SOCOSOCO Sheet

Official quarterly newsletter of the AFM Southern Conference of Locals
Aaron Lack, President -- Jessica Kunttu, VP -- Jeffrey Apana, Secretary-Treasurer and Editor and Publisher

2024Q1


Meeting Updates


The next virtual meet-up will be held on Monday, March 11, 2024 at 11 AM Central/noon Eastern. Links will be sent a few days before...mark you calendars now! On the agenda will be a discussion of the agenda for this summer's annual meeting.


The 2024 conference will be held on June 22-23, 2024 at the Holiday Inn Austin Town Lake in Austin, Texas. For updates on the annual meeting of the Conference, please keep an eye on this webpage:


www.afmsoco.org/conference/2024.html


The 2024 Conference will be preceded by two days of officer training. International Secretary-Treasurer Ken Shirk reports: "The first day will be focused on post-pandemic life as a local officer, daily coping skills. A large part will be about creating a respectful culture, recognizing implicit bias, how to have difficult conversations with members, things like that. The second day will be on duty of fair representation, the law and the realities; grievance and arbitration, ins and outs, pitfalls to avoid; negotiations, preparing your members and your positions, presented by Rochelle Skolnick, and then a broad overview of recording contracts for all locals; a checklist for getting things done right; with Q&A, presented by EMSD Director John Painting."

AFM News/Reminders

DOL Reports
Please remember that if your Local has the calendar year as your fiscal year, LM reports are due at the end of March.

Elections?
Have you had a change of officers due to elections? Please notify both the AFM and the SOCO Secretary-Treasurer so we can update our delegate lists and make sure information gets to the right people. Thanks! 

 

The President's Dispatch


Siblings, Sisters, and Brothers,

Musicians are the most hard working and interesting people I know. We often sacrifice our resources, our time, our bodies, and our personal lives to keep doing what we love at the highest level possible. We work to get ready to work and then we work to make the most of the result of that work. We work hard to be able to represent ourselves in the way that we want to in order to achieve what? More work. The reasons that we do this are as diverse as the music we perform.

We are Artists who channel the mysterious forces of inspiration, seemingly on command!  At least we work hard to make it appear so.  This is where we often run into problems. When we make it look so magical, entertaining, and fun, it looks easy to those who experience it and also to those who are paying for it. When that is two different groups of people, this can also cause additional problems.

Since time immemorial, the solution to these problems has been the same: Get it in writing. Why is that so hard? Why don’t we all just do this all the time? Sometimes it is simply because others are not “getting it in writing.” Sometimes it is because the writing is long and difficult to understand. Sometimes it seems pointless because who will read the writing anyway? Sometimes the problems seem so big and complex that we don’t know what to write to begin with. That can all be used to confuse us or wear us out. After all, we just want to make music, right?

We all arrive at this station eventually.  Enough is enough. This is what our Union is for.  Together we can overcome all of this and more.  The Mission Statement of The AFM begins with these simple statements:


You can read the rest of the Mission Statement in Article 2 of the AFM Bylaws. I look forward to seeing you on our next SoCo call and at the conference in June!
In Solidarity, -Aaron Lack, President, AFM Southern Conference of Locals

Conference Activities

Conference Dues

Conference Dues and registration fees will be payable by May 31. If you have not already sent your December 31,2023 per capita totals to Secretary-Treasurer Apana, please do so now so that he can calculate your dues and send invoices.


Newsletters
Please send copies of your newsletters to newsletter@afmsoco.org. If you would like to receive copies of newsletters from other SOCO Locals, please contact the Secretary-Treasurer to be placed on the distribution list.

Orientations

We are still looking for officers to help with a regional orientation program. If you are interested in participating, or would like to help us beta test our orientation program, please contact the officers of the Conference.


Bylaw Review

Our Bylaws are due for a review...times have changed and our Bylaws have not. If you are willing to serve on the Bylaw Committee and attend a virtual meeting or two please let us know! We would like to complete the review by the end of March.


Agenda Committee

The Agenda Committee is expanding operations year round! In addition to creating the agenda for the conference, we will identify topics for further discussion and consideration throughout the year. The hope is that this will help us connect and improve as a conference throughout the year, but also ensure the conference agenda is meaningful and impactful. Is there something you'd like to see SoCo focus on this year? Send an email to jessica.kunttu@afm500.org!