Wichita PTG October 2016

President Joe Wisner
Vice President Ann Fell
Secretary David Norman
Treasurer Marty Hess
Newsletter Editor Roy Howard

The August 11th meeting was at Joe Wisner’s residence. There was no September or July meeting due to PTG conferences.

Our next meeting will be at a new piano workshop in the Parklane Shopping Center at Lincoln and Woodlawn. Sharps Repair. 955 S Glendale St, Wichita, at 7pm. Take the Woodlawn exit south from Kellogg, turn left at Lincoln, right at Glendale, just past the VA Eye Clinic turn into the parking lot when you see the US Flag and the white piano moving trailer.

•Dr. Howard, Christian Vilches, and Ray Clause have renovated 2,000 square feet into a piano restoration workshop and showroom. The Chapter business meeting will be short so we can enjoy reports from the Indianapolis Regional Conference, and to see what Sharps Repair is al about.

•The Chapter Bylaws are now online. Please review. We are required to update the bylaws this Fall.

Conference 2016 is scheduled for September and October, covering topics for techs and musicians of strings (México), woodwinds/brass (Spain), and pianos (Kansas). You are welcome at the workshop or on the road.

The 2016 SCRC Piano Technicians Guild Conference will be held in historic Granbury, Texas October 13-15
http://scrcptg.org/

Piano Jobs
Interested in Piano Technology Jobs? You can automatically receive email notification of the most recent Help Wanted ads before they are available to the general public. Jobs vary from senior level university technicians to entry level retail operations and everything in between.
Check out the online Classifieds at www.ptg.org for a complete list of all opportunities. Have a job you want to list? Contact Shawn Bruce at shawn@ptg.org or 913-432-9975.
Click here to go directly to the new Piano Jobs community.

The Journal Chapter Technicals. Please share the interesting and meaningful technical programs you have conducted that can be reproduced by other chapters.

Send your articles and pictures to:
John Parham
john440@me.com
828-244-2487

Square Grand. Owner in Plevna, KS is asking $5000. It is tuneable but needs 20 custom keys made to finish the restoration. (Stephen Francis)

Workplace cooperation can mean:
◇ labour-management cooperation
◇ participative or cooperative practices in an enterprise
◇ employees’ participation or involvement in decision-making
at various levels.

Specifically, an effective workplace cooperation mechanism helps an enterprise to:
◇ Improve its decision making process and organizational performance
◇ Improve the employees’ performance and commitment
◇ Build up mutual trust between management and staff
◇ Increase job satisfaction
◇ Improve working environment.

Effective workplace cooperation is conducive to innovative ideas and enhancing productivity. It helps an enterprise achieve the "5-Is":
• improved organisational performance;
• improved employees' performance and commitment;
• improved workplace relations by building up a spirit of partnership between management and staff;
• increased job satisfaction; and
• improved working environment.

A difference in legislation has apparently killed efforts in Vermont to ban the sale of ivory in the state while another east coast state never took a vote. Both the Vermont state senate and the House passed legislation restricting sales but could not come to an agreement. The House passed a bill banning the sale of products containing ivory beginning in 2017 with a few exemptions while the senate's version went further, allowing products to continue being sold so long as owners registered them by the summer of 2017. No further action is expected during the current legislative sessions. Read "Effort to Ban the Sale of Ivory in Vermont Falls Short" Article.

Meanwhile, Connecticut legislators have also ended their session with a proposed bill that never came up for a vote.
On the other side of the country, the Hawaii legislature has passed a bill banning the sale of parts and products of 17 of the world's endangered species. The bill contains an exemption for musical instruments stating "The covered animal species part or product is less than twenty per cent by volume of a gun, knife, or musical instrument, including without limitation string instruments and bows, wind and percussion instruments, and pianos, if the owner or seller provides historical documentation showing the item was manufactured no later than 1975 and the covered animal species part or product is a fixed component or components of a larger manufactured item and is not, in its current form, the primary source of value of the item." The bill now goes to the governor.

One of the best ways to get information about what's happening in a particular state is to visit www.legiscan.com. Scroll down to the lower left "National Legislative Search" and then select either a particular state or all states. Then enter the word "ivory" in the full text Search Box.