The October meeting of Nassau PTG was held on October 9, 2001 at the church in Baldwin. There was no September meeting because of the World Trade Center tragedy.

Nine regular members attended and Lee Dobrins was our guest speaker. A treasurer's report was given by Paul Keogler, our treasurer, and it was accepted. We received $400 reimbursement from NYSCON for our state convention.

Paul Eccardt, our president, reported that the CT chapter is having a Concert Preparation Seminar in New London, CT on October 20. Mike Slavin reported that the holiday party will be on the first Tuesday of December, December 4. The cost will be about the same as last year, $27. We will have a place that requires no minimum number of people so that we do not have any added cost.

Alan Schumacker reported on the convention in Reno. We have new PTG officers. They are: Nolan Zeringue, President; Jim Birch, Vice President; Kent Swafford, Secretary Treasurer; and Patrick Draine, Northeast Regional VP. Alan also reported that there is a new written test that was developed and will be used from now on. Our next national convention will be in Chicago June 26-30, 2002. Also noted was that there is a CD ROM of reprints of Journal articles on sale for $35 from the home office and jackets with the PTG Logo. The business meeting ended at 8:25.

Lee Dobrins of the Suffolk Chapter gave the technical. Lee showed us some of the unusual tools that he uses. Among them was a workbench made of two keyboard stands with a board across them, which is portable enough to be set up anywhere. He also showed us a spray cap that he puts on a small bottle to spray WD 40. His most unusual tool: a hammer filing tool made from an electric knife, spackling tools and sandpaper. These and many others made for a very interesting and informative presentation. We thank Lee for his wonderful technical.

When installing a new set of hammers, the usual procedure is to use the existing original hammers to determine the correct strike point. However, these hammers are most often well-worn and blunt (the very reason they are being replaced), causing the shank and hammer to "overstrike" due to the missing crown of felt.

Deriving the strike point from such deformed samples will yield inaccurate results. I have found that the original shape of the guide hammers can be restored by applying a layer of Plastic Wood to the crown, which when dry and hardened can be filed and shaped to reproduce the original shape of the hammers, producing much more precise strike point measurements.