The cost of living is getting much higher. Are we keeping our prices high enough to stay with it? The prices of piano parts, strings, etc., have changed year after year. The price of postage also has gone up, so just sending out sample strings, keys, etc., will cost us more money. Piano deliveries and pick ups cost more, because the price of gasoline has doubled. If we are traveling any distance, we should be charging more for that, too. People will understand because everything not related to the piano business has gone up also. Don't forget to raise your prices for repair work, pitch raises, piano sales etc., not just tuning. If we keep our prices too low, we will be hurting ourselves as the lowest bidders will get the jobs.

The April meeting of Nassau PTG took place on April 11, 2006 at the new store of Frank & Camille Piano Center in Westbury. Eight members attended and one guest. Our business meeting started at 7 p.m. The minutes were read and accepted and the treasurer's report was read and accepted. New business: Len Genovese informed us that our RVP had sent him a note that we could bring up the issue of our chapter's name change at the convention, if our delegate put it on the agenda. This is a change from the previous position that we could not do it. A vote was taken and we agreed to instruct our delegate to bring it up at the convention. We had nominations for chapter officers. There were two nominations for president and it was decided that a secret ballot should be sent out by mail to all members. Mike Slavin will make up a letter and send it to all members of the chapter. The results will be announced next meeting. The business meeting ended at 7:30 p.m.

Our technical presentation was by Paul Keogler. We were shown the different materials that are being used in many of the imported pianos . Case parts, hammers, and other parts are made of man-made materials that can keep the costs down. Some of these materials he pointed out are fine, but we do not know how they will last. They do look good and because they are less expensive, they do keep piano sales up.

We thank Paul for his knowledgeable and informative presentation. We thank Frank & Camille Piano Center for offering us a meeting place