we deeply regret and resent the fact we we= re not given that opportunity.<BR><BR>Sincerely,<BR><BR>Lloyd<BR>Renner USA<BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>