<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">   LHSBAND440@AOL.COM wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE> <blockquote TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">*Anyone* may join PTG.</blockquote> 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.</blockquote> 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 <A HREF="mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no">mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no</A>   </body> </html>