BELA FLECK - Nashville Musicians Association

State of the Local
By Dave Pomeroy
Music City, USA, has become
a name known around the
world for quality, built on the
artistic contributions of countless Local
257 members past and present. More than
ever before, Nashville is home to a unique
creative community of world-class musicians
of all descriptions. One glance at all of the
amazing players profiled in this issue will tell
you we have a music scene like none other
on earth.
“Respect” is defined in the dictionary as
“a feeling of deep admiration for someone
or something elicited by their abilities,
qualities, or achievements” and “due regard
for the feelings, wishes, rights or traditions
of others.” Respect is also the one word that
best describes what being a member of the
AFM and Local 257 is all about, and the
common thread of all different aspects of my
job as your president.
This really hit home to me when I attended
the Nashville Symphony’s first Classical
Series concert of the season, featuring the
world premiere of Bela Fleck’s Concerto for
Banjo and Orchestra at the Schermerhorn
Symphony Center. If you have not
experienced the Nashville Symphony in the
amazing Turner concert hall, I urge you to
do so.
The confidence and passion of the NSO’s
performances of Appalachian Spring and
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 were absolutely
outstanding, and Bela’s concerto was a
stunning double whammy of composition
and performance. It was an incredible night
of music, one that not only made me very
proud of my longtime friend Bela, but also
the musicians of the Nashville Symphony,
who have never sounded better.
Respect what you do as a professional
Although Tennessee is a “right-to-work”
state, Local 257 has a long tradition of work
done under AFM contracts all the way back
to pioneers like Owen Bradley and Chet
Atkins, who always took care of musicians
on whom they depended. They established
that to record in Nashville and work with
the best professional musicians in Music
City, you need to work through the union,
period. Over the years, Local 257 members
have kept this tradition alive by doing the
right thing and respecting this principle.
Respect takes many forms for AFM
members. It means not being afraid to ask if
a potential gig, session, or TV show is going
to pay scale and be on a union contract. It
means not signing a release that tries to take
away your rights of fair compensation and
protection, and using your AFM Musician
Rights card — if you don’t have one, pick one
up at the local — to back your position.
It means exercising your right to ask for
a union representative to be present at a
disciplinary meeting with your employer.
These are smart short-term choices that will
benefit you in the long run.
Educating employers to do the right
thing
I spend a lot of time talking about respect to
employers who don’t want to pay musicians
what their time is worth or cancel a gig with
little notice. These people use the old excuse,
“I can get someone else to do it cheaper”
or talk about “promotional value,” which
seldom benefits a backup musician and can’t
buy groceries. They often don’t get it until it
is explained to them in a non-threatening,
informational way that the protections of
AFM recording and live contracts work both
ways. They serve to protect the employer, in
addition to giving musicians a paper trail if
something goes wrong.
Unfortunately, I spend even more time
chasing down employers who think it’s
okay to sign a union contract and still
not pay musicians who worked for them.
Obviously, they have removed “respect”
from their vocabulary. We filed a number of
legal actions recently after exhausting every
reasonable means to collect some of these
long-delinquent debts.
On our Do Not Work For List, which
appears in the magazine and on our website,
you may see names or companies you
recognize. Sometimes it is simply because of
bad contact information, a lack of signatory
paperwork and/or a pension check that is
outstanding. We urge you to help us contact
them so we can resolve these obligations and
move on.
Working together to build our future
Respect means not just doing what is best for
you, but taking into account what is best for
our community as a whole. It’s not as hard
as it sounds. When players work together to
explain to employers hesitant to sign an AFM
agreement, “We need to do this through the
union – it’s the right thing to do,” it makes a
HUGE difference, not just for that one job,
but for the future. That’s how we grow our
business.
Filling out time cards and signatory
paperwork accurately and in a timely fashion
when you are session leader in the studio
helps us help you. If you are on the road
and suddenly faced with an unexpected TV
appearance or live recording, being proactive
and getting us in the loop immediately
greatly increases your chances of getting paid.
Also remember that it takes a lot of Local
257’s time and resources to process contracts,
so paying your work dues promptly — and
regularly — keeps our cash flow intact so we
can continue to serve you better.
When you work non-union, what you
make that day is all you will EVER make,
with no pension, no new use, re-use, or
residuals. Simply going with the flow and
not asking “the union question” will have dire
consequences for everyone in the short AND
long term. Someone has to step up and ask
for respect. If you don’t ask for it, it probably
won’t come.
We do not have to be combative to make
our point with employers. If you have a nonunion
situation and want to bring it into
compliance, you can talk to us honestly about
it. This is what we do every day and it is our
passion. The AFM offers a variety of scales
to fit different budgets and situations, and
we are constantly working on ways to solve
problems and become more responsive to
new scenarios.
In this age of digital piracy, anti-unionism,
and a rapidly changing music business, our
tradition of respect is under attack like never
before. It is up to all of us to stick together and
do what’s right, or it’s a race to the bottom.
The next time you have that choice to make,
don’t forget the effects of your decision for
not only yourself, but all of us. As Benjamin
Franklin said, “We can hang together or we
can hang separately.” The choice is yours.
Dave Pomeroy is president of AFM Local 257.
You can reach him at dave@afm257.org.
6 October - December 2011
The Nashville Musician
By Craig Krampf
Greetings Brother and Sister
Musicians. We are at the end
of another year and at this time
I usually find myself reflecting on what
transpired during the preceding months. It
appears that many of the ups and downs of
life are experienced by all of us during the
course of a year, but in varying degrees. I am
very grateful to say that, all in all, it has been
a good year for me, and my hope is that all of
you had a good year as well.
The finances
Here at the union, we also had a pretty good
year. For the first time in many years, we were
in the black for two consecutive quarters.
Our revenue in 2011 was down from 2010
by $17,977.78, with work dues revenue alone
down $21,181.85. However, we still managed
to pull into the black, with $13,671.45 in hard
cash. We accomplished this by continuing to
cut costs wherever we can.
It’s worth noting that there will be extra
costs in the fourth quarter since this is an
election year, which means the local must mail
every member ballots and return envelopes,
along with paying for other printing and
postal costs. Again, we are doing everything
we can to improve our bottom line while still
making sure we improve the services that we
provide to you.
New members
Visiting with prospective new members
is always a gratifying experience. Dave
Pomeroy and I always take time to listen
to their personal stories, talk about our
common experiences, how important it
has been for us to be AFM members, and
explain all the benefits of joining. Many are
new to town, and have already heard that
all the top musicians in Nashville belong to
AFM Local 257.
It is wonderful when some explain that
they already have landed a gig and that all
or most of the musicians in the band are
union members. A few musicians recently
related to us that they were about to do some
recording sessions and the producer and
other musicians on the session asked them if
they belonged to the union. A few were told
that they better join…like now!
A few of the new members are part of the
indie recording scene. They related how they
were getting sick of hearing themselves on
TV shows and in films without getting paid.
Some fellow union musicians took the time
to explain to them that they should get paid
for a new use of their work.
Thank you to those producers and
musicians who value themselves, their
professions and our union when they spread
the word about the benefits of the AFM and
Local 257. We appreciate it very much.
We can report that once again, we have
over one hundred new members so far for the
year and over three hundred new members
since 2009. The majority of them are in their
twenties and early thirties. In these times of
what people call the “graying of unions,” this
is most gratifying. Everyone at Local 257 is
ready to help our brother and sister musicians
anytime with concerns or questions. That is
why we are here. May I say to all those new
members: Welcome and please let us know
how we can help you.
We are professional musicians
When asked what I do for a living, I have
responded countless times, “I am a musician.”
The Los Angeles local is called Professional
Musicians Local 47, and I always have liked
that name, from the first time I heard it
when I became a member there. Over the
years, I sometimes forget to use the word
“professional” in my own job description.
May I suggest we all remember to say with
pride, “I’m a professional musician.” There is
a difference.
Value yourself and your profession
Since we belong to the AFM, we should
feel a sense of pride that we are professional
musicians. We all have our unique stories
of how we choose music for our career, but
there are many common threads on how we
got here.
Value who you are and all that you endured
to get you to the level of being a professional
musician. Don’t forget it when a producer, or
a film or video game company calls and wants
you to work without a contract and perhaps
for a lower wage as well. Offers of more than
scale without a union contract are still a bad
deal for musicians — no pension, no new use,
no protections. The NFL players did not go
to work without a new collective bargaining
agreement. As of this writing, it looks like
The Nashville Musician October - December 2011
New Grooves
the start of the NBA’s training camp, preseason
and possibly the regular season will be
delayed until there is a new contract. These
athletes are professionals, and so are we. Let
us stand together as professional musicians.
The Live Department
Some of you know, and others will find
out with this issue, that longtime employee
Kathy Shepard has retired. Kathy served us
well for over 19 years and we wish her all the
best. Thank you, Kathy!
With that being said, we thought it was a
good time to analyze the Live Department
and not just quickly fill the position. Earlier
this year, we formed various committees,
such as education, technology, community
outreach and promotion; one of these is the
club and touring musicians committee.
This committee has been especially
diligent in meeting, and interacting with
us. We continue to discuss ways to make
improvements, deal with various compliance
issues and in turn, help our union with the
bottom line. We hope to have new strategies
in place shortly.
In the meantime, Rachel Mowl, our new
front desk person and member co-coordinator,
is helping with the live engagement work,
along with Dave and Kathy Osborne.
Together, all of us are working hard to
redefine what the live department can do for
members.
Epilogue
My wish, hope and prayer is for you and your
loved ones to have a wonderful Thanksgiving,
Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s. May
next year be a good one for us all, filled with
lots of love, good health, laughter, peace and
prosperity.
Leopold Stokowski, the great orchestral
conductor, said “A painter paints pictures on
canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on
silence.” With that, I also hope and wish for
you that you paint some beautiful pictures.
Yours in unity, harmony, artistry and
diversity.
Craig Krampf is secretary-treasurer of AFM
Local 257. You can reach him at craig@
afm257.org.
Next Membership Meeting
Monday, Nov. 7, 2011
George Cooper
Rehearsal Hall
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Meeting starts at 6 p.m.
Election nomination meeting to follow.
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