It looks like I lost the post I wrote this morning about yesterday. O well. Yesterday wasn't very interesting anyway.
Day 2 had its moments, but in general it rather feels as if too little material is trying to fill up too much time. This is not anyone's fault; the IEB cannot control the volume of legislation being proposed, the Convention has to be scheduled long in advance, and this year the volume of Recommendations and Resolutions is the lowest I've seen it since my first convention in 1995 (I think). Eddie Bayens, long-time chair of the Law Committee, jokingly chided the IEB for Recommendations fixing what were essentially grammatical errors in the bylaws. But I'm not sure he was really joking; some of them really were at that level. And none of the IEB's Recommendations would make any substantive change to anything. That's not a criticism, but I think it is a fact. And, being mostly technical in nature, they don't take long for the Convention to deal with. Most, so far, have not only been approved by unanimous or near-unanimous voice vote, but have inspired no floor debate at all.
The three resolutions regarding the finances of bargaining unit associations (ie those groups that orchestra musicians form internally to do business) that were put forth by John O'Connor went away today; two by defeat and one by withdrawal. This too was not a surprise, although Resolution 12 in particular did raise some issues that the AFM needs to deal with.
Not surprisingly, the nominations also followed the "nothing interesting here; move along" rule. All four of the titled positions were filled by acclamation, which is to say that the incumbent, and no one else, was nominated and thus won more or less by default. There was some speculation that the new president of Local 802, Adam Krauthamer (who also is a leader in the Musicians for Pension Security group), would be nominated for Vice-president, but it didn't happen - perhaps (and this is pure speculation) because he has received a more hostile reception here at the Convention than he anticipated.
So the traditional AFM parlor game of handicapping the election is less fun than usual this year, but not necessarily easier. I had thought, coming in, that Tino Gagliardi was the candidate on the Unity slate at most risk of losing. This was mostly because Tino is no longer a local officer, having lost the presidency of Local 802 last year, and it's historically been very, very hard for someone not a Local officer to win an IEB seat. But it is possible that he'll benefit from a large sympathy vote, especially as his replacement at 802 does not appear to have made a great impression on the delegates so far. And Tino has been around a long time, and the delegates know him and have no reason not to like him. So the fact that he is not currently a Local officer may not be as damaging as history would suggest it to be.
Of the three non-slate candidates running, I suspect that Luc Fortin has the best chance of winning, especially if the Canadian delegation unites behind him. But I think it's unlikely he'll get many more votes than those; given that Canadians are guaranteed one seat on the IEB by virtue of the VP/Canada position anyway, and that they have a great deal of autonomy anyway, I think the delegates will resist adding another Canadian to the IEB, regardless of who that Canadian is. That's certainly been the history at least. I think Fortin would be the first Canadian on the IEB who was not VP/Canada in a very long time, perhaps ever. And the AFM doesn't do "firsts" easily.
The other two non-slate candidates are first-timers, and first-timers almost never win. So I would put my money (although not much) on all the slate candidates being elected, with Fortin getting the next-highest number of votes.
It'll make for a shorter night for the Election Committee at least.
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