back into session at 3:05 pm.
Ray presented Candy Lammers, TEMPO chair, who spoke encouraging people to join and what TEMPO had already accomplished.
Ray encouraged delegates to look at Emergency Recommendation No. 1 before tomorrow.
Ray introduced John Smith, president of FIM, and Benoit Machuel, general secretary of FIM.
Smith: my second AFM convention; first was 2005 at Riviera. A member of BMU since 1969, just celebrated 50 years of continuous membership. FIM formed in 1948, groundswell of goodwill after the war. Our first office was in Switzerland, with the AFM one of the early members. Structure is presidium, president and five vice-presidents (currently Brazil, Cameroon, Switzerland, Denmark, and US). ExComm is made up of countries, even if country has more than one union (Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Sweden, Japan, UK, Kenya and a few others).
Every four years we have a congress; next one is next November in Yokohama. We try to address issues that affect musicians across the world; issues tend to be the same underneath. Live performance, music education (getting to be only the rich can get a musical education), union recognition in the developing world, mental health issues. We sponsor FIM orchestra conferences as well. A new venture for us; a conference in Copenhagen for freelance musicians to share their problems. Bruce Fife came to that one.
Machuel: talked about various international agreements covering collective bargaining and the International Labor Organization. Convention 182 adopted in 1999 on the worst forms of child labor. Music has something to do with this; we took part in an initiative against child labor.
Talked about digital performance rights (I think). Talked about activities in developing world; working to get unions recognized there. Often musicians not considered as employees, so unions not allowed to represent them.
Always fantastic to attend a conference like this one; breathing the air of trade unionism. We're with you. United we bargain; divided we beg.
Ray introduced Horace Trubridge, general secretary of British Musicians Union.
Trubridge: I know this is the graveyard shift, so try to liven things up. I've been general secretary for over 2 years and really enjoying it. The BMU is in good shape; 31,000 members. Good relations with all the major employers. I'm a product of free music lessons in the schools. Now there are places in the UK where young people haven't seen seen someone play an instrument. Talent everywhere, but not opportunity. Talked about his own career and what he learned. Talked about a contract advisory service BMU initiated. We've introduced a scheme where a musician can join the union for a pound for six months; has really helped us to grow. The key is retention; we're concentrating our efforts on that. We're also marketing the union in a different way; we don't only look after musicians, we look after music. We have a supporter scheme as well. We have a campaign called "Work not play." We call out bad engagers on our website. We offer five different insurances.
When I first came to work at the union, I was the kid who looked after rock bands and got absolutely inundated. One of the older officials told me "you're doing it wrong. When a member calls up, tell them to put it in writing. That's get rid of about 50%." That's how our union used to work; a hangover from the closed shop. A deep level of complacency that no union can afford to have any more.
A pleasure working with Ray on FIM. Your union and BMU are the greatest musicians union in the world, and we should work together whenever we can.
Ray introduced Jay Blumenthal for S/T report
"No slides and no speech." Recognized his staff: Nadine Sylvester, John Ferrone, Michelle Ledgister, Walter Lopez. Talked about the cost of the move; preliminary numbers only for now. Final numbers will be in the IM. Total cost of construction of new space $2,139,000. Landlord, as part of lease, picked up $1,292,000 of that. Soft costs (architects, engineers, legal, phones, pre-construction for telecom, furniture) $960,00o to date. It'll be $2.2 - 2.4 in total. 15 year lease. We can leave in 10 years if we can afford to purchase then. 18,300 s.f. rentable square feet (includes public spaces). Useable s.f about 14,000 s.f,; similar to what we had. We designed it a lot differently than the old space, though. Enlarged space for conference room for larger negotiations. Across for that, we have two conference rooms for caucuses. We now have much larger kitchen/staff dining areas. I'm very happy about the space.
I hope you will all come visit us at your home. I want you to feel a part of this new space as being yours.
Regarding finances, all of you remember several conventions where the first recommendation was for more money that the AFM needed. We know it's difficult for locals to come up with more money for the AFM. But for the last nine years, new revenue streams have been developed, and those have helped to improve our bottom line. Very pleased to announce that in 2018 we had an increase in net assets of over $2.5 million. This is not because of great financial acumen; not rocket science. The money coming in is more than the money going out. Just takes discipline. Ray and the IEB have been phenomenal at creating new revenue streams. I watch the pennies. The result is in the numbers.
International Musician; for several years Cherie Yurco was managing editor. Cherie has recently left Bentley-Hall, we are so lucky that they were able to find Jason Emerson, new managing editor, and Cherie was still there to train him. Already has two issues under his belt. Please say hello to him.
Lastly, want to talk about consultation letters (one of our revenue streams) to the government re groups who need a visa to come work in the US. Over the years, the fee we charge has contributed significantly to our bottom line; losing it would have been very painful. I was always very concerned about if that money would go away. Last year, we made $1.9 million from that. Even if that went away, we'd still have a surplus. We had a very positive meeting with head of USCIS along with other entertainment/media issues. One problem is that of fraudulent letter. Second meeting set up for June; unfortunately head of USCIS was canned June 1. Not sure what'll happen with new appointee.
Standing ovation
Local 6 delegate: SF Opera donates $3,000 to BSO musicians
various announcements
Beth Zare: on behalf of Local 6 officers and delegates, $1,000 to BSO musicians.
Luc Fortin, Local 406; $2,000 to BSO musicians from Local
Local 618 Tracey Whitney; added a name to Memorial list. Also Local pledges $1,500 to BSO
Paul Austin ICSOM president. You can purchase BSO musicians t-shirts and merchandise on their website (bsomusicians.org)
Toronto Local 149; $2,000 for BSO musicians
Local 104; small local would like to donate $500 to BSO, personally donate $400.
Local 47; donate $2,500 to BSO musicians
Local 4 Cleveland; donate $1,000 to Baltimore local.
Ray donated $1,000 to Baltimore local.
Local 506 Saratoga Springs; donates $250 to BSO
Cathy Sheridan Local 85-XXX, Local donates $250 to BSO musicians
Local 149, asked for pledges for $100 from delegates; lots of hands raised.
Ed Carfagno, Local 78 Syracuse; $200 personal donation to BSO
John Spratt, Election committee. Rules for nominations; candidates may only be nominated. Only members in good standing may be nominated. Rule 4; nominating speeches may be 2 minutes long;
Bruce Fife; nominations for International President. Brad Eggen nominates Ray Hair. Keith Nelson, Local 269 (out of order). No other nominations. Nominations closed; Ray elected by acclamation.
Tammy Noreka nominates Bruce Fife for AFM Vice-president. No other nominations. Bruce Fife elected by acclamation.
Nominations for VP Canada. (didn't catch name) nominated Alan Willaert.
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