<HTML>In a message dated 1/10/02 9:28:48 AM Central Standard Time, Billbrpt@AOL.COM writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Wouldn't an easier and more accurate way of determining this number be to look in the phone book and count the names, then add maybe 10% for those who don't list themselves? Bill Bremmer RPT </BLOCKQUOTE> I don't know how it is in Madison, or Chicago, but in St. Louis, you would need to almost double the number. Not only are there quite a few non members, but even some of our members don't have a business number and are not listed in the telephone book. As far as non members, someone will probably have more accurate figures on this, but aren't there about as many piano tuners who don't belong to the Guild as PTG members.  So if the PTG directory shows 110 members in the greater Chicago area, then there would be another 100 other tuners. Given that the greater Chicago area has a population of around 5 million, using the professor's formula, there would be about 250,000 pianos in the greater Chicago area. If one tuner can tune 1000 pianos, there would need to be 250 tuners. But the formula of 1 out of every 5 households having a piano is not accurate either. What about all the schools, churches, night clubs, hotels, etc.? I think it was Kimball who came up with a figure of 19% of the population as the number of pianos. That would give the Chicago area 950,000 pianos. In an area the size of Chicago, that would seem to be a more accurate number. It also means the Chicago area needs to have about 1000 piano tuners. Any of you Chicago guys willing to give us a more accurate count on the number of tuners you think there are? Wim Wim </HTML>