President’s Report – December 2015

As 2015 comes to a close I thought it would be appropriate to review the first year of my administration, a little self-analysis if you will. We began the year embarking on a controversial, yet in my opinion overdue, review of our recording agreements. At the January Inaugural meeting the members voted to create a Task Force to review our Film & TV contracts, and to deliberate on whether or not a “buyout” agreement made sense for musicians in our Union. This question has consumed the AFM for many years and has been bandied about in membership meetings, on session breaks, on social media and on the blogs, but never has any administration been brave enough or dumb enough (or both) to formally pose this to the rank and file. After many months of research and discussion, the Task Force made its recommendations to the membership, but most importantly to our International. These recommendations can be found on our website in the members’ area. Continue reading →