LOS ANGELES CHAPTER
August Meeting: (1st Monday) - Note Special Date
Date: Monday, August 7,
2017
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Fields Piano - Home of Steinway
810 E. Dyer Road, Santa Ana, CA 92705
Tel: (714) 662-2038
Speaker: John Patton, VP of Steinway & Sons and President of Boston & Essex
Piano
The 60th Annual PTG Convention and Council Meeting in St. Louis proved to be one of the most memorable conventions and the beginning of a new chapter. The event included many members of IAPBT and 87 new convention attendees with over 720 in attendance. The St. Louis Union Station & Hotel (now run by Hilton Hotels) is one of the most interesting properties PTG has utilized for its conventions, and it seemed perfect for our event. Kudos to Lisa Weller of the South Bay Chapter, Institute Director, and her crew for an outstanding Institute. With so many classes to choose from the only regret is not being able to be in 3 places at once.
This year’s Golden Hammer Award recipient is Larry Crabb. Unfortunately, Larry passed away just a few weeks ago but our President, Phil Bondi, presented him with the award at his hospital bedside. A short video was shown at the opening ceremonies with Larry accepting the award. He was thrilled and grateful for all the good wishes sent to him. R.I.P., Larry. Another award given posthumously was to Ron Nossaman who passed away in January. He was awarded the Member of Note and Jack Greenfield Award. For a complete list of awardees, please check PTG.org.
On the first day of Council Meeting, Council voted to move the PTG to a Board Governance structure versus the Council Governance we have used since the beginning. From now on, Council will elect members of the Board, committees and RVPs. The Board will now operate independently of the Council in matters of finance and governance. Council will advise the Board on various issues concerning the future of PTG. On the 2nd day of Council we were given a chance to "test run" what the next Council meeting might look like when we discussed 14 topics of concern (see Council Long Range Planning on PTG-L.) The conversations and discussions were lively and exciting. Rather than endless discussions over the wording in the bylaws, we were discussing big ideas. There will no doubt be some growing pains as we move forward but, hopefully, this will bring new energy to our organization. To give you a brief back story, please read Norman Cantrell's post in PTG-L "Bylaws Proposal: Governance 2."
In August we will be joining the Orange County Chapter at Fields Piano on a special date to meet John Patton, Vice-President of Steinway & Sons and President of Boston and Essex Piano Operations. The last time we saw John was over 12 years ago before he was promoted to oversee Asian productions out of Shanghai. He will be giving a presentation on Boston and Essex, focusing on the designs, materials, features, and technical improvements through the years. The presentation will include changes and improvements in the pianos, where they come from, Steinway's involvement in the factories for quality purposes, and how decisions about the pianos are made.