I'm cross-posting this message to PTG-L to make sure as many members as possible see it.
Convention this year was one of the most fun events for me in a long time. Classes are always a highlight, but this year we had lots of young first-timers in attendance.
After barbershop on Friday, July 24, a dozen or so of us gathered on the ballroom level and had an impromptu music jam session. The Holland family and other techs from Ireland started an evening of music that eventually led to two guitars, a mandolin, an accordion, and a penny whistle. We even confiscated a nearby piano. This magical evening of music revealed two important points: 1. Techs want a time and place to make music together with different instruments, and 2. We need a piano to use at convention for this kind of event.
Unfortunately, convention pianos are under contract from manufacturers and are off limits for random use, including the one we used that night. Gary Tulleen, the Institute Team, and PTG are "beggars" each convention season in the sense that they have to ask manufactures to borrow their pianos AND ask the manufacturers to pay for shipping both ways to and from the event. Some manufacturers also ask for a list of names of people who will be allowed to touch their pianos. If we violate these contracts, PTG may lose the confidence we have built up with manufacturers over the years, meaning we may end up having to pay for piano rentals and shipping to and from convention each year. Convention rates will skyrocket.
I want to publicly thank Gary Tulleen for saving us from ourselves that night by taking back the piano we confiscated out of ignorance. He did it with finesse way that did not spoil the music mood.
I am also publicly apologizing to Gary for not understanding the restrictions that accompany this inventory. I have already apologized to him face-to-face. I've been a member of PTG for over 20 years... guess I'm a slow learner.
Publicly, I also want to thank everyone who was on the ballroom floor that night singing your lungs out. Your voices were heard. Gary, the Institute Team, and the PTG board are now actively working on a plan to make sure we have a piano to use at the Anaheim convention.
Please reach out to these people and say thank you for doing the hard thing by protecting us from ourselves that night and for taking steps to allow music to happen in the halls of the Anaheim convention.
Stay tuned,
John Parham
------------------------------
John Parham, RPT
Hickory, NC
828-244-2487
john440@me.com------------------------------