Billy Linneman, S/T of Local 257 (Nashville) and IEB member, has responded in an email blast to his critics. Contained within his email is what appears to be a complete text of the Action That Shall Not Be Made Public:
WHEREAS the Recording Musicians Association is raising funds for the expressed propose of filing lawsuits against the Federation, and;
WHEREAS recent pending litigation by members of the Recording Musicians Association has had a demonstrable adverse impact upon the Federation, and
WHEREAS it appears the Recording Musicians Association is planning to initiate immediate additional litigation against the Federation, and
WHEREAS there is an admitted relationship between the Recording Musicians Association and the Professional Musicians Guild, a labor union whose officers are RMA members and that has sought to compete with the Federation by seeking to collectively bargain with electronic media employers for the services of musicians, and
WHEREAS the Recording Musicians Association has embarked upon a course of conduct that threatens the well-being of the Federation, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED the International Executive Board consider terminating the status of the Recording Musicians Association as an official AFM Player Conference, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the question of terminating the RMA's player conference status be addressed as soon as possible but no later than the September 2008 IEB meeting.
No wonder they didn't want to make the language public. If I were making that number of unsupportable allegations, I wouldn't want anyone to know about it either.
I asked about the Action at the ICSOM Conference during a session with President Lee and IEB members Ray Hair, Billy Linneman and Bob McGrew, as no one else had brought it up. Tom essentially refused to address the matter, saying that the ICSOM Conference wasn't the appropriate venue (at least that's what I heard). Ray did actually talk about why he voted for it. McGrew and Linneman were not responsive to my question.
I wonder why it's not OK to talk about it at ICSOM but OK to quote the complete resolution to the members of Local 257. Maybe it's because the members of 257 can vote two of the IEB members out of (local) office, whereas most the delegates at ICSOM don't get to vote for IEB members. It's a nice illustration of the maxim that the cure for the ills of democracy is... more democracy.
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