Executive Outlook

Last month, I began an article outlining the changes on the horizon for the PTG. We looked at the example of a relay race and the way the baton is passed from one runner to the next. Traditionally, we hold our elections in July for our board of directors. Some years there are large changes, but often the changes are minor. We are accustomed to having the president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer serve two consecutive terms. While it is not written in any policy, this is the tradition we usually observe. Occasionally, there are interruptions to this schedule, but this format is the most predictable. Selecting regional vice presidents is also important this time of year. I have discussed in a previous article the makeup of the board and the importance of selecting willing and dedicated people to serve on the board. With our focus on training over the last couple of years, we have discovered the necessity of well-rounded knowledge of business and corporate structure, budget and financial acumen, and the ability to look ahead to what is on the horizon. These elections are the norm, and we all expect that aspect of council to be fulfilled.

The other change that is on the horizon is the change in leadership at the Home Office. We have been so fortunate for the last couple of decades to have a single leader at the helm. In today’s business world, that is not often the case. Barbara Cassaday came to us about 24 years ago and served as the in-house financial accountant for the PTG. Not long after taking on this role, we had a vacancy in the office of the executive director. Barb was named the interim, and in a short time, became the permanent executive director. Barb has guided the ship through a variety of presidents, boards of directors, some employee turnover, and an economy that has had its share of challenges as well. Covid added its own wrinkle to the scene, and through it all, Barb calmly led us. Her financial background, as well as her experience in previous positions in law enforcement and at a legal firm, provided a great balance and knowledge base for the PTG. I have watched her over the years as she has prepared our budgets. She has always treated the PTG’s finances as if they were her own. She habitually prepares the budget with predictions of expenses on the high side and expectations of income on the low side. If you look closely at the financial statements, we almost always run in the black, even when it is only a slim margin. This has allowed us to put away a little extra into our excess operating funds. We have been able to purchase pianos for the GAR 37 program without taking out any type of loan. This has also allowed us to keep ahead of maintenance at the Home Office without any head-scratching surprises. The PTG owes much to her leadership.

Last year, Barb formally announced her plans to retire in August of this year. With that announcement came a fair amount of soul searching and asking questions. Who, what, where, and how, to name a few. In April, we announced that we had finished the search process and were happy to bring Aaron Ensminger on board to serve as the new executive director. Starting in May and June, Aaron has been getting up to speed on a part-time basis. Beginning this month, he has been in the office every day and will be in Des Moines for the convention. He will attend the pre-council board meeting, council, and post-council board meetings. The current board has been interacting with him via Zoom to help him understand how the PTG works and what to expect when he assumes the helm in August. The Transition Task Group will also be available to help provide both historical (and hysterical) perspectives on why we do what we do. Aaron’s experience as a previous executive director of another not-for-profit organization will serve him well as he guides us through our next steps.

One of my goals serving as your president this time around has been to lay some groundwork for what is ahead. In addition, I have tried to pass on what little wisdom I possess in this process. I have also worked hard to keep the waters as calm as possible during this time, knowing that a lot of change was on the horizon. It has been a pleasure to serve once again.

Signing off and handing off…

As I look at the calendar, I notice that there are only two more president’s messages left for me to write before my term as president comes to a close. This will mark the end of my fourth year serving in this office. Having done this once before, I took a different perspective on serving in this role than I did the first time. The PTG is different now, and I am a little more seasoned and hopefully wiser than I was ten years ago. The PTG has changed since transitioning to board governance. There have been some growing pains along the way. Observing how those changes took place and were received prepared me to take the reins once again but hold on to them a bit differently.

Any time there is a major change in an organization, there is a learning curve to be anticipated and worked through. The last couple of years have found us focusing on the “best practices” for a board of directors. Instead of assuming we knew what was best, we consulted outside help to guide us. I have written much about this process in previous President’s Messages. Having the board focus on its proper role has also reduced the distractions along the way. We promised to focus on running the PTG rather than seeking ways to change the status quo just for the sake of change.

This has not been a solo effort. I want to publicly thank each member of the board for their work over the past couple of years. We spent a lot of time reviewing each of our respective job descriptions before we began. This has helped us focus on keeping the main thing the main thing. This has been positive for not only the board but the membership as well.

My wife, Vickie, commented the other day that I have interacted differently with the board this time around than the last time I was in this position. We celebrated 43 years of marriage together in March, so I have learned to listen to her along the way. She mentioned that I have been more intentional in mentoring individuals this time around. If you have watched a relay race, there is a time when a runner is completing the lap and extends the baton forward to the next runner. The moment of the handoff must be

practiced repeatedly, or the race can be lost in an instant. Part of the practice involves getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of the runner to whom the baton is passed. The coach will work with both runners to make sure they are synced up for this all-important aspect of the race.

The PTG doesn’t have an outside coach to help us in our transition. This makes the interactions between the board members that much more important as we face the handoff in our immediate future. During our first meeting for board orientation, I shared a verse from the Bible with the members of the board. 1 Chronicles 12:32 says: From the family of Issachar there were 200 wise leaders. These men understood the right thing for Israel to do at the right time. Their relatives were with them and under their command. My challenge to the board was that we would be known for our wisdom and insight into what was the best thing for the PTG going forward. Wisdom is a trait that seems to be in short supply in our current society. One way we gain wisdom is by listening. It is interesting to note that as piano technicians we get paid to listen. I have challenged the board members to use the same intensity they apply in tuning and voicing to listening to our members.

We have two important changes on the horizon. First is the annual election of officers and board members. Several current board members will be stepping down, and there will be a need to replace them. Others will be moving up into new roles. I will be passing the baton to David Stoneman, RPT, who currently serves as vice president. David has served well on the board and has been especially integral to the work of the transition task group that led the search for a new executive director. David is poised to step into the role of president and lead us into the next lap of our journey. Next month, I will expand on the additional handoff at the executive director level.

I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Des Moines in July.

I realize that the title of this column is a rather bodacious statement, since what I find fun might not be the same for everyone. Regardless, I want to share an experience I had recently that was a lot of fun.

In early March, I attended the South Central Regional Conference in Waco, Texas. The theme of the event was “Deep in the Heart of Tex-Us.” First, let me extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked so very hard to plan, promote, and roll up their sleeves to make this event a success. The location was “Deep in the Heart,” and the event was an opportunity to connect with other technicians from not only the region but also those who traveled from several states away to attend. This extended family connection was the “Tex-Us” part of the equation. I have often referred to the PTG as my extended family, and this event was no different.

One difference was that I was not in charge of the conference, as I have served in that role on either the board level or as president of SCRC in the past. Part of what was fun for me came from the fact that I got to attend classes. It was at this point that the real enjoyment started to kick in. Like any PTG conference or seminar, there are various levels of learning for the attendees. There are seasoned members who have attended many events and still are encouraged to attend in hopes of picking up some new tidbit of knowledge. There are those who might have attended one or two seminars in the past and are still adding to their repository of knowledge. The real fun was sitting next to people who were attending for the first time, and there were a lot of younger faces in the crowd. There was an eagerness to learn that was evident by the expression on their faces. When you looked and listened you saw them experience an “Aha” moment: Something clicked and made sense in a new way. The scales fell from their eyes and a moment of confirmation took place. I even had a few of my own “Aha” moments and learned a few new things about the intricacies of action geometry.

I taught one class on reconditioning grand action parts and another on shaping vertical hammers. I always enjoy imparting some tidbit that I have picked up. Taking the time to prepare to teach causes one to not only solidify knowledge on the subject but also to try to anticipate all the questions that may arise. Most instructors will tell you that they learn a lot more in preparation to teach than they can impart in a class session.

Why am I sharing all this fun with you? We have another upcoming opportunity to get together to learn from one another. This time we will be in the heart of the country in Des Moines, Iowa. You can still plan to attend in July. Keep in mind that all your expenses are deductible as a business expense. This includes your travel, lodging, meals, and convention registration. (In Des Moines, you can deduct $80.00 per day for meal expenses without having to keep the receipts.) Guess where I learned about meal per diems? If you said at a PTG convention, go to the head of the class.

While you are at the convention, you can visit the exhibit hall and meet representatives from a variety of our suppliers and industry partners. Having a face and a name when you contact a supplier gives a completely different connection. There are opportunities to challenge the exams if you have not already done so. If you have been a regular attender, you get to connect once again with your extended family. If you are new in your technician journey, you can begin to meet your new cousins. Like any family, we have in-laws and out-laws, but we are all in this industry together.

If you have never attended a convention, why not make this your first time? If you have attended before but you are on the fence for one reason or another, decide to come to Des Moines. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

Knowing this is the April edition of the Journal, I am never sure whether to be serious as a heart attack or approach this column with total absurdity in mind. Those of you who know me understand where I would like to go with this message, but since I have been entrusted with the office of president, I will take the serious approach.

During the winter board meeting, we undertook a day of planning. The official business meeting took place on Tuesday, but what we discussed on Monday and the last half of Wednesday morning is of equal importance. The minutes are the official record of the business meeting, but I want to address some of the important items we discussed in the other seconds and hours.

In case you are unaware, we are in the process of selecting a new executive director with the announced retirement of Barbara Cassaday. By the time you read this, the board will have met once again in person in March to interview final candidates for that position. This will signal some significant changes for our organization going forward. Since I am writing this at the end of February, I can only report that we have had many applicants submit their names for consideration. The human resources firm that we hired has already been doing initial screenings of those applicants. The transition task group will then work to determine final candidates for the board to interview.

How will this affect the PTG going forward? Several things were discussed during the planning day that are important for us as we move ahead while still awaiting the hiring of our new executive director. I mentioned the membership survey in a previous article; we looked at the results as well as the comments made by participants. The PTG website was a common topic. During the planning day, we took some time to Zoom with a representative of Higher Logic, the company that hosts our discussion groups and most of the data archives we use. We are using an earlier version of this product, and as is often the case in software development, there is a “new and improved” version available. The cost is manageable in terms of our budget, but the question arose regarding the amount of change incurred, as well as what our incoming executive director will feel comfortable with. Our system is complex, and it may be that we want to review all our options before we make a hard change that would then need to be reversed or changed again. The minutes won’t reflect this discussion, but the board is aware of the issues and is trying to use the PTG’s resources in the wisest manner available.

We also looked at membership trends. Our industry is not in its infancy. We are on the downhill side of a curve that includes us technicians as well as our industry partners like manufacturers and music teachers. I spoke with the membership director and the executive director of the MTNA prior to our board meeting. They are experiencing a similar decline in membership. We are not ready to throw in the towel and claim that piano technology is a dead industry, but we are trying to be realistic in our view and our forward planning. How do we embrace technology as we move forward? We are not the only group struggling with how best to deliver our message. Just before the winter board meeting, there was a discussion regarding the publication of the Journal. Other organizations are asking similar questions about their publications. We looked at a chart of other non-profit organizations to see how they are handling their publications. Some are currently all digital, others have announced that this is the last year for paper subscriptions, and some have offered an option to the membership to pay an additional fee for a paper copy to be delivered.

We also discussed the challenges of finding convention spaces going forward. The bottom line is that we ask for a lot of meeting space from a prospective convention hotel while promising a rather small number of guest rooms to be booked. This will be an ongoing challenge in the future.

Reading this article only took a few seconds of your life. Finding all the solutions will take hours of investigation and thought.

Since many of us work with wood, it is important to know about this basic concept of measuring lumber. The short answer is that a board foot is 144 cubic inches of wood. An example is a one-inch-thick board that measures 12 inches wide by 12 inches long. It is important to understand this measurement concept when ordering wood for a particular project — you need to know how it measures up to see if you have the adequate resources to complete the project.

Let’s look at that from a different angle and ask, “What is required to serve on the board of directors for the PTG?” How do we measure the board of directors? It is sometimes easy to think that the board of directors are all a bunch of “saps,” but hopefully, their makeup is a benefit to our organization. First, like lumber, a variety of personalities serve on the board. Much like there are different species of lumber, the different personalities bring different perspectives to the table.

Several years ago, we moved to board governance. Since we have made this change, it is important to visit the concept of a well-functioning board of directors. Most of our membership is made up of sole proprietors, but the experience of running a small independent business does not always prepare one to serve on a corporate board. With that in mind, I have sought these last couple of years to invest in training for the board. We have been using resources to assist us along the way. As we have looked at this process, we have discovered that we are doing some things well, and we need improvement in others. We have looked at other organizations to see how they function and tried to use that information to evaluate our current practices and see if we can use some of their models to improve. For instance, many boards of directors have staggered terms of office. This ensures some continuity from year to year. Our current model has every office open for election every year. It is theoretically possible to “throw all the bums out” and start with a completely new slate. While that may seem like a good safety feature, there

is wisdom in knowing the history of what actions have been taken and why.

I have mentioned the training we are doing while serving, but how do we find candidates willing to serve going forward? In some regions, we have events such as regional conferences, where people can serve and develop some skills that would benefit the board. In other cases, we have people who approach piano technology as a second career. Many of those may have served in similar capacities in other organizations and can bring that experience to the table with them.

How do we find willing candidates moving forward? Most of the time during RVP orientation, we are all challenged to be on the lookout for our replacements. Perhaps you have never considered serving on the PTG board. Take the initiative to visit with your current RVP and ask a lot of questions, like, “How much time does it take to serve? What do you enjoy as a benefit of serving? What is the biggest challenge that you have found as you have served?” These and other questions can help you evaluate whether you would ever be interested in serving in this role.

I started by asking what a board foot is. The follow- up question is: Would YOU be willing to put your foot in the door to serve on the board? You might surprise yourself with how you measure up.

I remember Richard Dawson, of television fame, loudly proclaiming, “The Survey Says!” on a game show he hosted. First, I want to thank everyone who participated in the PTG Member Survey last fall. The survey was sent out to 3,047 members, of whom 1,092 participated. The board was able to review the results in advance of the February winter board meeting, and the information is valuable for the long-range planning for the PTG.

I won’t get too much into the details, but I wanted to touch on a couple of points that surfaced in the survey. The importance of chapters is very apparent. Some of the comments from participants indicated that they struggled due to an inactive chapter. Others reported that some chapters struggled with program ideas. I touched on this a few months back, but it bears repeating that chapters are the lifeblood of the PTG. Some chapters suffer from leadership burnout, and some just get stuck in a rut. One concern indicated that the business portion of the chapter meeting took too long and tended to get bogged down. Part of that is due to the members themselves. Keep in mind we technicians often fuss over paper punchings three-thousandths of an inch in thickness while leveling a set of keys. With that personality, we can easily get just as bogged down over the price of the doughnuts for the next meeting if we are not careful. Fiscal responsibility is important, but keep in mind that if you have a first-time visitor to the chapter meeting, they may not share the same passion for the subject.

How do you keep content fresh? Some chapters suggest that members who attended the last convention or seminar present a report back to the chapter based on the content covered. It may not be as detailed as was presented previously, but it may spark some lively discussion and inspire some new thoughts for those who didn’t make the seminar. Some chapters offer a hands-on session for the first section of the meeting that is targeted at those needing to improve their skills in preparation for taking the exams. One-on-one mentoring is a priceless benefit to members.

Exam accessibility was also a point of discussion from those making comments. Having been both a CTE and a TEC, I can tell you that in some cases, the examiners are waiting to be contacted by potential examinees, while in other cases, there is an overload of expectations. Population density is probably the biggest driving factor in these two extremes. Why should someone challenge the exams in the first place? Some of the respondents feel that the exams are too high a hurdle to overcome. Others responded that availability was a factor in pursuing the exam process. Outside of the PTG, I often hear things like, “Why bother, when no one in the public even knows what the PTG is, much less what an RPT stands for?”

Let’s look at both thoughts. The PTG is many things to many people. Our mission statement says we provide members with opportunities for professional development. Rarely do I check which university my dentist attended. The same holds true for the electrician or plumber I hire. Piano technology is a unique industry in that we are not required to pass exams or have a valid license to practice our trade. The three examples I cited do have such requirements. In short, no one has ever been injured or passed away from bad piano tuning. I will admit to hearing some tunings that were quite painful to hear, but none that caused a fatality. If you have read my articles, you are aware by now that I am an advocate for lifelong learning. I also hear that not all RPTs do quality work. This is true in any profession. I can find less-than-honorable doctors, lawyers, architects, and the like. The reality is that, on a given day, a person with the RPT designation performed well enough in a peer review exam to qualify. I have no other standard with which to compare non-RPT members or non-members.

One other thing of interest from the survey was the income reported. The average income reported by PTG members was $45,587. Compare that with the average income reported by RPT members at $74,523. The roughly $30,000 difference is enough to motivate some to challenge the exams. I don’t have enough information to delve into why there is a difference. It may be experience or it may be confidence to bid on that next bigger job. Regardless of whether the public has ever heard of RPT or not, the IRS knows the difference come tax season. What actions should we pursue, considering this information?

First, contribute to your chapter. From bringing the doughnuts to preparing the technical, all of us can pitch in. Exchange ideas with members in other chapters to see what works in their chapter, and try to incorporate some of those ideas going forward. If you are an RPT, what can you do to encourage a member to pursue the exam process? If you are not an RPT, what do you need to do in order to pursue the exam process? The PTG is a family, and we rise and fall together. Sharing life together helps us all along the way.

As we look at each new year, we are often challenged to come up with New Year’s resolutions. Often, we interpret this through the lens of personal resolutions. What happens if you consider this from the viewpoint of your business? As your board of directors has been studing the book Understanding Roles in Nonprofit Governance, we have been encouraged to make sure that we are addressing strategic planning. In that framework, we have been challenged to look at where we currently are and chart a plan to move forward.

For strategic planning for either an organization like the PTG or your own business, there are five areas of focus: mission, vision, values, goals and strategies, and resources. The PTG has a mission statement — Does your business have a mission statement? A mission statement simply defines your core values and direction you as a business are pursuing. When I worked in a hardware store during college, the owner helped me understand that concept a little better; owner when a customer came in and asked for a drill bit of a particular size, they really needed a hole of a specific size, and we could sell them the tool to make that happen. Most of your customers really need music and your job is to make that happen.

A vision statement differs from a mission statement in that it clarifies the goals for the future and how it aims to accomplish those goals. The board will be clarifying the vision statement for the PTG in its long-range planning session during the winter board meeting. Keep in mind that each of our individual businesses is in a different phase of life. Some of you are starting out, and your mission and vision will play a big part going forward. Others of you are in the middle years of your business life cycle and will have a different set of perspectives, expectations, and goals. Another part of our membership is in the fourth quarter of the game, and your business clock is winding down. Will you pass your business on to someone else, or will you just slow down and let others take over in the marketplace? A vision statement also requires a good deal of research into how the market will be evolving over the next few years. The reality of the piano industry is that it is at least mature and, at the worst, declining. As an organization, we must consider the potential of the piano industry as we look at future membership development. As an individual business, you need to assess how pianos are being used in your neighborhood.

Values guide action. Doing what is right may cost you in the short term, but it pays great dividends in the long term. In my personal business, there have been several occasions where collecting a fee would have cost relationships in the local market and industry. Each of us must examine our personal and business values as we conduct ourselves.

Goals can seem easy to define. I have often said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” We need goals to clarify what we will try to accomplish, both in the short and long term. Some of the long-term goals may take years to complete. Do you have the patience to let those seeds bear fruit? What short-term investments do you need to make to achieve the long-term goals you are setting? That can be as simple as making sure you have enough set aside to attend the upcoming Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute in Des Moines, IA, this summer. Years ago, I set a goal of learning how to voice a variety of pianos. I attended classes to expand my knowledge and practiced on regular, run-of-the- mill pianos as I serviced them. At this point, I have a contract with a university with a large music program and six concert instruments to maintain.

Last, you need to examine the resources you have available. Resources can be monetary, physical, and relational. If you don’t have the capital to operate, it will be hard to stay in business. Piano technicians are notorious for underestimating their value and what the market will bear. A wise man said, “A workman is worthy of his wages.” Despite online videos that allow people to work on pianos themselves, the investment each of us makes in our continuing education is a value that should be compensated. Physical resources can come in many forms. The list can include your tools, your vehicle, or available shop space. In some instances, you can sublet shop space for a project or two to see if that works for you or not. Use your imagination and dream big. Never underestimate the relationships you form in the industry. The PTG gives you ample opportunity to connect with other technicians from across the globe. Those connections alone make your dues worth paying.

Plan now for a successful year and a successful career. Taking the time to do all of this seems daunting and overwhelming, but it is time well spent and will sharpen your focus.

Earlier this fall, my wife Vickie and I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland for some vacation time. This was our second trip to the Emerald Isle, as we had visited about nine years ago. I won’t bore you with all the details and a slideshow, but I will say that driving a stick shift on the left side of the road around many a roundabout was a challenge. We did enjoy our stay immensely and returned in one piece with memories of a wonderful experience and an appreciation of our regular routine at home. 

Investment opportunities come in many forms. Whether we have a simple savings account or a much more diverse portfolio, we all make investments from time to time. The goal is to have a positive return on that investment. Many factors can influence those returns. Some we can control, and others are out of our hands. Another important factor is how we measure those returns. A statement at the end of the month is only one measure we have available.
I received an email this morning from Brenda Meng, RPT. Brenda had taken a class I taught at the convention in Anaheim. The class was entitled “Taming the 1098” and dealt with some of the challenges in servicing the Steinway 1098. She thanked me for the information I had imparted during the class. She had invested the time and money to attend the convention, and the investment paid dividends when she was called upon to service a 1098 at a local dealership. As an instructor, I invested time in taking my knowledge of this distinctive instrument and putting it into a class format to share with others. Her note of thanks was an additional return on my investment. 

I have been asked to give the technical presentation at my local chapter this month. That’s not entirely surprising, as I have done so many times in the past. What did surprise me was being asked to give a presentation on intervals used in aural tuning. I don’t think I have ever actually taught any class on tuning itself. I have taught many other topics, at one time or another, but never a class on tuning.

I started out in the pipe organ business in the late fall of 1979. My initial job while tuning was to sit at the organ console and hold keys while my boss or his adult son was in the organ chamber tuning the pipes. That was great ear training, as I got to hear unisons and octaves coming into tune for hours at a time and collect a paycheck to boot! The process involved using a Hale Sight-O-Tuner to set a temperament in the tuning stop and then tune the rest of that rank of pipes to the temperament and then the other stops to that rank. Some organs are installed with the pipes in chromatic order, while others are diatonic, with half of the octave on one side of the chamber and the other half on the other side of the chamber. As the key holder, I would hold the keys and either progress up every key or every other key, depending on that particular organ. No two pipe organs are exactly the same in their design.

When I attended Grayson County College in Texas for my instruction in piano technology, we learned the F-to-F temperament using a C fork. The temperament was based on fourths and fifths, with thirds as checks. So, what exactly is equal temperament anyway, and why on earth do we use it? When I took music theory, I learned about intervals and their relationships. I was also instructed in the history of equal temperament from the stories of the Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach and how intervals had to be compromised so that key changes could be accommodated. In preparing to teach this class, I have been reviewing intervals, their relationships, and how we use those to facilitate tuning. Basically, we compromise the intervals from their pure position to make for more musical flexibility. Just try tuning all the intervals in your temperament sequence with no beats. This works until you get to the last interval, which will beat dramatically. That is why it is known as a “wolf’ interval.

What does equal temperament have to do with life? Along the way, we are forced to make certain compromises to accommodate living with others. I am not suggesting that we compromise our true character. After all, if you compromise a perfect fourth too much it is no longer a fourth. Too narrow, and it’s not quite a major third. Too wide, and it approaches being a tritone (also known as an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth). These are the small compromises one makes to enhance relationships. My wife and I have been married for 42 years now and I can promise you that each of us has given a little ground now and again to make the relationship survive and thrive.

What about the intervals themselves? We use minor and major thirds. We use perfect fourths and perfect fifths. We use minor and major sixths, then octaves and unisons as we tune. Once we get outside the box of the temperament, we use tenths, twelfths, and seventeenths, along with double and triple octaves. Once we figure out the best beat rate for the intervals we are using, the goal is to have that beat rate progress smoothly up and down the scale.

Currently, I am working with a young man who lived with us for a while as a foster child. He is 19 now and in his senior year of high school. One of the things I am doing is helping him find his career goal for life. We are working to help him listen for his “beat rate,” if you will. Many of us started in one direction, and as life would have it, changed course along the way. As we listened to the beat rates of the intervals in our lives, we made a course correction. We do that in tuning as well when we discover that the beat rate we thought would be best needs to be adjusted to fit that piano better. What is required to find the right beat rate? We must listen.

In case you have been asleep or on some other planet, we have an election next month. I’m not here to champion one side or the other, but we as a society seem to have forgotten how to listen to one another. Listening, as we all know, requires that we remove some of the extemporaneous noise and take time to make sure that what we think we are hearing is what is actually there. There is no perfect piano. There is no perfect relationship. There is no perfect society. When we learn to listen to one another and make slight adjustments to our respective temperaments, we become successful at making the music we were designed to make. Above all, listen carefully before you make a change..

Every book has a table of contents. This helps us navigate where we are in the journey of the book we are exploring. We find there the title of the next chapter along the way. Life is also filled with a journey into the next chapter. The PTG is wrapping up one chapter and is poised to move into the next. I mentioned last month that we have received notice that this will be the last year that Barbara Cassaday will serve as the executive director for the PTG. She has been at the helm for the last 22 years, and as such has done a lot to shape the current outlook of the PTG. If we were looking at the PTG Table of Contents, this would be titled the Barbara Cassaday Chapter. As of this writing, I don’t have a title for the next chapter, but as I outlined last month, we will be diligently working to make the next chapter as positive as possible.

Each of us as individuals has chapters in our lives as well. The predictable outline follows our youth, our early career, the venture into our most productive season, and ultimately our wrap-up. One thing that is interesting about piano technicians is the number of people who enter this profession as a second career. Looking back at previous membership surveys, we find a noticeable number of people who started their career in one direction then decided to write a new chapter in their professional lives and pursue piano technology. One other thing that we glean from looking at the data from the membership surveys is the job satisfaction factor in our industry. If we add the Satisfied and Very Satisfied columns together, 93% of the membership is satisfied with this career path.

When we are considering recruiting new members, knowing that this career path gives us such a positive job satisfaction is a great plus. I am mentioning the membership survey because we have another one scheduled this fall. Traditionally we have had very good participation in the surveys, and it is my hope that we will continue that tradition in the next few weeks. Each time we do the surveys, we glean a great deal of useful information that helps with planning on many different levels. As we are planning the next chapter in the PTG, I would like to encourage as many members as possible to take the time to fill out the survey when it arrives.

Chapters not only appear in the PTG Table of Contents, but they are also the heart of the PTG. Currently, we have 140 chapters; many are active, while others struggle. Active chapters make all the difference to new members. When they have a local place to plug in, they are much more likely to retain their membership. Active chapters allow for a local camaraderie that is unique to this industry. In one sense we are business competitors, but when a member lives in an area with active chapters it is easier to form lasting friendships that help during our entire career. More than 73% of the members are sole proprietors. If you have a tight schedule as a successful businessperson and an unexpected event causes you to need to keep an important client’s piano’s needs met, who will you contact to fill in? Active chapters allow members to form networks to assist on all types of levels. Whether it is to cover for you when the need arises or to gain a broader base of knowledge and places to refer clients with needs outside your specialization, an active chapter will help you.

At the Leadership Luncheon at this year’s convention, we focused on some reasons that chapters struggle. Some chapters suffer from burnout at the leadership level. This is an easy trap to fall into. Other chapters struggle with keeping an interest in the technical presentations when there are several newer members who are less seasoned in their individual journeys into piano technology and a core group of members with a broader range of experience. Perhaps one solution is not either/or but rather both/and. It is possible to have a short period that addresses the needs of the newer members and a separate time for the seasoned technicians. Take advantage of the Education Hub to assist you with fresh ideas that may meet both groups. Try also to keep your business meeting portion short and manageable. Nothing sours the mood faster than a 45-minute knock-down-drag-out over purchasing coffee for the next meeting. While you are at it, examine the schedule of when your chapter meets. Is the current schedule based on the tradition that came 20 years ago, or is it meeting the current needs of the members? The Central Oklahoma Chapter meets at 8:30 in the morning on the third Thursday of the month. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only chapter in the PTG who does so. When this was decided, most of the active members had young families and another late evening or Saturday morning cut into family time. We have considered it “Professional Development” ever since, and it works for us. Don’t be afraid to ask the current members of your chapter if the current schedule still works. If you have several seasoned members, late night may not be as comfortable as it was even ten years ago, as driving at night may be a challenge.

Take advantage of the many resources the PTG has to offer to chapters. These include the PTG website, your regional vice president, and the chapter health committee. Have a combined chapter meeting with a close neighbor to help generate excitement and expand your network. Everyone should at least have a report session from members who just returned from the convention in Reno. Make sure your chapter is not missing in the next PTG Table of Contents.

Over the last couple of months, I have reviewed the goals I had set before seeking the office of president once again. There was a total of six goals, and we have covered five of them. The last goal is ongoing and deals with the future of the PTG. Before we consider the future, we need to take a quick trip down memory lane to 2001: The Convention & Technical Institute was held in Reno, Nevada, where a newly hired Home Office staffer was attending her first-ever PTG convention. Her name was Barbara Cassaday; she was serving in the accounting office for the PTG and was responsible for keeping the financial records in order.

Not long afterwards, she was named the interim executive director and shortly after that, she assumed her present position of executive director. Under her leadership, the PTG has continued to serve the interests of its members, and her oversight has contributed to the PTG’s solid financial footing. Last month, once again in Reno, Nevada, we announced that Barb will be retiring in the fall of 2025.

Since many of you may not have been present in council when this was announced, I will take this opportunity to share our vision of where we are heading next. During the past year, a lot of planning and preparation has already taken place for this situation. Many organizations have turnover at key positions more often and as such, have policy documents in place to assist those transitions. The reality is that PTG does not have such documents and given the time since we last faced this challenge, they would need major updating if they did exist. At the winter board meeting, the entire board reviewed the job description in our bylaws and organizational policies. We asked questions about the intangible aspects of the job as well. We have reviewed the salary to make sure that we would not encounter “sticker shock” when we got to the point of offering a contract to a new employee. Realizing that this is a big job that most of the members of the board are not familiar with, we looked at outside resources to assist our process. We are using a book by Don Trebbe entitled Chief Executive Transitions — How to Hire and Support a Nonprofit CEO to assist us in this endeavor.

I would like to take this opportunity to share an outline of what will be on our “To Do” list as we go through this process. Our documents state that the board of directors hires the executive director. During the pre-council board meeting, a special Transition Task Group was elected to assist the board in this process. David Stoneman will chair this group along with myself, Ricki Klos, Ruth Zeiner, and Phil Bondi. This smaller group will work with the board not only to search for candidates qualified for consideration but also to help with working through the details of the search criteria and serve as a first-level screening of applicants. We anticipate working with a professional human resources company to assist in job postings and other details to move the search process forward. Ultimately, the entire board will conduct the final interviews and confirm the hiring of a new executive director. The Transition Task Group will continue to assist with the onboarding process to make the new executive director search as successful as possible. Given the time gap since this was last done for the PTG and the desire to have a positive and long-term outcome, we are doing our best to be as diligent as possible in the days ahead.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Barb. This will mark my eleventh year on the board of directors, so Barb and I have had more than one conversation along the way. There will be more information in the coming days, and the Board and Transition Task Group will work to keep the membership in the loop as we take these next big steps together.

Last month, we began checking under the hood of the PTG to ensure that we were on track with the goals that were set. We looked at board training, long-range planning, and our intent to walk through proposed bylaws changes carefully and with the mission statement in full view.

In the usual service vehicle, we are very likely to monitor the fluid levels of important systems, such as the coolant level in the radiator, so the engine doesn’t overheat. We check the level of the power steering pump so we can easily turn the vehicle when we park. Brake fluid is very important for stopping, and in the spring, maintaining the proper level of windshield washer fluid is paramount if we want to see where we are going. Topping off the respective fluids is an easy undertaking in most vehicles. There are also items that need to be examined periodically that require a bit more effort to repair or replace. Among those are the belts and hoses that deliver the fluids to the proper places and keep the pumps turning so our routine service calls remain “routine.”

One of the important aspects for the ongoing operation and mission of the PTG is the staffing of committees. The goal I sought was to not only staff the committees, but to make sure that those selected had skills and passions that would best serve those groups. This has been my tenth year serving on the board of directors, and committee staffing has always been a challenge. This year we had a situation that I had never encountered: We had more volunteers than spaces to serve. There was not the usual arm twisting and begging of favors to get volunteers. Have we been successful? One measure was the fact that all the committees filed a report for the winter board meeting, and those reports reflected genuine positive activity. Of course, there are some committees that we hope do as little as possible. Members’ rights, ethics, and membership application review only jump into action when there are problems, so inactivity is a good thing. If you didn’t get to serve last year, please let your respective RVP know so you can be considered for this next year. Another goal was to focus on marketing the PTG internally and externally through a variety of methods. We began with an impromptu session following Council last summer where those interested had a chance to brainstorm on the type of marketing the PTG should pursue. As the board worked through the long-range planning process in January, we considered how best to use our resources to market the PTG. I mentioned last month the plans for a member survey and a membership drive. The marketing committee has been working to create documents and information that will be used in our membership drive that focus on becoming a piano technician. Two video productions were done this year. You may have seen one on Facebook that was used to promote the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute in Reno. See it at vimeo.com/923811499, or scan the QR code below: 

There was also a second video produced for use in the membership drive. You will have to wait to see that one, but the idea is that we have been marketing the PTG. Of course, the best marketing is always word of mouth. The PTG continues to be an amazing organization with amazing people.

Most of us depend on our service vehicles to make it to our appointments. We have scheduled maintenance to keep us on track. The PTG is no different in that respect. We need to evaluate how the engine is running and if we are on course for the goals we have set. I have been known to say, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” In preparing for the PTG presidential election last summer, I sent out an email blast to the membership and listed six goals I wanted to pursue if elected. I would like to take some time to revisit those goals to see how we are doing.

The first goal was to Focus and Develop Board Training. To that end, all of us on the board read a book entitled Financial Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards. This publication comes from a group called BoardSource that provides resources to boards of directors for a variety of organizations. In the same way we as individual members benefit from the collective experience of the membership of the PTG, your board of directors reaps benefits from partnering with this group to enhance our knowledge of what it means to serve on a board. As I pointed out last summer, most of us operate businesses as sole proprietors who simply do not engage in managing a large budget and a Home Office staff, or interacting with over 3,200 members to give oversight to an organization like the PTG. With that in mind, seeking out tried-and-true methods to assist the board in its mission only makes sense. This will be an ongoing process. Visit boardsource.org for more information about this resource, or scan the QR code to read the introduction to the book we read.

The second goal was to Review and Develop Long-Range Planning in the light of our mission statement. We began board orientation by reviewing the mission statement of the PTG. It reads: “The mission of the Piano Technicians Guild is to promote the highest possible standards of piano service by providing members with opportunities for professional development, by recognizing technical competence through examinations, and by advancing the interests of its members.” So, we began the year with the mission statement at the forefront to remind ourselves of what the PTG expects from us. We also reviewed the individual job descriptions of each of the board members in our bylaws. At the winter board meeting, we spent a day looking at the PTG through the lens of our resources: time, finances, and people. From this, we looked at what we might like to accomplish going down the road and discussed what resources were available to accomplish those goals. A couple of action points that arose from this were the decisions to pursue a member survey and develop a membership drive for this fall.

The third goal was to Work Intentionally to Implement Our Current Bylaws and Policies before Proposing Changes. Because we scheduled the long-range planning discussion for the day before the actual business portion of the winter board meeting, we reviewed our resources and our mission statement before we began to discuss the proposals on the agenda. It really helps to know what you have in your pocket before you decide to purchase an item. The time we spent reviewing where we were was beneficial for looking at proposed changes. Many of the proposals were housekeeping in nature and we looked at all the costs involved in the others before making decisions. In the interim, we have discovered a couple of minor issues that need to be addressed this summer, such as the schedule of bylaws proposals in relation to the publication of the respective meeting agendas. We also discovered that our online communications documents need to be streamlined and placed in a more public place. Once again, this will be housekeeping in nature.

There are three more goals to cover and not enough space this month, so stay tuned for the second half of this message next month.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Reno, Nevada, in July.

Last month, I confessed to having tuned my first piano with a homemade tuning lever. Part of the message discussed looking at fresh possibilities from an existing situation. This month I want to look at another aspect of life and how we face it. I’m speaking of mistakes. I would like to think I have evolved from that first homemade tuning lever to being a quite competent technician. I have always enjoyed shop work and have somehow ended up with unexpected challenges along the way. The first pinblock I ever attempted to replace on my own was from an 1896 Blüthner with the patent action. Little did I know that it was multi-layered and beveled when I bid on the job. I saw the individually tied strings but didn’t realize the extra effort that would entail. That was a mistake of underestimation on my part.

Fast forward a few years, and I decided it was time to replace my first soundboard. After all, it can’t be all that hard, can it? Having learned a few things along the way, I decided to order a pre-made board on which I would have to locate the bridges, set the downbearing, and notch and pin the bridge caps. I watched the video, sent off the old board, and prepared to complete the task. All was going well up to this point. I had fitted the soundboard in the piano like the instructions said to do. I had located the bridges using the neat jigs I had made as per instructions. The downbearing was all set, and I was at the point of drilling the holes for the bridge pins. Knowing that I was on the home stretch, I was feeling pretty good at this point. Then it happened: Right in the top octave, I managed to break the drill bit off in the bridge body. In my head I heard the famous words of Stanley Laurel from days past: “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie!”

What to do now? Removing a broken bit from wood requires drilling a series of holes around the stub of the bit until you can remove it. Of course, at this point, you have a hole much larger than needed in a bridge cap that is designed to have three small holes in a row spaced closely together. This would be called an “operations mistake” on my part. Once the panic subsided and I had removed the broken bit, I drilled a half-inch hole into which I glued a plug made of bridge cap material and resumed the process of preparing the bridge.

All of us make mistakes. It is not a matter of “if.” It is a matter of “when.” How you handle the mistakes says a lot about where you are in life. Part of dealing with mistakes comes with experience. Sometimes the best solution is to seek help from someone who has that experience. There was a game show on TV a few years ago that allowed the contestants to “phone a friend” to help solve the issue at hand. One of the best aspects of the PTG is networking with people who have a lot of experience. Just this week, I called a friend from across the country to get his advice on a piano in my shop. Some of the friends we meet are in the local chapter. Zoom has allowed a lot of us to stay connected in the past few years but being in another chapter member’s shop and seeing how they are approaching piano work is invaluable. Meeting people at regional conferences allows you to expand your network. Let me continue to challenge you to attend the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer just so you can expand your network. Remember, it is not whether you will make a mistake, it is a matter of when you will make a mistake. Come this summer and expand your base of knowledge and your network of folks to call when you are in a jam.

Writer’s block. That’s what you get when you know you are supposed to have written an article that is really inspiring and witty, but all you can think of is cat dander and emptying the litter box for the umpteenth time. Here you are as the leader of the organization, with all the supposed wisdom and wit that inspires those around you, and you’ve got nothing. So, you ask yourself, “Just how did I end up here in the first place?” You can travel back in time to the beginning of the universe but that is probably a bit too far given the space allotted for an article. Fast forward a bit to how you ended up working as a piano technician. What made it interesting? How did you pursue this wonderful occupation in the first place?

Knowing what I know now, would I have still pursued this career? I have a feeling the answer is probably yes. What traits make this career work? First, one must be a self-starter. No one is going to just call you up and ask you to tune their priceless concert grand when you are first starting out and don’t even have the tools or the skills. Like a lot of people, the first piano I ever tuned was my own. It probably would have helped if I’d had an actual tuning lever, but why let a little thing like that stand in the way? I didn’t use something totally improper like vice grips, but my first homemade tuning lever left a lot to be desired. When you realize that a 1/4” socket will fit over the end of a tuning pin, at least from the square end, you have a start. From there you find an Allen wrench that will fit into the hex end and drill a hole in a large dowel for a handle, and you have a basic home-made tuning lever that will at least turn the pins and not mar them. Of course, the flex in the 5/16” Allen wrench is a bit more than ideal for good control…

I had seen a guy tune our piano at least once, and he had a felt strip mute. Keeping with the theme of improvisation, why not use weather stripping felt that comes in a handy roll from the hardware store? I failed to mention that, at this point in my career, I was working in the pipe organ repair and service business, so I had at least some idea of what it meant to tune octaves and unisons. I believe my first piano tuning took around five hours to complete. Naturally, I started at about 8:30 in the evening and finished long after my father had retired for the night..

Fast forward a few years, and suddenly I am the president of the Piano Technicians Guild. Now, instead of wondering how it is supposed to be done, I am supposed to provide leadership to fellow technicians all around the country. Some of those basic traits still come in handy. I’m still a self-starter. I still have a knack for looking at things and people around me and seeing potential and creative ways of utilizing their design and skills. I have been blessed to be able to think outside the box to help solve a myriad of problems through the years. I still enjoy making things that can be useful. I looked in my toolbox today and counted at least a dozen tools I have made from scratch or modified greatly to do things in piano service.

Shifting the focus back to the organization, we need to ask questions along the way as well. Your board just finished the winter meeting, at which we asked questions about the future of the PTG. We looked at how our board is elected. We looked at our resources, which consist of time, people, and tangible assets. No one has ever figured out how to extend the clock, so we all have the same 24/7 to work with. People are perhaps our best resource, as they bring tons of talents and perspectives to the table. The creativity of our members is astounding. One of the most unique things about the PTG is the willingness of its members to share what they have learned with one another.

The board also toured the Home Office and were reminded of all the resources on hand for continuing education. We examined the budget and balance sheet to see what fiscal resources we have available to move the organization forward. We took a day of planning to think both inside and outside of the box to find ways to move the PTG into the future. Looking back while looking forward, we realized we were overdue for a member survey. We also will be implementing a membership drive in the days to come. Your board has been working through a book by Richard T. Ingram called Ten Basic Responsibilities of Non-Profit Boards. This is helping us learn how to do our jobs as board members better. I am so very thankful for the other nine volunteers who serve alongside me on the PTG board. Each member brings to the table his or her own unique journey into the world of piano technology, and as a team we are striving to keep the PTG moving in the right direction for the future.

March is an interesting month. First, the name is both a noun and a verb. It is the name of the month, but it also means “to walk in a military manner with a regular measured stride.” In sports, we also hear about “March Madness.” I realize it refers to basketball activity, but it conjures up several images of people going slightly crazy. Insert pictures of spring break at this point. March also contains the first day of spring, which is a turning point in our calendars marking the spring equinox. Perhaps the equinox helps balance the madness that is happening all around us.

If we consider the verb form of the word and begin to “march,” we then demonstrate that there is a destination, or goal, in mind. For example, are you still on track to attend the 2024 Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer in Reno? Make a plan regarding the type of classes you will attend. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and then look at the class offerings to see what will benefit you most. One method is to take as many classes on the same topic that you can fit into your schedule. No one instructor will cover every aspect of a topic, and there may be conflicting opinions about the best approach. Learning about each approach will give you additional tools in your arsenal as you approach the pianos in your care.

A march as a noun is a “regular measured stride.” When we set our “New Year’s revolutions,” (see my January column) we set goals for this year. At the three-month point of the year, it is a good time to evaluate how you are doing. Most new skills are acquired by repetition. Perhaps one of your goals was to spend an extra five to ten minutes at each appointment making one or two small changes to the action or the voicing, in addition to the regular tuning. Every piano can benefit from this approach. You will not only be improving the piano, but your customers will notice, which leads to return business. Whatever your revolutionary goals were, march steadily on in pursuit of them.

Thinking now of “March Madness,” what is driving you crazy? The age-old definition of insanity is doing the same thing, in the same manner, expecting different results. Try something new, like a new tool or repair technique. It may be something you learned on the Education Hub or by attending your local chapter meeting. Local chapters are the heart of PTG. If your chapter is not as active as it used to be, perhaps you can be the catalyst to help get the ball rolling again. Chapters can also get into the same old rut that can lead to apathy. In that case, inserting a little “madness” into the mix can help spice things up and get the ball rolling again. Have a joint chapter meeting with a nearby chapter. Take advantage of technology and connect via the internet for your meeting.

Now let’s consider the equinox. A lot of us are selfemployed, and we all have a drive to achieve and perform. That drive will lead to success, but it can also lead to burnout. We all need balance in our lives and should schedule down time in our lives or the “madness” will overtake us. Elastic is a wonderful invention. It allows us to stretch in one direction and then return to a normal or relaxed state. That works with clothing, fasteners, and other items. Unfortunately, if it stays stretched out for too long, it loses its ability to return. Put simply, it wears out. We need balance to survive. I am trying to learn a new word this year: “No.” If I chase yet another stray idea or project, I will veer off the course that I’ve set. If I overcommit, I may rob someone else of the opportunity to learn a new skill. Please don’t take this as blanket permission from the president to say no to every request, but at times we need to prioritize our lives to maintain that balance. March on!

When we think of February, a couple of things come to mind. First, it is the shortest month on the calendar. Second, we have a few special days in this month. We celebrate Presidents’ Day, and we also celebrate Valentine’s Day. A holiday that sometimes gets overlooked is Groundhog Day. For me, this has been an easy one to remember all my life as it happens to be my older sister’s birthday. The premise behind the day is to be a predictor of the remaining time of winter. The superstition behind the holiday revolves around a groundhog coming forth from its den, and if it happens to see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If, however, it fails to see its shadow, spring will arrive early. I have tended to look at it and realize, that if it sees its shadow, we have six more weeks of winter, if it does not, we have about a month and a half of winter left.

Perhaps the most famous example of this day is from the 1993 movie of the same name starring Bill Murray. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character is destined to repeat the same events of the day over and over until the spell, or in this case, curse, is broken. How does this relate to us as piano technicians? If we are not careful and intentional, we can end up in a similar time warp. We can tend to approach work in the same old manner as before. We can be hesitant to try anything that stretches our comfort zone of piano service. After all, what has worked in the past surely is the best approach.

What exactly will it take to get out of our usual routine? Before you can make a change, you need to realistically evaluate what you are currently doing. This will involve asking serious questions about how you currently approach your work, your business, and your customer interactions. Where are you in your work? Each of us has a slightly different business model. So, we need to start by asking whether that business model is the best for where we currently are in our business life cycle. A startup company has a different approach than a seasoned business. Likewise, some businesses and technicians are coming down the homestretch. If you are early in the business cycle, you may be asking, “How can I reach more customers?” Will it take branching out into other services or subcontracting with another firm to provide those services? Will you need to invest in new technology or techniques to achieve those goals? On the other end of the spectrum, you may be asking, “How can my customers be best served if I choose to cut back or even retire?”

Where do you find the answers to these types of questions? You may find the answers at the chapter or national level. The local chapter level involves getting to know your service market and looking at potential gaps in the service approach. On the national level, a great source of information comes from attending the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute. In case you need to know the when and where for this year, it will be held in Reno, Nevada, from July 17-20. Once again, you will need to invest in your future to continue to provide the best service for your customers and your own personal needs. Part of the planning will involve funding. Evaluation takes time and sometimes an investment of capital to be effective. The changes that need to implemented may also require an infusion of resources. If you would like to attend the convention this summer, you can begin now by setting aside part of the funds needed each month to reach your goal. Start the process now and see where you get on your journey. Even if you come up short for this year, you will have a good starting place for next year’s convention.

Chapters need to also utilize these same strategies. I would like to challenge every chapter to look at creative ways to increase membership as well as attendance. Increasing attendance requires an honest evaluation of the types of information being shared at the local chapter meetings. If the current members are not excited about attending the local chapter meetings, you can hardly expect an outsider to want to attend. It is always a balancing act to offer technical presentations that challenge the experienced members while also attracting interest from the chapter members who are not as far along in their journey. Once again, chapter resources can be found on the PTG website and attending the annual convention can also be a source of new material.

The point of all this is to challenge each of us, both individually and collectively, to get out of our same old loop. Being stuck in a rut is not a desirable thing. Someone once said, “A rut is just a coffin without ends.” Are you willing to at least step out of your comfort zone to see what type of shadow you are casting?

A little kindergarten-aged girl was walking with her father, and she asked, “Daddy, why do people make New Year’s revolutions?” The dad smiled and started to correct his child when he thought about what she was asking. Yes, it is that time of year once again. The time when we think about our New Year’s resolutions. The father realized that if people would only follow through with their goals, they would indeed have made a revolution in their lives.

Let’s examine the word “revolution” for a minute. On the one hand, it means a complete course of travel, as in an orbit. It can also mean a sudden, radical or complete change or even a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm.

When we look at most New Year’s resolutions, they tend to fall into one of three common areas of focus. First is the desire to lose weight. Coming on the heels of the holiday season with the abundance of foods that are a stretch to consider “healthy,” this is a familiar theme. The second is similar in nature: a desire for more exercise. Health clubs across the country sell a lot of memberships in January, but by March the usual crowds are all that are left of the folks flocking to the gym (the monthly payments continue, of course). The third most common area to be addressed is financial. People commit to doing a better job of budgeting, saving, and investing. Once again, old spending habits can tend to overtake the newfound resolve and the bank account tends to resemble its prior state before long.

So, why am I even bothering to bring this up if the odds are stacked against us? First, let me draw some parallels that would apply to us as piano technicians. From the perspective of food, we are what we eat. In the same manner, we think along the lines of what we consume. If all we ever watch are sitcoms and game shows, we will have one level of thinking. On the other hand, if we resolve to read more, study more, and challenge ourselves, we stand to improve after time. I have already challenged us to be life-long learners. What would happen if you began to study one aspect of piano service that has been a challenge to you with the goal of mastering it? Even if you struggle at first, at some time you will experience a breakthrough or “aha!” moment when the pieces start to fall together, and the curtain of confusion is drawn back.

Now let’s consider exercise. Exercise is putting into motion something with the goal to enhance or maintain fitness. In our case, what if I challenge each of us to exercise our talents in the upcoming months to benefit other technicians? At the chapter level, you could volunteer to give a technical presentation. Most chapters struggle with filling the technical part of the meeting. If each of us took this challenge, think of the benefit to the chapter, to new members, and to ourselves. When you prepare to teach something, you always learn more in the process. This is true if for no other reason than you prepare to answer questions that may arise during the class. I challenged you in an earlier column to pursue a PhD. What better way to start than giving a “peer reviewed” presentation? If you are not ready for the “whole show,” ask to give a 15-minute tech tip or mini technical. That’s less pressure and you may share some trick that you have learned that may save others the frustration you felt. I was challenged to learn from my mistakes. Along the way, I figured out that I could learn from the mistakes of others and gain the knowledge that way.

An alternative to presenting a topic in person is to write an article for your chapter newsletter or even the Journal. Once again, if this is new to you, start with something like a quick tip for the newsletter or Tips, Tools, & Techniques in the Journal. If you have the chops, why not develop an entire article? One side benefit is that you can add “Published Author” to your resume.

Now let’s consider the financial aspect. Invest in your career. The Annual PTG Convention and Technical Institute is in July. That gives you a few months to set aside funds so you can attend. Consider it your personal “Knowledge 401(k).” You can call it whatever will get you motivated. Just realize that building a body of knowledge benefits you and your customers. In addition to the class learning, there are many opportunities to increase your network of professionals. Even if you still don’t feel comfortable taking on a particular aspect of piano technology after the convention, chances are that you will have met someone who is comfortable with it, and you can use them either as a referral or a resource. Attending conferences is fully tax deductible as well. You not only increase your knowledge, but you get to write off the costs at the same time. In sales, that is called a “win-win.”

So, the question remains: What is your New Year’s revolution?

Since I last wrote to you, we have seen yet another international conflict arise in the Middle East. We still have a landscape in the United States and across many places that is sharply divided in ideology and viewpoints. It is easy to get caught up in taking sides as there is no shortage of opinions on the horizon.

I want to take a minute before it gets too hectic to remind all of us of just what we do. As piano technicians we help make music that encompasses a wide variety of styles, genres, and tempos. Here in Oklahoma, where I live, we even have both types of music: country and western. We have customers with all types of musical tastes and all types of pianos. Whether we are on the concert stage or getting the Whitney spinet ready for the family to sing carols, we are helping to make music. Music is a magical part of all our lives that evokes a plethora of emotions.

This is December, which to us technicians means a fairly busy schedule. There are the usual concerts, recitals, and school tunings for juries and the like. Of course, there are also those who somehow missed that the concert has always happened this time of year and completely forgot that a piano was involved and needs a last-minute tuning. Because we are so busy, it is easy to get tired and even a little grumpy due to all the expectations on our time and schedule.

That brings me back to the divisions I see across this land. There seem to be many polarizations from one side to the other. That is where we come in. My job is to provide the best piano service for my customers so they can enjoy the music of the season. One of the best ways to do that is to see the music maker as a person and not get hung up on their particular worldview. Holiday celebrations involve families getting together. I wish all families got along perfectly, but the truth is they do not. I have been helped by this statement: “Keep in mind that every one of us is someone else’s weirdo.” I don’t know who made that statement, but it is pretty accurate.

I have had the privilege and sometimes the challenge of working on pianos of all shapes and sizes over the years. I would not be honest if I said that I didn’t prefer some over others. The same can be said of some of their owners. If you have been at this very long, you all have your own cranky pianos and the owners that match them.

I did mention telescopes in the title, so I better get to that side of the story as well. I own an eight-inch Dobsonian telescope, which I have enjoyed for several years now. A couple of weeks ago, my wife Vickie and I traveled to a state park for the weekend during the Orionids meteor shower. One advantage of having a lot of state parks is the lack of light pollution from the large cities; an advantage to being on the Great Plains is the large horizon available for viewing. It was unseasonably warm for October, which made for a great couple of evenings for star gazing. I was able to see Saturn, Jupiter, and the Andromeda galaxy fairly easily. A little zooming in allowed me to locate the galaxies M81 and M82. One appears flat-on, and the other one is seen from the edge and looks like a small line in comparison to the small circle of stars in the other. I was also able to locate the Ring Nebula. This was in addition to the Orionids meteor shower that began a little later in the night. Vickie even caught a couple of meteors in the telescope while trying to see other things.

There are a couple of things you notice when star gazing that I think help us with perspective. My telescope is not motorized or computerized, so when you locate an object like Saturn, you have to constantly adjust the scope as the planet drifts fairly quickly out of view. In fact, the higher the magnification of the lens, the quicker this happens. This is because we are rotating on the earth at about 1000 miles per hour (1600 km/hr). We are moving so fast, but we don’t even realize it. When you are looking at constellations, like Ursa Major, the Pleiades, and Orion, you get a different perspective of life. Those have been around for centuries. History has been written under their watch. Human conflict is nothing new under the sun, and the constellations will still be in the night sky long after I’m gone. So, when I take time to really look into the night sky, I have to ask the question, “In light of time and the universe, wouldn’t it be better to get along and enjoy life rather than focus on the ways we don’t agree?”

In this holiday season I would wish that everyone can see the ways we are alike more than the ways we are different. Sometimes the easiest way to accomplish that is just to say, “Hello, my name is Norman. What’s yours?”

I’m looking forward to another New Year.

One of the universities where I work recently purchased a new concert instrument. It was delivered just before the semester began with the promise that it had been recently tuned and was ready for us to use. I knew that it was not scheduled for use until the “premier concert” in a few weeks, and since I had my hands full, I simply checked to see that it was in good shape. I then turned my focus to getting all the other pianos ready for school to start. Fast forward a few weeks, and it was time for the concert. The head piano professor was scheduled to start a cycle of concerts in celebration of Brahms’s 140th birthday. He was playing the Waltz, Opus 39, the Rhapsodies, Opus 79, and the complete Fantasies, Opus 116. I have found it helpful to listen to recordings of the program selections, and so I was prepared for the piano to receive a pretty thorough workout.

I agreed to meet with him at the conclusion of his initial rehearsal time to discuss any concerns or problems he had with the new-to-both-of-us piano. He played several sections with me in the audience so I could hear the overall balance of the piano. I immediately noticed that the unisons had drifted quite a bit and made notes about how I needed to approach the tuning in order for everything to last through the concert. Before he left to go practice some more in his studio while I got my turn at the instrument, he paid me a very high compliment. As we discussed all the nuances of the piano he said, “It is like you have the equivalent of a PhD in working with pianos.” Needless to say, that was the first time I had received such a compliment from someone about what I do.

I started to think about what would be required to attain such a degree if it existed in piano technology. A traditional PhD requires three to four years of study with a substantial portion of original research presented as a dissertation. That led to thoughts about our industry and how many specializations exist in our marketplace of ideas. We all start with the basics of tuning and in-home repairs. From there, we develop our personal business track or specializations, which may include fine regulation and voicing, or rebuilding. I think of people who have worked hard in their particular specialty to refine things like touchweight, concert tuning and preparation, and soundboard design and installation. I remember that when I started out in 1984, if you could replace a pinblock, you practically walked on water. At this point, the bar is set much higher, and technicians are not only replacing soundboards, but they are studying the design of the existing board and mathematically addressing scaling and design faults in the process.

The instrument we service was created a little over 300 years ago, and the modern piano was developed in the late 1890s. The tools and techniques we have to service pianos, and the supplies we have at our disposal, have continued to evolve in a multiplied manner. I could name some of the pioneers of these developments, but space is limited, and I would inadvertently leave someone out. One thing that has been a partner in this evolution is the Piano Technicians Guild and its membership. There is a community of technicians who have taken the time and resources to develop service strategies that have been gamechangers. At the same time, those same individuals have been willing to share with the rest of their colleagues their discoveries.

The time is drawing near for people to renew their membership. I have often been asked, “Why should I renew? I really don’t get much out of this anymore.” Last month I challenged everyone to be a lifelong learner. This month I want to help point out that all of us can expand our current routine and learn something else about our industry. For a long time, I was in a market that had limited opportunities for concert work. That being said, I continued to take classes and invest in my skills. Four years ago I had the opportunity to take on my current role at the university I mentioned. All that preparation had paid off and I was ready for this particular concert. The PTG has been my university, and the professor who has an actual PhD respectfully acknowledged the investment I had made to partner with him on the Brahms premier concert. If you were pursuing your PhD in piano technology, what area of study would be the focus of your dissertation?

Addendum: Last month I mentioned the Education Hub. Since then, they have added a link to service manuals from various manufacturers. Be sure to check it out!

I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s, and one show that caught my interest was Mission Impossible. Each episode began with a man searching for a “drop zone” from which he would extract a small tape recorder. It always began with the same phrase: “Good morning Mr. Phelps. Your mission, should you choose to accept it... ” This was followed by the details of that week’s needed accomplishment. The tape would then begin to self- destruct, and smoke would rise from the small machine. At this point, the famous theme song by Lalo Schifrin would begin, and we the viewers would be carried into the otherworldly life of spies.

we still need to focus on opportunities for professional development. We still see the need for our exam process, and if we look through the lens of piano technology, we need to advance the interests of our members.

Having a mission in life is very important, both in the short term and long term. Many organizations have mission statements that describe the major focus they wish to pursue. PTG is no exception and also has a mission statement. As president, part of my job description reads, “The president is responsible for assuring that all the activities and programs of PTG work towards achieving the goals stated in PTG’s mission statement.”

When we look at professional development, it is amazing what resources we have at our disposal. We also have such a unique culture of people willing to share things they have learned along the way in an effort to help other members improve the services they offer their customers. That same spirit of sharing applies to those wanting to pursue the RPT exam process. From simple encouragement to full-on mentorship, we have people willing to help those on that journey as well.

During our board orientation, the board members began studying a book entitled Ten Basic Responsibilities of Non- Profit Boards. The first line of chapter one states, “The board is responsible for ensuring that the organization’s mission is clearly stated and enthusiastically supported.” With that in mind, we took the time to look at and review the mission statement of the PTG, which simply says:

The mission of the Piano Technicians Guild is to promote the highest possible standards of piano service by providing members with opportunities for professional development, by recognizing technical competence through examinations and by advancing the interests of its members.

The book encouraged us to review that statement to see if it was still useful, valid, and current. To that end, we looked at the three action points and agreed that.

So, our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to first challenge ourselves to grow professionally, and second, to make ourselves available to help those on the path of growth and improvement. I would like to encourage all of us to be lifelong learners.

Most of us depend on our service vehicles to make it to our appointments. We have scheduled maintenance to keep us on track. The PTG is no different in that respect. We need to evaluate how the engine is running and if we are on course for the goals we have set. I have been known to say, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” In preparing for the PTG presidential election last summer, I sent out an email blast to the membership and listed six goals I wanted to pursue if elected. I would like to take some time to revisit those goals to see how we are doing.

The first goal was to Focus and Develop Board Training. To that end, all of us on the board read a book entitled Financial Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards. This publication comes from a group called BoardSource that provides resources to boards of directors for a variety of organizations. In the same way we as individual members benefit from the collective experience of the membership of the PTG, your board of directors reaps benefits from partnering with this group to enhance our knowledge of what it means to serve on a board. As I pointed out last summer, most of us operate businesses as sole proprietors who simply do not engage in managing a large budget and a Home Office staff, or interacting with over 3,200 members to give oversight to an organization like the PTG. With that in mind, seeking out tried-and-true methods to assist the board in its mission only makes sense. This will be an ongoing process. Visit boardsource.org for more information about this resource, or scan the QR code to read the introduction to the book we read.

The second goal was to Review and Develop Long-Range Planning in the light of our mission statement. We began board orientation by reviewing the mission statement of the PTG. It reads: “The mission of the Piano Technicians Guild is to promote the highest possible standards of piano service by providing members with opportunities for professional development, by recognizing technical competence through examinations, and by advancing the interests of its members.” So, we began the year with the mission statement at the forefront to remind ourselves of what the PTG expects from us. We also reviewed the individual job descriptions of each of the board members in our bylaws. At the winter board meeting, we spent a day looking at the PTG through the lens of our resources: time, finances, and people. From this, we looked at what we might like to accomplish going down the road and discussed what resources were available to accomplish those goals. A couple of action points that arose from this were the decisions to pursue a member survey and develop a membership drive for this fall.

The third goal was to Work Intentionally to Implement Our Current Bylaws and Policies before Proposing Changes. Because we scheduled the long-range planning discussion for the day before the actual business portion of the winter board meeting, we reviewed our resources and our mission statement before we began to discuss the proposals on the agenda. It really helps to know what you have in your pocket before you decide to purchase an item. The time we spent reviewing where we were was beneficial for looking at proposed changes. Many of the proposals were housekeeping in nature and we looked at all the costs involved in the others before making decisions. In the interim, we have discovered a couple of minor issues that need to be addressed this summer, such as the schedule of bylaws proposals in relation to the publication of the respective meeting agendas. We also discovered that our online communications documents need to be streamlined and placed in a more public place. Once again, this will be housekeeping in nature.

There are three more goals to cover and not enough space this month, so stay tuned for the second half of this message next month.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Reno, Nevada, in July.

Last month, I confessed to having tuned my first piano with a homemade tuning lever. Part of the message discussed looking at fresh possibilities from an existing situation. This month I want to look at another aspect of life and how we face it. I’m speaking of mistakes. I would like to think I have evolved from that first homemade tuning lever to being a quite competent technician. I have always enjoyed shop work and have somehow ended up with unexpected challenges along the way. The first pinblock I ever attempted to replace on my own was from an 1896 Blüthner with the patent action. Little did I know that it was multi-layered and beveled when I bid on the job. I saw the individually tied strings but didn’t realize the extra effort that would entail. That was a mistake of underestimation on my part.

Fast forward a few years, and I decided it was time to replace my first soundboard. After all, it can’t be all that hard, can it? Having learned a few things along the way, I decided to order a pre-made board on which I would have to locate the bridges, set the downbearing, and notch and pin the bridge caps. I watched the video, sent off the old board, and prepared to complete the task. All was going well up to this point. I had fitted the soundboard in the piano like the instructions said to do. I had located the bridges using the neat jigs I had made as per instructions. The downbearing was all set, and I was at the point of drilling the holes for the bridge pins. Knowing that I was on the home stretch, I was feeling pretty good at this point. Then it happened: Right in the top octave, I managed to break the drill bit off in the bridge body. In my head I heard the famous words of Stanley Laurel from days past: “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie!”

What to do now? Removing a broken bit from wood requires drilling a series of holes around the stub of the bit until you can remove it. Of course, at this point, you have a hole much larger than needed in a bridge cap that is designed to have three small holes in a row spaced closely together. This would be called an “operations mistake” on my part. Once the panic subsided and I had removed the broken bit, I drilled a half-inch hole into which I glued a plug made of bridge cap material and resumed the process of preparing the bridge.

All of us make mistakes. It is not a matter of “if.” It is a matter of “when.” How you handle the mistakes says a lot about where you are in life. Part of dealing with mistakes comes with experience. Sometimes the best solution is to seek help from someone who has that experience. There was a game show on TV a few years ago that allowed the contestants to “phone a friend” to help solve the issue at hand. One of the best aspects of the PTG is networking with people who have a lot of experience. Just this week, I called a friend from across the country to get his advice on a piano in my shop. Some of the friends we meet are in the local chapter. Zoom has allowed a lot of us to stay connected in the past few years but being in another chapter member’s shop and seeing how they are approaching piano work is invaluable. Meeting people at regional conferences allows you to expand your network. Let me continue to challenge you to attend the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer just so you can expand your network. Remember, it is not whether you will make a mistake, it is a matter of when you will make a mistake. Come this summer and expand your base of knowledge and your network of folks to call when you are in a jam.

Writer’s block. That’s what you get when you know you are supposed to have written an article that is really inspiring and witty, but all you can think of is cat dander and emptying the litter box for the umpteenth time. Here you are as the leader of the organization, with all the supposed wisdom and wit that inspires those around you, and you’ve got nothing. So, you ask yourself, “Just how did I end up here in the first place?” You can travel back in time to the beginning of the universe but that is probably a bit too far given the space allotted for an article. Fast forward a bit to how you ended up working as a piano technician. What made it interesting? How did you pursue this wonderful occupation in the first place?

Knowing what I know now, would I have still pursued this career? I have a feeling the answer is probably yes. What traits make this career work? First, one must be a self-starter. No one is going to just call you up and ask you to tune their priceless concert grand when you are first starting out and don’t even have the tools or the skills. Like a lot of people, the first piano I ever tuned was my own. It probably would have helped if I’d had an actual tuning lever, but why let a little thing like that stand in the way? I didn’t use something totally improper like vice grips, but my first homemade tuning lever left a lot to be desired. When you realize that a 1/4” socket will fit over the end of a tuning pin, at least from the square end, you have a start. From there you find an Allen wrench that will fit into the hex end and drill a hole in a large dowel for a handle, and you have a basic home-made tuning lever that will at least turn the pins and not mar them. Of course, the flex in the 5/16” Allen wrench is a bit more than ideal for good control…

I had seen a guy tune our piano at least once, and he had a felt strip mute. Keeping with the theme of improvisation, why not use weather stripping felt that comes in a handy roll from the hardware store? I failed to mention that, at this point in my career, I was working in the pipe organ repair and service business, so I had at least some idea of what it meant to tune octaves and unisons. I believe my first piano tuning took around five hours to complete. Naturally, I started at about 8:30 in the evening and finished long after my father had retired for the night..

Fast forward a few years, and suddenly I am the president of the Piano Technicians Guild. Now, instead of wondering how it is supposed to be done, I am supposed to provide leadership to fellow technicians all around the country. Some of those basic traits still come in handy. I’m still a self-starter. I still have a knack for looking at things and people around me and seeing potential and creative ways of utilizing their design and skills. I have been blessed to be able to think outside the box to help solve a myriad of problems through the years. I still enjoy making things that can be useful. I looked in my toolbox today and counted at least a dozen tools I have made from scratch or modified greatly to do things in piano service.

Shifting the focus back to the organization, we need to ask questions along the way as well. Your board just finished the winter meeting, at which we asked questions about the future of the PTG. We looked at how our board is elected. We looked at our resources, which consist of time, people, and tangible assets. No one has ever figured out how to extend the clock, so we all have the same 24/7 to work with. People are perhaps our best resource, as they bring tons of talents and perspectives to the table. The creativity of our members is astounding. One of the most unique things about the PTG is the willingness of its members to share what they have learned with one another.

The board also toured the Home Office and were reminded of all the resources on hand for continuing education. We examined the budget and balance sheet to see what fiscal resources we have available to move the organization forward. We took a day of planning to think both inside and outside of the box to find ways to move the PTG into the future. Looking back while looking forward, we realized we were overdue for a member survey. We also will be implementing a membership drive in the days to come. Your board has been working through a book by Richard T. Ingram called Ten Basic Responsibilities of Non-Profit Boards. This is helping us learn how to do our jobs as board members better. I am so very thankful for the other nine volunteers who serve alongside me on the PTG board. Each member brings to the table his or her own unique journey into the world of piano technology, and as a team we are striving to keep the PTG moving in the right direction for the future.

March is an interesting month. First, the name is both a noun and a verb. It is the name of the month, but it also means “to walk in a military manner with a regular measured stride.” In sports, we also hear about “March Madness.” I realize it refers to basketball activity, but it conjures up several images of people going slightly crazy. Insert pictures of spring break at this point. March also contains the first day of spring, which is a turning point in our calendars marking the spring equinox. Perhaps the equinox helps balance the madness that is happening all around us.

If we consider the verb form of the word and begin to “march,” we then demonstrate that there is a destination, or goal, in mind. For example, are you still on track to attend the 2024 Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer in Reno? Make a plan regarding the type of classes you will attend. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and then look at the class offerings to see what will benefit you most. One method is to take as many classes on the same topic that you can fit into your schedule. No one instructor will cover every aspect of a topic, and there may be conflicting opinions about the best approach. Learning about each approach will give you additional tools in your arsenal as you approach the pianos in your care.

A march as a noun is a “regular measured stride.” When we set our “New Year’s revolutions,” (see my January column) we set goals for this year. At the three-month point of the year, it is a good time to evaluate how you are doing. Most new skills are acquired by repetition. Perhaps one of your goals was to spend an extra five to ten minutes at each appointment making one or two small changes to the action or the voicing, in addition to the regular tuning. Every piano can benefit from this approach. You will not only be improving the piano, but your customers will notice, which leads to return business. Whatever your revolutionary goals were, march steadily on in pursuit of them.

Thinking now of “March Madness,” what is driving you crazy? The age-old definition of insanity is doing the same thing, in the same manner, expecting different results. Try something new, like a new tool or repair technique. It may be something you learned on the Education Hub or by attending your local chapter meeting. Local chapters are the heart of PTG. If your chapter is not as active as it used to be, perhaps you can be the catalyst to help get the ball rolling again. Chapters can also get into the same old rut that can lead to apathy. In that case, inserting a little “madness” into the mix can help spice things up and get the ball rolling again. Have a joint chapter meeting with a nearby chapter. Take advantage of technology and connect via the internet for your meeting.

Now let’s consider the equinox. A lot of us are selfemployed, and we all have a drive to achieve and perform. That drive will lead to success, but it can also lead to burnout. We all need balance in our lives and should schedule down time in our lives or the “madness” will overtake us. Elastic is a wonderful invention. It allows us to stretch in one direction and then return to a normal or relaxed state. That works with clothing, fasteners, and other items. Unfortunately, if it stays stretched out for too long, it loses its ability to return. Put simply, it wears out. We need balance to survive. I am trying to learn a new word this year: “No.” If I chase yet another stray idea or project, I will veer off the course that I’ve set. If I overcommit, I may rob someone else of the opportunity to learn a new skill. Please don’t take this as blanket permission from the president to say no to every request, but at times we need to prioritize our lives to maintain that balance. March on!

When we think of February, a couple of things come to mind. First, it is the shortest month on the calendar. Second, we have a few special days in this month. We celebrate Presidents’ Day, and we also celebrate Valentine’s Day. A holiday that sometimes gets overlooked is Groundhog Day. For me, this has been an easy one to remember all my life as it happens to be my older sister’s birthday. The premise behind the day is to be a predictor of the remaining time of winter. The superstition behind the holiday revolves around a groundhog coming forth from its den, and if it happens to see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If, however, it fails to see its shadow, spring will arrive early. I have tended to look at it and realize, that if it sees its shadow, we have six more weeks of winter, if it does not, we have about a month and a half of winter left.

Perhaps the most famous example of this day is from the 1993 movie of the same name starring Bill Murray. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character is destined to repeat the same events of the day over and over until the spell, or in this case, curse, is broken. How does this relate to us as piano technicians? If we are not careful and intentional, we can end up in a similar time warp. We can tend to approach work in the same old manner as before. We can be hesitant to try anything that stretches our comfort zone of piano service. After all, what has worked in the past surely is the best approach.

What exactly will it take to get out of our usual routine? Before you can make a change, you need to realistically evaluate what you are currently doing. This will involve asking serious questions about how you currently approach your work, your business, and your customer interactions. Where are you in your work? Each of us has a slightly different business model. So, we need to start by asking whether that business model is the best for where we currently are in our business life cycle. A startup company has a different approach than a seasoned business. Likewise, some businesses and technicians are coming down the homestretch. If you are early in the business cycle, you may be asking, “How can I reach more customers?” Will it take branching out into other services or subcontracting with another firm to provide those services? Will you need to invest in new technology or techniques to achieve those goals? On the other end of the spectrum, you may be asking, “How can my customers be best served if I choose to cut back or even retire?”

Where do you find the answers to these types of questions? You may find the answers at the chapter or national level. The local chapter level involves getting to know your service market and looking at potential gaps in the service approach. On the national level, a great source of information comes from attending the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute. In case you need to know the when and where for this year, it will be held in Reno, Nevada, from July 17-20. Once again, you will need to invest in your future to continue to provide the best service for your customers and your own personal needs. Part of the planning will involve funding. Evaluation takes time and sometimes an investment of capital to be effective. The changes that need to implemented may also require an infusion of resources. If you would like to attend the convention this summer, you can begin now by setting aside part of the funds needed each month to reach your goal. Start the process now and see where you get on your journey. Even if you come up short for this year, you will have a good starting place for next year’s convention.

Chapters need to also utilize these same strategies. I would like to challenge every chapter to look at creative ways to increase membership as well as attendance. Increasing attendance requires an honest evaluation of the types of information being shared at the local chapter meetings. If the current members are not excited about attending the local chapter meetings, you can hardly expect an outsider to want to attend. It is always a balancing act to offer technical presentations that challenge the experienced members while also attracting interest from the chapter members who are not as far along in their journey. Once again, chapter resources can be found on the PTG website and attending the annual convention can also be a source of new material.

The point of all this is to challenge each of us, both individually and collectively, to get out of our same old loop. Being stuck in a rut is not a desirable thing. Someone once said, “A rut is just a coffin without ends.” Are you willing to at least step out of your comfort zone to see what type of shadow you are casting?

A little kindergarten-aged girl was walking with her father, and she asked, “Daddy, why do people make New Year’s revolutions?” The dad smiled and started to correct his child when he thought about what she was asking. Yes, it is that time of year once again. The time when we think about our New Year’s resolutions. The father realized that if people would only follow through with their goals, they would indeed have made a revolution in their lives.

Let’s examine the word “revolution” for a minute. On the one hand, it means a complete course of travel, as in an orbit. It can also mean a sudden, radical or complete change or even a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm.

When we look at most New Year’s resolutions, they tend to fall into one of three common areas of focus. First is the desire to lose weight. Coming on the heels of the holiday season with the abundance of foods that are a stretch to consider “healthy,” this is a familiar theme. The second is similar in nature: a desire for more exercise. Health clubs across the country sell a lot of memberships in January, but by March the usual crowds are all that are left of the folks flocking to the gym (the monthly payments continue, of course). The third most common area to be addressed is financial. People commit to doing a better job of budgeting, saving, and investing. Once again, old spending habits can tend to overtake the newfound resolve and the bank account tends to resemble its prior state before long.

So, why am I even bothering to bring this up if the odds are stacked against us? First, let me draw some parallels that would apply to us as piano technicians. From the perspective of food, we are what we eat. In the same manner, we think along the lines of what we consume. If all we ever watch are sitcoms and game shows, we will have one level of thinking. On the other hand, if we resolve to read more, study more, and challenge ourselves, we stand to improve after time. I have already challenged us to be life-long learners. What would happen if you began to study one aspect of piano service that has been a challenge to you with the goal of mastering it? Even if you struggle at first, at some time you will experience a breakthrough or “aha!” moment when the pieces start to fall together, and the curtain of confusion is drawn back.

Now let’s consider exercise. Exercise is putting into motion something with the goal to enhance or maintain fitness. In our case, what if I challenge each of us to exercise our talents in the upcoming months to benefit other technicians? At the chapter level, you could volunteer to give a technical presentation. Most chapters struggle with filling the technical part of the meeting. If each of us took this challenge, think of the benefit to the chapter, to new members, and to ourselves. When you prepare to teach something, you always learn more in the process. This is true if for no other reason than you prepare to answer questions that may arise during the class. I challenged you in an earlier column to pursue a PhD. What better way to start than giving a “peer reviewed” presentation? If you are not ready for the “whole show,” ask to give a 15-minute tech tip or mini technical. That’s less pressure and you may share some trick that you have learned that may save others the frustration you felt. I was challenged to learn from my mistakes. Along the way, I figured out that I could learn from the mistakes of others and gain the knowledge that way.

An alternative to presenting a topic in person is to write an article for your chapter newsletter or even the Journal. Once again, if this is new to you, start with something like a quick tip for the newsletter or Tips, Tools, & Techniques in the Journal. If you have the chops, why not develop an entire article? One side benefit is that you can add “Published Author” to your resume.

Now let’s consider the financial aspect. Invest in your career. The Annual PTG Convention and Technical Institute is in July. That gives you a few months to set aside funds so you can attend. Consider it your personal “Knowledge 401(k).” You can call it whatever will get you motivated. Just realize that building a body of knowledge benefits you and your customers. In addition to the class learning, there are many opportunities to increase your network of professionals. Even if you still don’t feel comfortable taking on a particular aspect of piano technology after the convention, chances are that you will have met someone who is comfortable with it, and you can use them either as a referral or a resource. Attending conferences is fully tax deductible as well. You not only increase your knowledge, but you get to write off the costs at the same time. In sales, that is called a “win-win.”

So, the question remains: What is your New Year’s revolution?

Over the last couple of months, I have reviewed the goals I had set before seeking the office of president once again. There was a total of six goals, and we have covered five of them. The last goal is ongoing and deals with the future of the PTG. Before we consider the future, we need to take a quick trip down memory lane to 2001: The Convention & Technical Institute was held in Reno, Nevada, where a newly hired Home Office staffer was attending her first-ever PTG convention. Her name was Barbara Cassaday; she was serving in the accounting office for the PTG and was responsible for keeping the financial records in order.

Not long afterwards, she was named the interim executive director and shortly after that, she assumed her present position of executive director. Under her leadership, the PTG has continued to serve the interests of its members, and her oversight has contributed to the PTG’s solid financial footing. Last month, once again in Reno, Nevada, we announced that Barb will be retiring in the fall of 2025.

Since many of you may not have been present in council when this was announced, I will take this opportunity to share our vision of where we are heading next. During the past year, a lot of planning and preparation has already taken place for this situation. Many organizations have turnover at key positions more often and as such, have policy documents in place to assist those transitions. The reality is that PTG does not have such documents and given the time since we last faced this challenge, they would need major updating if they did exist. At the winter board meeting, the entire board reviewed the job description in our bylaws and organizational policies. We asked questions about the intangible aspects of the job as well. We have reviewed the salary to make sure that we would not encounter “sticker shock” when we got to the point of offering a contract to a new employee. Realizing that this is a big job that most of the members of the board are not familiar with, we looked at outside resources to assist our process. We are using a book by Don Trebbe entitled Chief Executive Transitions — How to Hire and Support a Nonprofit CEO to assist us in this endeavor.

I would like to take this opportunity to share an outline of what will be on our “To Do” list as we go through this process. Our documents state that the board of directors hires the executive director. During the pre-council board meeting, a special Transition Task Group was elected to assist the board in this process. David Stoneman will chair this group along with myself, Ricki Klos, Ruth Zeiner, and Phil Bondi. This smaller group will work with the board not only to search for candidates qualified for consideration but also to help with working through the details of the search criteria and serve as a first-level screening of applicants. We anticipate working with a professional human resources company to assist in job postings and other details to move the search process forward. Ultimately, the entire board will conduct the final interviews and confirm the hiring of a new executive director. The Transition Task Group will continue to assist with the onboarding process to make the new executive director search as successful as possible. Given the time gap since this was last done for the PTG and the desire to have a positive and long-term outcome, we are doing our best to be as diligent as possible in the days ahead.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Barb. This will mark my eleventh year on the board of directors, so Barb and I have had more than one conversation along the way. There will be more information in the coming days, and the Board and Transition Task Group will work to keep the membership in the loop as we take these next big steps together.

Over the last couple of months, I have reviewed the goals I had set before seeking the office of president once again. There was a total of six goals, and we have covered five of them. The last goal is ongoing and deals with the future of the PTG. Before we consider the future, we need to take a quick trip down memory lane to 2001: The Convention & Technical Institute was held in Reno, Nevada, where a newly hired Home Office staffer was attending her first-ever PTG convention. Her name was Barbara Cassaday; she was serving in the accounting office for the PTG and was responsible for keeping the financial records in order.

Not long afterwards, she was named the interim executive director and shortly after that, she assumed her present position of executive director. Under her leadership, the PTG has continued to serve the interests of its members, and her oversight has contributed to the PTG’s solid financial footing. Last month, once again in Reno, Nevada, we announced that Barb will be retiring in the fall of 2025.

Since many of you may not have been present in council when this was announced, I will take this opportunity to share our vision of where we are heading next. During the past year, a lot of planning and preparation has already taken place for this situation. Many organizations have turnover at key positions more often and as such, have policy documents in place to assist those transitions. The reality is that PTG does not have such documents and given the time since we last faced this challenge, they would need major updating if they did exist. At the winter board meeting, the entire board reviewed the job description in our bylaws and organizational policies. We asked questions about the intangible aspects of the job as well. We have reviewed the salary to make sure that we would not encounter “sticker shock” when we got to the point of offering a contract to a new employee. Realizing that this is a big job that most of the members of the board are not familiar with, we looked at outside resources to assist our process. We are using a book by Don Trebbe entitled Chief Executive Transitions — How to Hire and Support a Nonprofit CEO to assist us in this endeavor.

I would like to take this opportunity to share an outline of what will be on our “To Do” list as we go through this process. Our documents state that the board of directors hires the executive director. During the pre-council board meeting, a special Transition Task Group was elected to assist the board in this process. David Stoneman will chair this group along with myself, Ricki Klos, Ruth Zeiner, and Phil Bondi. This smaller group will work with the board not only to search for candidates qualified for consideration but also to help with working through the details of the search criteria and serve as a first-level screening of applicants. We anticipate working with a professional human resources company to assist in job postings and other details to move the search process forward. Ultimately, the entire board will conduct the final interviews and confirm the hiring of a new executive director. The Transition Task Group will continue to assist with the onboarding process to make the new executive director search as successful as possible. Given the time gap since this was last done for the PTG and the desire to have a positive and long-term outcome, we are doing our best to be as diligent as possible in the days ahead.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Barb. This will mark my eleventh year on the board of directors, so Barb and I have had more than one conversation along the way. There will be more information in the coming days, and the Board and Transition Task Group will work to keep the membership in the loop as we take these next big steps together.

Last month, we began checking under the hood of the PTG to ensure that we were on track with the goals that were set. We looked at board training, long-range planning, and our intent to walk through proposed bylaws changes carefully and with the mission statement in full view.

In the usual service vehicle, we are very likely to monitor the fluid levels of important systems, such as the coolant level in the radiator, so the engine doesn’t overheat. We check the level of the power steering pump so we can easily turn the vehicle when we park. Brake fluid is very important for stopping, and in the spring, maintaining the proper level of windshield washer fluid is paramount if we want to see where we are going. Topping off the respective fluids is an easy undertaking in most vehicles. There are also items that need to be examined periodically that require a bit more effort to repair or replace. Among those are the belts and hoses that deliver the fluids to the proper places and keep the pumps turning so our routine service calls remain “routine.”

One of the important aspects for the ongoing operation and mission of the PTG is the staffing of committees. The goal I sought was to not only staff the committees, but to make sure that those selected had skills and passions that would best serve those groups. This has been my tenth year serving on the board of directors, and committee staffing has always been a challenge. This year we had a situation that I had never encountered: We had more volunteers than spaces to serve. There was not the usual arm twisting and begging of favors to get volunteers. Have we been successful? One measure was the fact that all the committees filed a report for the winter board meeting, and those reports reflected genuine positive activity. Of course, there are some committees that we hope do as little as possible. Members’ rights, ethics, and membership application review only jump into action when there are problems, so inactivity is a good thing. If you didn’t get to serve last year, please let your respective RVP know so you can be considered for this next year. Another goal was to focus on marketing the PTG internally and externally through a variety of methods. We began with an impromptu session following Council last summer where those interested had a chance to brainstorm on the type of marketing the PTG should pursue. As the board worked through the long-range planning process in January, we considered how best to use our resources to market the PTG. I mentioned last month the plans for a member survey and a membership drive. The marketing committee has been working to create documents and information that will be used in our membership drive that focus on becoming a piano technician. Two video productions were done this year. You may have seen one on Facebook that was used to promote the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute in Reno. See it at vimeo.com/923811499, or scan the QR code below: 

There was also a second video produced for use in the membership drive. You will have to wait to see that one, but the idea is that we have been marketing the PTG. Of course, the best marketing is always word of mouth. The PTG continues to be an amazing organization with amazing people.

Most of us depend on our service vehicles to make it to our appointments. We have scheduled maintenance to keep us on track. The PTG is no different in that respect. We need to evaluate how the engine is running and if we are on course for the goals we have set. I have been known to say, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” In preparing for the PTG presidential election last summer, I sent out an email blast to the membership and listed six goals I wanted to pursue if elected. I would like to take some time to revisit those goals to see how we are doing.

The first goal was to Focus and Develop Board Training. To that end, all of us on the board read a book entitled Financial Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards. This publication comes from a group called BoardSource that provides resources to boards of directors for a variety of organizations. In the same way we as individual members benefit from the collective experience of the membership of the PTG, your board of directors reaps benefits from partnering with this group to enhance our knowledge of what it means to serve on a board. As I pointed out last summer, most of us operate businesses as sole proprietors who simply do not engage in managing a large budget and a Home Office staff, or interacting with over 3,200 members to give oversight to an organization like the PTG. With that in mind, seeking out tried-and-true methods to assist the board in its mission only makes sense. This will be an ongoing process. Visit boardsource.org for more information about this resource, or scan the QR code to read the introduction to the book we read.

The second goal was to Review and Develop Long-Range Planning in the light of our mission statement. We began board orientation by reviewing the mission statement of the PTG. It reads: “The mission of the Piano Technicians Guild is to promote the highest possible standards of piano service by providing members with opportunities for professional development, by recognizing technical competence through examinations, and by advancing the interests of its members.” So, we began the year with the mission statement at the forefront to remind ourselves of what the PTG expects from us. We also reviewed the individual job descriptions of each of the board members in our bylaws. At the winter board meeting, we spent a day looking at the PTG through the lens of our resources: time, finances, and people. From this, we looked at what we might like to accomplish going down the road and discussed what resources were available to accomplish those goals. A couple of action points that arose from this were the decisions to pursue a member survey and develop a membership drive for this fall.

The third goal was to Work Intentionally to Implement Our Current Bylaws and Policies before Proposing Changes. Because we scheduled the long-range planning discussion for the day before the actual business portion of the winter board meeting, we reviewed our resources and our mission statement before we began to discuss the proposals on the agenda. It really helps to know what you have in your pocket before you decide to purchase an item. The time we spent reviewing where we were was beneficial for looking at proposed changes. Many of the proposals were housekeeping in nature and we looked at all the costs involved in the others before making decisions. In the interim, we have discovered a couple of minor issues that need to be addressed this summer, such as the schedule of bylaws proposals in relation to the publication of the respective meeting agendas. We also discovered that our online communications documents need to be streamlined and placed in a more public place. Once again, this will be housekeeping in nature.

There are three more goals to cover and not enough space this month, so stay tuned for the second half of this message next month.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Reno, Nevada, in July.

Last month, I confessed to having tuned my first piano with a homemade tuning lever. Part of the message discussed looking at fresh possibilities from an existing situation. This month I want to look at another aspect of life and how we face it. I’m speaking of mistakes. I would like to think I have evolved from that first homemade tuning lever to being a quite competent technician. I have always enjoyed shop work and have somehow ended up with unexpected challenges along the way. The first pinblock I ever attempted to replace on my own was from an 1896 Blüthner with the patent action. Little did I know that it was multi-layered and beveled when I bid on the job. I saw the individually tied strings but didn’t realize the extra effort that would entail. That was a mistake of underestimation on my part.

Fast forward a few years, and I decided it was time to replace my first soundboard. After all, it can’t be all that hard, can it? Having learned a few things along the way, I decided to order a pre-made board on which I would have to locate the bridges, set the downbearing, and notch and pin the bridge caps. I watched the video, sent off the old board, and prepared to complete the task. All was going well up to this point. I had fitted the soundboard in the piano like the instructions said to do. I had located the bridges using the neat jigs I had made as per instructions. The downbearing was all set, and I was at the point of drilling the holes for the bridge pins. Knowing that I was on the home stretch, I was feeling pretty good at this point. Then it happened: Right in the top octave, I managed to break the drill bit off in the bridge body. In my head I heard the famous words of Stanley Laurel from days past: “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie!”

What to do now? Removing a broken bit from wood requires drilling a series of holes around the stub of the bit until you can remove it. Of course, at this point, you have a hole much larger than needed in a bridge cap that is designed to have three small holes in a row spaced closely together. This would be called an “operations mistake” on my part. Once the panic subsided and I had removed the broken bit, I drilled a half-inch hole into which I glued a plug made of bridge cap material and resumed the process of preparing the bridge.

All of us make mistakes. It is not a matter of “if.” It is a matter of “when.” How you handle the mistakes says a lot about where you are in life. Part of dealing with mistakes comes with experience. Sometimes the best solution is to seek help from someone who has that experience. There was a game show on TV a few years ago that allowed the contestants to “phone a friend” to help solve the issue at hand. One of the best aspects of the PTG is networking with people who have a lot of experience. Just this week, I called a friend from across the country to get his advice on a piano in my shop. Some of the friends we meet are in the local chapter. Zoom has allowed a lot of us to stay connected in the past few years but being in another chapter member’s shop and seeing how they are approaching piano work is invaluable. Meeting people at regional conferences allows you to expand your network. Let me continue to challenge you to attend the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer just so you can expand your network. Remember, it is not whether you will make a mistake, it is a matter of when you will make a mistake. Come this summer and expand your base of knowledge and your network of folks to call when you are in a jam.

Writer’s block. That’s what you get when you know you are supposed to have written an article that is really inspiring and witty, but all you can think of is cat dander and emptying the litter box for the umpteenth time. Here you are as the leader of the organization, with all the supposed wisdom and wit that inspires those around you, and you’ve got nothing. So, you ask yourself, “Just how did I end up here in the first place?” You can travel back in time to the beginning of the universe but that is probably a bit too far given the space allotted for an article. Fast forward a bit to how you ended up working as a piano technician. What made it interesting? How did you pursue this wonderful occupation in the first place?

Knowing what I know now, would I have still pursued this career? I have a feeling the answer is probably yes. What traits make this career work? First, one must be a self-starter. No one is going to just call you up and ask you to tune their priceless concert grand when you are first starting out and don’t even have the tools or the skills. Like a lot of people, the first piano I ever tuned was my own. It probably would have helped if I’d had an actual tuning lever, but why let a little thing like that stand in the way? I didn’t use something totally improper like vice grips, but my first homemade tuning lever left a lot to be desired. When you realize that a 1/4” socket will fit over the end of a tuning pin, at least from the square end, you have a start. From there you find an Allen wrench that will fit into the hex end and drill a hole in a large dowel for a handle, and you have a basic home-made tuning lever that will at least turn the pins and not mar them. Of course, the flex in the 5/16” Allen wrench is a bit more than ideal for good control…

I had seen a guy tune our piano at least once, and he had a felt strip mute. Keeping with the theme of improvisation, why not use weather stripping felt that comes in a handy roll from the hardware store? I failed to mention that, at this point in my career, I was working in the pipe organ repair and service business, so I had at least some idea of what it meant to tune octaves and unisons. I believe my first piano tuning took around five hours to complete. Naturally, I started at about 8:30 in the evening and finished long after my father had retired for the night..

Fast forward a few years, and suddenly I am the president of the Piano Technicians Guild. Now, instead of wondering how it is supposed to be done, I am supposed to provide leadership to fellow technicians all around the country. Some of those basic traits still come in handy. I’m still a self-starter. I still have a knack for looking at things and people around me and seeing potential and creative ways of utilizing their design and skills. I have been blessed to be able to think outside the box to help solve a myriad of problems through the years. I still enjoy making things that can be useful. I looked in my toolbox today and counted at least a dozen tools I have made from scratch or modified greatly to do things in piano service.

Shifting the focus back to the organization, we need to ask questions along the way as well. Your board just finished the winter meeting, at which we asked questions about the future of the PTG. We looked at how our board is elected. We looked at our resources, which consist of time, people, and tangible assets. No one has ever figured out how to extend the clock, so we all have the same 24/7 to work with. People are perhaps our best resource, as they bring tons of talents and perspectives to the table. The creativity of our members is astounding. One of the most unique things about the PTG is the willingness of its members to share what they have learned with one another.

The board also toured the Home Office and were reminded of all the resources on hand for continuing education. We examined the budget and balance sheet to see what fiscal resources we have available to move the organization forward. We took a day of planning to think both inside and outside of the box to find ways to move the PTG into the future. Looking back while looking forward, we realized we were overdue for a member survey. We also will be implementing a membership drive in the days to come. Your board has been working through a book by Richard T. Ingram called Ten Basic Responsibilities of Non-Profit Boards. This is helping us learn how to do our jobs as board members better. I am so very thankful for the other nine volunteers who serve alongside me on the PTG board. Each member brings to the table his or her own unique journey into the world of piano technology, and as a team we are striving to keep the PTG moving in the right direction for the future.

March is an interesting month. First, the name is both a noun and a verb. It is the name of the month, but it also means “to walk in a military manner with a regular measured stride.” In sports, we also hear about “March Madness.” I realize it refers to basketball activity, but it conjures up several images of people going slightly crazy. Insert pictures of spring break at this point. March also contains the first day of spring, which is a turning point in our calendars marking the spring equinox. Perhaps the equinox helps balance the madness that is happening all around us.

If we consider the verb form of the word and begin to “march,” we then demonstrate that there is a destination, or goal, in mind. For example, are you still on track to attend the 2024 Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer in Reno? Make a plan regarding the type of classes you will attend. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and then look at the class offerings to see what will benefit you most. One method is to take as many classes on the same topic that you can fit into your schedule. No one instructor will cover every aspect of a topic, and there may be conflicting opinions about the best approach. Learning about each approach will give you additional tools in your arsenal as you approach the pianos in your care.

A march as a noun is a “regular measured stride.” When we set our “New Year’s revolutions,” (see my January column) we set goals for this year. At the three-month point of the year, it is a good time to evaluate how you are doing. Most new skills are acquired by repetition. Perhaps one of your goals was to spend an extra five to ten minutes at each appointment making one or two small changes to the action or the voicing, in addition to the regular tuning. Every piano can benefit from this approach. You will not only be improving the piano, but your customers will notice, which leads to return business. Whatever your revolutionary goals were, march steadily on in pursuit of them.

Thinking now of “March Madness,” what is driving you crazy? The age-old definition of insanity is doing the same thing, in the same manner, expecting different results. Try something new, like a new tool or repair technique. It may be something you learned on the Education Hub or by attending your local chapter meeting. Local chapters are the heart of PTG. If your chapter is not as active as it used to be, perhaps you can be the catalyst to help get the ball rolling again. Chapters can also get into the same old rut that can lead to apathy. In that case, inserting a little “madness” into the mix can help spice things up and get the ball rolling again. Have a joint chapter meeting with a nearby chapter. Take advantage of technology and connect via the internet for your meeting.

Now let’s consider the equinox. A lot of us are selfemployed, and we all have a drive to achieve and perform. That drive will lead to success, but it can also lead to burnout. We all need balance in our lives and should schedule down time in our lives or the “madness” will overtake us. Elastic is a wonderful invention. It allows us to stretch in one direction and then return to a normal or relaxed state. That works with clothing, fasteners, and other items. Unfortunately, if it stays stretched out for too long, it loses its ability to return. Put simply, it wears out. We need balance to survive. I am trying to learn a new word this year: “No.” If I chase yet another stray idea or project, I will veer off the course that I’ve set. If I overcommit, I may rob someone else of the opportunity to learn a new skill. Please don’t take this as blanket permission from the president to say no to every request, but at times we need to prioritize our lives to maintain that balance. March on!

When we think of February, a couple of things come to mind. First, it is the shortest month on the calendar. Second, we have a few special days in this month. We celebrate Presidents’ Day, and we also celebrate Valentine’s Day. A holiday that sometimes gets overlooked is Groundhog Day. For me, this has been an easy one to remember all my life as it happens to be my older sister’s birthday. The premise behind the day is to be a predictor of the remaining time of winter. The superstition behind the holiday revolves around a groundhog coming forth from its den, and if it happens to see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If, however, it fails to see its shadow, spring will arrive early. I have tended to look at it and realize, that if it sees its shadow, we have six more weeks of winter, if it does not, we have about a month and a half of winter left.

Perhaps the most famous example of this day is from the 1993 movie of the same name starring Bill Murray. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character is destined to repeat the same events of the day over and over until the spell, or in this case, curse, is broken. How does this relate to us as piano technicians? If we are not careful and intentional, we can end up in a similar time warp. We can tend to approach work in the same old manner as before. We can be hesitant to try anything that stretches our comfort zone of piano service. After all, what has worked in the past surely is the best approach.

What exactly will it take to get out of our usual routine? Before you can make a change, you need to realistically evaluate what you are currently doing. This will involve asking serious questions about how you currently approach your work, your business, and your customer interactions. Where are you in your work? Each of us has a slightly different business model. So, we need to start by asking whether that business model is the best for where we currently are in our business life cycle. A startup company has a different approach than a seasoned business. Likewise, some businesses and technicians are coming down the homestretch. If you are early in the business cycle, you may be asking, “How can I reach more customers?” Will it take branching out into other services or subcontracting with another firm to provide those services? Will you need to invest in new technology or techniques to achieve those goals? On the other end of the spectrum, you may be asking, “How can my customers be best served if I choose to cut back or even retire?”

Where do you find the answers to these types of questions? You may find the answers at the chapter or national level. The local chapter level involves getting to know your service market and looking at potential gaps in the service approach. On the national level, a great source of information comes from attending the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute. In case you need to know the when and where for this year, it will be held in Reno, Nevada, from July 17-20. Once again, you will need to invest in your future to continue to provide the best service for your customers and your own personal needs. Part of the planning will involve funding. Evaluation takes time and sometimes an investment of capital to be effective. The changes that need to implemented may also require an infusion of resources. If you would like to attend the convention this summer, you can begin now by setting aside part of the funds needed each month to reach your goal. Start the process now and see where you get on your journey. Even if you come up short for this year, you will have a good starting place for next year’s convention.

Chapters need to also utilize these same strategies. I would like to challenge every chapter to look at creative ways to increase membership as well as attendance. Increasing attendance requires an honest evaluation of the types of information being shared at the local chapter meetings. If the current members are not excited about attending the local chapter meetings, you can hardly expect an outsider to want to attend. It is always a balancing act to offer technical presentations that challenge the experienced members while also attracting interest from the chapter members who are not as far along in their journey. Once again, chapter resources can be found on the PTG website and attending the annual convention can also be a source of new material.

The point of all this is to challenge each of us, both individually and collectively, to get out of our same old loop. Being stuck in a rut is not a desirable thing. Someone once said, “A rut is just a coffin without ends.” Are you willing to at least step out of your comfort zone to see what type of shadow you are casting?

A little kindergarten-aged girl was walking with her father, and she asked, “Daddy, why do people make New Year’s revolutions?” The dad smiled and started to correct his child when he thought about what she was asking. Yes, it is that time of year once again. The time when we think about our New Year’s resolutions. The father realized that if people would only follow through with their goals, they would indeed have made a revolution in their lives.

Let’s examine the word “revolution” for a minute. On the one hand, it means a complete course of travel, as in an orbit. It can also mean a sudden, radical or complete change or even a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm.

When we look at most New Year’s resolutions, they tend to fall into one of three common areas of focus. First is the desire to lose weight. Coming on the heels of the holiday season with the abundance of foods that are a stretch to consider “healthy,” this is a familiar theme. The second is similar in nature: a desire for more exercise. Health clubs across the country sell a lot of memberships in January, but by March the usual crowds are all that are left of the folks flocking to the gym (the monthly payments continue, of course). The third most common area to be addressed is financial. People commit to doing a better job of budgeting, saving, and investing. Once again, old spending habits can tend to overtake the newfound resolve and the bank account tends to resemble its prior state before long.

So, why am I even bothering to bring this up if the odds are stacked against us? First, let me draw some parallels that would apply to us as piano technicians. From the perspective of food, we are what we eat. In the same manner, we think along the lines of what we consume. If all we ever watch are sitcoms and game shows, we will have one level of thinking. On the other hand, if we resolve to read more, study more, and challenge ourselves, we stand to improve after time. I have already challenged us to be life-long learners. What would happen if you began to study one aspect of piano service that has been a challenge to you with the goal of mastering it? Even if you struggle at first, at some time you will experience a breakthrough or “aha!” moment when the pieces start to fall together, and the curtain of confusion is drawn back.

Now let’s consider exercise. Exercise is putting into motion something with the goal to enhance or maintain fitness. In our case, what if I challenge each of us to exercise our talents in the upcoming months to benefit other technicians? At the chapter level, you could volunteer to give a technical presentation. Most chapters struggle with filling the technical part of the meeting. If each of us took this challenge, think of the benefit to the chapter, to new members, and to ourselves. When you prepare to teach something, you always learn more in the process. This is true if for no other reason than you prepare to answer questions that may arise during the class. I challenged you in an earlier column to pursue a PhD. What better way to start than giving a “peer reviewed” presentation? If you are not ready for the “whole show,” ask to give a 15-minute tech tip or mini technical. That’s less pressure and you may share some trick that you have learned that may save others the frustration you felt. I was challenged to learn from my mistakes. Along the way, I figured out that I could learn from the mistakes of others and gain the knowledge that way.

An alternative to presenting a topic in person is to write an article for your chapter newsletter or even the Journal. Once again, if this is new to you, start with something like a quick tip for the newsletter or Tips, Tools, & Techniques in the Journal. If you have the chops, why not develop an entire article? One side benefit is that you can add “Published Author” to your resume.

Now let’s consider the financial aspect. Invest in your career. The Annual PTG Convention and Technical Institute is in July. That gives you a few months to set aside funds so you can attend. Consider it your personal “Knowledge 401(k).” You can call it whatever will get you motivated. Just realize that building a body of knowledge benefits you and your customers. In addition to the class learning, there are many opportunities to increase your network of professionals. Even if you still don’t feel comfortable taking on a particular aspect of piano technology after the convention, chances are that you will have met someone who is comfortable with it, and you can use them either as a referral or a resource. Attending conferences is fully tax deductible as well. You not only increase your knowledge, but you get to write off the costs at the same time. In sales, that is called a “win-win.”

So, the question remains: What is your New Year’s revolution?

Every book has a table of contents. This helps us navigate where we are in the journey of the book we are exploring. We find there the title of the next chapter along the way. Life is also filled with a journey into the next chapter. The PTG is wrapping up one chapter and is poised to move into the next. I mentioned last month that we have received notice that this will be the last year that Barbara Cassaday will serve as the executive director for the PTG. She has been at the helm for the last 22 years, and as such has done a lot to shape the current outlook of the PTG. If we were looking at the PTG Table of Contents, this would be titled the Barbara Cassaday Chapter. As of this writing, I don’t have a title for the next chapter, but as I outlined last month, we will be diligently working to make the next chapter as positive as possible.

Each of us as individuals has chapters in our lives as well. The predictable outline follows our youth, our early career, the venture into our most productive season, and ultimately our wrap-up. One thing that is interesting about piano technicians is the number of people who enter this profession as a second career. Looking back at previous membership surveys, we find a noticeable number of people who started their career in one direction then decided to write a new chapter in their professional lives and pursue piano technology. One other thing that we glean from looking at the data from the membership surveys is the job satisfaction factor in our industry. If we add the Satisfied and Very Satisfied columns together, 93% of the membership is satisfied with this career path.

When we are considering recruiting new members, knowing that this career path gives us such a positive job satisfaction is a great plus. I am mentioning the membership survey because we have another one scheduled this fall. Traditionally we have had very good participation in the surveys, and it is my hope that we will continue that tradition in the next few weeks. Each time we do the surveys, we glean a great deal of useful information that helps with planning on many different levels. As we are planning the next chapter in the PTG, I would like to encourage as many members as possible to take the time to fill out the survey when it arrives.

Chapters not only appear in the PTG Table of Contents, but they are also the heart of the PTG. Currently, we have 140 chapters; many are active, while others struggle. Active chapters make all the difference to new members. When they have a local place to plug in, they are much more likely to retain their membership. Active chapters allow for a local camaraderie that is unique to this industry. In one sense we are business competitors, but when a member lives in an area with active chapters it is easier to form lasting friendships that help during our entire career. More than 73% of the members are sole proprietors. If you have a tight schedule as a successful businessperson and an unexpected event causes you to need to keep an important client’s piano’s needs met, who will you contact to fill in? Active chapters allow members to form networks to assist on all types of levels. Whether it is to cover for you when the need arises or to gain a broader base of knowledge and places to refer clients with needs outside your specialization, an active chapter will help you.

At the Leadership Luncheon at this year’s convention, we focused on some reasons that chapters struggle. Some chapters suffer from burnout at the leadership level. This is an easy trap to fall into. Other chapters struggle with keeping an interest in the technical presentations when there are several newer members who are less seasoned in their individual journeys into piano technology and a core group of members with a broader range of experience. Perhaps one solution is not either/or but rather both/and. It is possible to have a short period that addresses the needs of the newer members and a separate time for the seasoned technicians. Take advantage of the Education Hub to assist you with fresh ideas that may meet both groups. Try also to keep your business meeting portion short and manageable. Nothing sours the mood faster than a 45-minute knock-down-drag-out over purchasing coffee for the next meeting. While you are at it, examine the schedule of when your chapter meets. Is the current schedule based on the tradition that came 20 years ago, or is it meeting the current needs of the members? The Central Oklahoma Chapter meets at 8:30 in the morning on the third Thursday of the month. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only chapter in the PTG who does so. When this was decided, most of the active members had young families and another late evening or Saturday morning cut into family time. We have considered it “Professional Development” ever since, and it works for us. Don’t be afraid to ask the current members of your chapter if the current schedule still works. If you have several seasoned members, late night may not be as comfortable as it was even ten years ago, as driving at night may be a challenge.

Take advantage of the many resources the PTG has to offer to chapters. These include the PTG website, your regional vice president, and the chapter health committee. Have a combined chapter meeting with a close neighbor to help generate excitement and expand your network. Everyone should at least have a report session from members who just returned from the convention in Reno. Make sure your chapter is not missing in the next PTG Table of Contents.

Over the last couple of months, I have reviewed the goals I had set before seeking the office of president once again. There was a total of six goals, and we have covered five of them. The last goal is ongoing and deals with the future of the PTG. Before we consider the future, we need to take a quick trip down memory lane to 2001: The Convention & Technical Institute was held in Reno, Nevada, where a newly hired Home Office staffer was attending her first-ever PTG convention. Her name was Barbara Cassaday; she was serving in the accounting office for the PTG and was responsible for keeping the financial records in order.

Not long afterwards, she was named the interim executive director and shortly after that, she assumed her present position of executive director. Under her leadership, the PTG has continued to serve the interests of its members, and her oversight has contributed to the PTG’s solid financial footing. Last month, once again in Reno, Nevada, we announced that Barb will be retiring in the fall of 2025.

Since many of you may not have been present in council when this was announced, I will take this opportunity to share our vision of where we are heading next. During the past year, a lot of planning and preparation has already taken place for this situation. Many organizations have turnover at key positions more often and as such, have policy documents in place to assist those transitions. The reality is that PTG does not have such documents and given the time since we last faced this challenge, they would need major updating if they did exist. At the winter board meeting, the entire board reviewed the job description in our bylaws and organizational policies. We asked questions about the intangible aspects of the job as well. We have reviewed the salary to make sure that we would not encounter “sticker shock” when we got to the point of offering a contract to a new employee. Realizing that this is a big job that most of the members of the board are not familiar with, we looked at outside resources to assist our process. We are using a book by Don Trebbe entitled Chief Executive Transitions — How to Hire and Support a Nonprofit CEO to assist us in this endeavor.

I would like to take this opportunity to share an outline of what will be on our “To Do” list as we go through this process. Our documents state that the board of directors hires the executive director. During the pre-council board meeting, a special Transition Task Group was elected to assist the board in this process. David Stoneman will chair this group along with myself, Ricki Klos, Ruth Zeiner, and Phil Bondi. This smaller group will work with the board not only to search for candidates qualified for consideration but also to help with working through the details of the search criteria and serve as a first-level screening of applicants. We anticipate working with a professional human resources company to assist in job postings and other details to move the search process forward. Ultimately, the entire board will conduct the final interviews and confirm the hiring of a new executive director. The Transition Task Group will continue to assist with the onboarding process to make the new executive director search as successful as possible. Given the time gap since this was last done for the PTG and the desire to have a positive and long-term outcome, we are doing our best to be as diligent as possible in the days ahead.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Barb. This will mark my eleventh year on the board of directors, so Barb and I have had more than one conversation along the way. There will be more information in the coming days, and the Board and Transition Task Group will work to keep the membership in the loop as we take these next big steps together.

Last month, we began checking under the hood of the PTG to ensure that we were on track with the goals that were set. We looked at board training, long-range planning, and our intent to walk through proposed bylaws changes carefully and with the mission statement in full view.

In the usual service vehicle, we are very likely to monitor the fluid levels of important systems, such as the coolant level in the radiator, so the engine doesn’t overheat. We check the level of the power steering pump so we can easily turn the vehicle when we park. Brake fluid is very important for stopping, and in the spring, maintaining the proper level of windshield washer fluid is paramount if we want to see where we are going. Topping off the respective fluids is an easy undertaking in most vehicles. There are also items that need to be examined periodically that require a bit more effort to repair or replace. Among those are the belts and hoses that deliver the fluids to the proper places and keep the pumps turning so our routine service calls remain “routine.”

One of the important aspects for the ongoing operation and mission of the PTG is the staffing of committees. The goal I sought was to not only staff the committees, but to make sure that those selected had skills and passions that would best serve those groups. This has been my tenth year serving on the board of directors, and committee staffing has always been a challenge. This year we had a situation that I had never encountered: We had more volunteers than spaces to serve. There was not the usual arm twisting and begging of favors to get volunteers. Have we been successful? One measure was the fact that all the committees filed a report for the winter board meeting, and those reports reflected genuine positive activity. Of course, there are some committees that we hope do as little as possible. Members’ rights, ethics, and membership application review only jump into action when there are problems, so inactivity is a good thing. If you didn’t get to serve last year, please let your respective RVP know so you can be considered for this next year. Another goal was to focus on marketing the PTG internally and externally through a variety of methods. We began with an impromptu session following Council last summer where those interested had a chance to brainstorm on the type of marketing the PTG should pursue. As the board worked through the long-range planning process in January, we considered how best to use our resources to market the PTG. I mentioned last month the plans for a member survey and a membership drive. The marketing committee has been working to create documents and information that will be used in our membership drive that focus on becoming a piano technician. Two video productions were done this year. You may have seen one on Facebook that was used to promote the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute in Reno. See it at vimeo.com/923811499, or scan the QR code below: 

There was also a second video produced for use in the membership drive. You will have to wait to see that one, but the idea is that we have been marketing the PTG. Of course, the best marketing is always word of mouth. The PTG continues to be an amazing organization with amazing people.

Most of us depend on our service vehicles to make it to our appointments. We have scheduled maintenance to keep us on track. The PTG is no different in that respect. We need to evaluate how the engine is running and if we are on course for the goals we have set. I have been known to say, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” In preparing for the PTG presidential election last summer, I sent out an email blast to the membership and listed six goals I wanted to pursue if elected. I would like to take some time to revisit those goals to see how we are doing.

The first goal was to Focus and Develop Board Training. To that end, all of us on the board read a book entitled Financial Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards. This publication comes from a group called BoardSource that provides resources to boards of directors for a variety of organizations. In the same way we as individual members benefit from the collective experience of the membership of the PTG, your board of directors reaps benefits from partnering with this group to enhance our knowledge of what it means to serve on a board. As I pointed out last summer, most of us operate businesses as sole proprietors who simply do not engage in managing a large budget and a Home Office staff, or interacting with over 3,200 members to give oversight to an organization like the PTG. With that in mind, seeking out tried-and-true methods to assist the board in its mission only makes sense. This will be an ongoing process. Visit boardsource.org for more information about this resource, or scan the QR code to read the introduction to the book we read.

The second goal was to Review and Develop Long-Range Planning in the light of our mission statement. We began board orientation by reviewing the mission statement of the PTG. It reads: “The mission of the Piano Technicians Guild is to promote the highest possible standards of piano service by providing members with opportunities for professional development, by recognizing technical competence through examinations, and by advancing the interests of its members.” So, we began the year with the mission statement at the forefront to remind ourselves of what the PTG expects from us. We also reviewed the individual job descriptions of each of the board members in our bylaws. At the winter board meeting, we spent a day looking at the PTG through the lens of our resources: time, finances, and people. From this, we looked at what we might like to accomplish going down the road and discussed what resources were available to accomplish those goals. A couple of action points that arose from this were the decisions to pursue a member survey and develop a membership drive for this fall.

The third goal was to Work Intentionally to Implement Our Current Bylaws and Policies before Proposing Changes. Because we scheduled the long-range planning discussion for the day before the actual business portion of the winter board meeting, we reviewed our resources and our mission statement before we began to discuss the proposals on the agenda. It really helps to know what you have in your pocket before you decide to purchase an item. The time we spent reviewing where we were was beneficial for looking at proposed changes. Many of the proposals were housekeeping in nature and we looked at all the costs involved in the others before making decisions. In the interim, we have discovered a couple of minor issues that need to be addressed this summer, such as the schedule of bylaws proposals in relation to the publication of the respective meeting agendas. We also discovered that our online communications documents need to be streamlined and placed in a more public place. Once again, this will be housekeeping in nature.

There are three more goals to cover and not enough space this month, so stay tuned for the second half of this message next month.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Reno, Nevada, in July.

Last month, I confessed to having tuned my first piano with a homemade tuning lever. Part of the message discussed looking at fresh possibilities from an existing situation. This month I want to look at another aspect of life and how we face it. I’m speaking of mistakes. I would like to think I have evolved from that first homemade tuning lever to being a quite competent technician. I have always enjoyed shop work and have somehow ended up with unexpected challenges along the way. The first pinblock I ever attempted to replace on my own was from an 1896 Blüthner with the patent action. Little did I know that it was multi-layered and beveled when I bid on the job. I saw the individually tied strings but didn’t realize the extra effort that would entail. That was a mistake of underestimation on my part.

Fast forward a few years, and I decided it was time to replace my first soundboard. After all, it can’t be all that hard, can it? Having learned a few things along the way, I decided to order a pre-made board on which I would have to locate the bridges, set the downbearing, and notch and pin the bridge caps. I watched the video, sent off the old board, and prepared to complete the task. All was going well up to this point. I had fitted the soundboard in the piano like the instructions said to do. I had located the bridges using the neat jigs I had made as per instructions. The downbearing was all set, and I was at the point of drilling the holes for the bridge pins. Knowing that I was on the home stretch, I was feeling pretty good at this point. Then it happened: Right in the top octave, I managed to break the drill bit off in the bridge body. In my head I heard the famous words of Stanley Laurel from days past: “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Ollie!”

What to do now? Removing a broken bit from wood requires drilling a series of holes around the stub of the bit until you can remove it. Of course, at this point, you have a hole much larger than needed in a bridge cap that is designed to have three small holes in a row spaced closely together. This would be called an “operations mistake” on my part. Once the panic subsided and I had removed the broken bit, I drilled a half-inch hole into which I glued a plug made of bridge cap material and resumed the process of preparing the bridge.

All of us make mistakes. It is not a matter of “if.” It is a matter of “when.” How you handle the mistakes says a lot about where you are in life. Part of dealing with mistakes comes with experience. Sometimes the best solution is to seek help from someone who has that experience. There was a game show on TV a few years ago that allowed the contestants to “phone a friend” to help solve the issue at hand. One of the best aspects of the PTG is networking with people who have a lot of experience. Just this week, I called a friend from across the country to get his advice on a piano in my shop. Some of the friends we meet are in the local chapter. Zoom has allowed a lot of us to stay connected in the past few years but being in another chapter member’s shop and seeing how they are approaching piano work is invaluable. Meeting people at regional conferences allows you to expand your network. Let me continue to challenge you to attend the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer just so you can expand your network. Remember, it is not whether you will make a mistake, it is a matter of when you will make a mistake. Come this summer and expand your base of knowledge and your network of folks to call when you are in a jam.

Writer’s block. That’s what you get when you know you are supposed to have written an article that is really inspiring and witty, but all you can think of is cat dander and emptying the litter box for the umpteenth time. Here you are as the leader of the organization, with all the supposed wisdom and wit that inspires those around you, and you’ve got nothing. So, you ask yourself, “Just how did I end up here in the first place?” You can travel back in time to the beginning of the universe but that is probably a bit too far given the space allotted for an article. Fast forward a bit to how you ended up working as a piano technician. What made it interesting? How did you pursue this wonderful occupation in the first place?

Knowing what I know now, would I have still pursued this career? I have a feeling the answer is probably yes. What traits make this career work? First, one must be a self-starter. No one is going to just call you up and ask you to tune their priceless concert grand when you are first starting out and don’t even have the tools or the skills. Like a lot of people, the first piano I ever tuned was my own. It probably would have helped if I’d had an actual tuning lever, but why let a little thing like that stand in the way? I didn’t use something totally improper like vice grips, but my first homemade tuning lever left a lot to be desired. When you realize that a 1/4” socket will fit over the end of a tuning pin, at least from the square end, you have a start. From there you find an Allen wrench that will fit into the hex end and drill a hole in a large dowel for a handle, and you have a basic home-made tuning lever that will at least turn the pins and not mar them. Of course, the flex in the 5/16” Allen wrench is a bit more than ideal for good control…

I had seen a guy tune our piano at least once, and he had a felt strip mute. Keeping with the theme of improvisation, why not use weather stripping felt that comes in a handy roll from the hardware store? I failed to mention that, at this point in my career, I was working in the pipe organ repair and service business, so I had at least some idea of what it meant to tune octaves and unisons. I believe my first piano tuning took around five hours to complete. Naturally, I started at about 8:30 in the evening and finished long after my father had retired for the night..

Fast forward a few years, and suddenly I am the president of the Piano Technicians Guild. Now, instead of wondering how it is supposed to be done, I am supposed to provide leadership to fellow technicians all around the country. Some of those basic traits still come in handy. I’m still a self-starter. I still have a knack for looking at things and people around me and seeing potential and creative ways of utilizing their design and skills. I have been blessed to be able to think outside the box to help solve a myriad of problems through the years. I still enjoy making things that can be useful. I looked in my toolbox today and counted at least a dozen tools I have made from scratch or modified greatly to do things in piano service.

Shifting the focus back to the organization, we need to ask questions along the way as well. Your board just finished the winter meeting, at which we asked questions about the future of the PTG. We looked at how our board is elected. We looked at our resources, which consist of time, people, and tangible assets. No one has ever figured out how to extend the clock, so we all have the same 24/7 to work with. People are perhaps our best resource, as they bring tons of talents and perspectives to the table. The creativity of our members is astounding. One of the most unique things about the PTG is the willingness of its members to share what they have learned with one another.

The board also toured the Home Office and were reminded of all the resources on hand for continuing education. We examined the budget and balance sheet to see what fiscal resources we have available to move the organization forward. We took a day of planning to think both inside and outside of the box to find ways to move the PTG into the future. Looking back while looking forward, we realized we were overdue for a member survey. We also will be implementing a membership drive in the days to come. Your board has been working through a book by Richard T. Ingram called Ten Basic Responsibilities of Non-Profit Boards. This is helping us learn how to do our jobs as board members better. I am so very thankful for the other nine volunteers who serve alongside me on the PTG board. Each member brings to the table his or her own unique journey into the world of piano technology, and as a team we are striving to keep the PTG moving in the right direction for the future.

March is an interesting month. First, the name is both a noun and a verb. It is the name of the month, but it also means “to walk in a military manner with a regular measured stride.” In sports, we also hear about “March Madness.” I realize it refers to basketball activity, but it conjures up several images of people going slightly crazy. Insert pictures of spring break at this point. March also contains the first day of spring, which is a turning point in our calendars marking the spring equinox. Perhaps the equinox helps balance the madness that is happening all around us.

If we consider the verb form of the word and begin to “march,” we then demonstrate that there is a destination, or goal, in mind. For example, are you still on track to attend the 2024 Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute this summer in Reno? Make a plan regarding the type of classes you will attend. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and then look at the class offerings to see what will benefit you most. One method is to take as many classes on the same topic that you can fit into your schedule. No one instructor will cover every aspect of a topic, and there may be conflicting opinions about the best approach. Learning about each approach will give you additional tools in your arsenal as you approach the pianos in your care.

A march as a noun is a “regular measured stride.” When we set our “New Year’s revolutions,” (see my January column) we set goals for this year. At the three-month point of the year, it is a good time to evaluate how you are doing. Most new skills are acquired by repetition. Perhaps one of your goals was to spend an extra five to ten minutes at each appointment making one or two small changes to the action or the voicing, in addition to the regular tuning. Every piano can benefit from this approach. You will not only be improving the piano, but your customers will notice, which leads to return business. Whatever your revolutionary goals were, march steadily on in pursuit of them.

Thinking now of “March Madness,” what is driving you crazy? The age-old definition of insanity is doing the same thing, in the same manner, expecting different results. Try something new, like a new tool or repair technique. It may be something you learned on the Education Hub or by attending your local chapter meeting. Local chapters are the heart of PTG. If your chapter is not as active as it used to be, perhaps you can be the catalyst to help get the ball rolling again. Chapters can also get into the same old rut that can lead to apathy. In that case, inserting a little “madness” into the mix can help spice things up and get the ball rolling again. Have a joint chapter meeting with a nearby chapter. Take advantage of technology and connect via the internet for your meeting.

Now let’s consider the equinox. A lot of us are selfemployed, and we all have a drive to achieve and perform. That drive will lead to success, but it can also lead to burnout. We all need balance in our lives and should schedule down time in our lives or the “madness” will overtake us. Elastic is a wonderful invention. It allows us to stretch in one direction and then return to a normal or relaxed state. That works with clothing, fasteners, and other items. Unfortunately, if it stays stretched out for too long, it loses its ability to return. Put simply, it wears out. We need balance to survive. I am trying to learn a new word this year: “No.” If I chase yet another stray idea or project, I will veer off the course that I’ve set. If I overcommit, I may rob someone else of the opportunity to learn a new skill. Please don’t take this as blanket permission from the president to say no to every request, but at times we need to prioritize our lives to maintain that balance. March on!

When we think of February, a couple of things come to mind. First, it is the shortest month on the calendar. Second, we have a few special days in this month. We celebrate Presidents’ Day, and we also celebrate Valentine’s Day. A holiday that sometimes gets overlooked is Groundhog Day. For me, this has been an easy one to remember all my life as it happens to be my older sister’s birthday. The premise behind the day is to be a predictor of the remaining time of winter. The superstition behind the holiday revolves around a groundhog coming forth from its den, and if it happens to see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If, however, it fails to see its shadow, spring will arrive early. I have tended to look at it and realize, that if it sees its shadow, we have six more weeks of winter, if it does not, we have about a month and a half of winter left.

Perhaps the most famous example of this day is from the 1993 movie of the same name starring Bill Murray. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character is destined to repeat the same events of the day over and over until the spell, or in this case, curse, is broken. How does this relate to us as piano technicians? If we are not careful and intentional, we can end up in a similar time warp. We can tend to approach work in the same old manner as before. We can be hesitant to try anything that stretches our comfort zone of piano service. After all, what has worked in the past surely is the best approach.

What exactly will it take to get out of our usual routine? Before you can make a change, you need to realistically evaluate what you are currently doing. This will involve asking serious questions about how you currently approach your work, your business, and your customer interactions. Where are you in your work? Each of us has a slightly different business model. So, we need to start by asking whether that business model is the best for where we currently are in our business life cycle. A startup company has a different approach than a seasoned business. Likewise, some businesses and technicians are coming down the homestretch. If you are early in the business cycle, you may be asking, “How can I reach more customers?” Will it take branching out into other services or subcontracting with another firm to provide those services? Will you need to invest in new technology or techniques to achieve those goals? On the other end of the spectrum, you may be asking, “How can my customers be best served if I choose to cut back or even retire?”

Where do you find the answers to these types of questions? You may find the answers at the chapter or national level. The local chapter level involves getting to know your service market and looking at potential gaps in the service approach. On the national level, a great source of information comes from attending the Annual PTG Convention & Technical Institute. In case you need to know the when and where for this year, it will be held in Reno, Nevada, from July 17-20. Once again, you will need to invest in your future to continue to provide the best service for your customers and your own personal needs. Part of the planning will involve funding. Evaluation takes time and sometimes an investment of capital to be effective. The changes that need to implemented may also require an infusion of resources. If you would like to attend the convention this summer, you can begin now by setting aside part of the funds needed each month to reach your goal. Start the process now and see where you get on your journey. Even if you come up short for this year, you will have a good starting place for next year’s convention.

Chapters need to also utilize these same strategies. I would like to challenge every chapter to look at creative ways to increase membership as well as attendance. Increasing attendance requires an honest evaluation of the types of information being shared at the local chapter meetings. If the current members are not excited about attending the local chapter meetings, you can hardly expect an outsider to want to attend. It is always a balancing act to offer technical presentations that challenge the experienced members while also attracting interest from the chapter members who are not as far along in their journey. Once again, chapter resources can be found on the PTG website and attending the annual convention can also be a source of new material.

The point of all this is to challenge each of us, both individually and collectively, to get out of our same old loop. Being stuck in a rut is not a desirable thing. Someone once said, “A rut is just a coffin without ends.” Are you willing to at least step out of your comfort zone to see what type of shadow you are casting?

A little kindergarten-aged girl was walking with her father, and she asked, “Daddy, why do people make New Year’s revolutions?” The dad smiled and started to correct his child when he thought about what she was asking. Yes, it is that time of year once again. The time when we think about our New Year’s resolutions. The father realized that if people would only follow through with their goals, they would indeed have made a revolution in their lives.

Let’s examine the word “revolution” for a minute. On the one hand, it means a complete course of travel, as in an orbit. It can also mean a sudden, radical or complete change or even a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm.

When we look at most New Year’s resolutions, they tend to fall into one of three common areas of focus. First is the desire to lose weight. Coming on the heels of the holiday season with the abundance of foods that are a stretch to consider “healthy,” this is a familiar theme. The second is similar in nature: a desire for more exercise. Health clubs across the country sell a lot of memberships in January, but by March the usual crowds are all that are left of the folks flocking to the gym (the monthly payments continue, of course). The third most common area to be addressed is financial. People commit to doing a better job of budgeting, saving, and investing. Once again, old spending habits can tend to overtake the newfound resolve and the bank account tends to resemble its prior state before long.

So, why am I even bothering to bring this up if the odds are stacked against us? First, let me draw some parallels that would apply to us as piano technicians. From the perspective of food, we are what we eat. In the same manner, we think along the lines of what we consume. If all we ever watch are sitcoms and game shows, we will have one level of thinking. On the other hand, if we resolve to read more, study more, and challenge ourselves, we stand to improve after time. I have already challenged us to be life-long learners. What would happen if you began to study one aspect of piano service that has been a challenge to you with the goal of mastering it? Even if you struggle at first, at some time you will experience a breakthrough or “aha!” moment when the pieces start to fall together, and the curtain of confusion is drawn back.

Now let’s consider exercise. Exercise is putting into motion something with the goal to enhance or maintain fitness. In our case, what if I challenge each of us to exercise our talents in the upcoming months to benefit other technicians? At the chapter level, you could volunteer to give a technical presentation. Most chapters struggle with filling the technical part of the meeting. If each of us took this challenge, think of the benefit to the chapter, to new members, and to ourselves. When you prepare to teach something, you always learn more in the process. This is true if for no other reason than you prepare to answer questions that may arise during the class. I challenged you in an earlier column to pursue a PhD. What better way to start than giving a “peer reviewed” presentation? If you are not ready for the “whole show,” ask to give a 15-minute tech tip or mini technical. That’s less pressure and you may share some trick that you have learned that may save others the frustration you felt. I was challenged to learn from my mistakes. Along the way, I figured out that I could learn from the mistakes of others and gain the knowledge that way.

An alternative to presenting a topic in person is to write an article for your chapter newsletter or even the Journal. Once again, if this is new to you, start with something like a quick tip for the newsletter or Tips, Tools, & Techniques in the Journal. If you have the chops, why not develop an entire article? One side benefit is that you can add “Published Author” to your resume.

Now let’s consider the financial aspect. Invest in your career. The Annual PTG Convention and Technical Institute is in July. That gives you a few months to set aside funds so you can attend. Consider it your personal “Knowledge 401(k).” You can call it whatever will get you motivated. Just realize that building a body of knowledge benefits you and your customers. In addition to the class learning, there are many opportunities to increase your network of professionals. Even if you still don’t feel comfortable taking on a particular aspect of piano technology after the convention, chances are that you will have met someone who is comfortable with it, and you can use them either as a referral or a resource. Attending conferences is fully tax deductible as well. You not only increase your knowledge, but you get to write off the costs at the same time. In sales, that is called a “win-win.”

So, the question remains: What is your New Year’s revolution?