SOCO
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
Stephanie Magnus and Laura Ross, Directors
2024Q4
Meeting Updates
December Virtual Meeting
The next virtual meeting will be held on December 9 at 12 Noon Eastern
(11AM Central) and will feature guests from the Music Performance Trust Fund. Mark
your calendars now and links will be sent out a few days before the
meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
AFM News/Reminders
Liability Insurance
You may have read in International Musician that
the AFM has finally found a replacement insurance carrier for members
needing instrument or liability insurance, effective this past
September. After some delay, they have created a web portal for members
to get more information and to request a quote. We know that many
members have been asking about this since the previous carrier stopped
writing and renewing policies back in January. Please help spread the
word to your members. More information can be found on the AFM website
at https://www.afm.org/insurance-products/
Labor Notes Events
Labor Notes, founded in 1979, is a media and organizing project that
has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back
in the labor movement. Did you know that they offer many low-cost or
free online workshops? Topics include Race and Labor, Organizing,
Member Rights, and more. The fees are generally a nominal $10-15 and
some are free. You can find their upcoming schedule and registration
links here:
https://labornotes.org/events
The President's Dispatch
Dear Siblings, Sisters, and Brothers,
Though the results of this election cycle have been disappointing in
many ways for unionists and The Labor Movement in general, our mission,
as union musicians, has not changed. One sentence from The AFM
Mission Statement (AFM International Bylaws, Article 2) stands out. We
must “Build political power to ensure that musicians’ voices are heard
at every level of government to create economic opportunity and foster
social justice.”
In Jane McAlevey’s book, A Collective Bargain, the author lays out the
historical and current connection between those three pieces: Growing
the political power of workers through unions, economic opportunity as
a unifying force, and social justice as an inevitable result. The
receding influence of unions in the last few decades has naturally
caused the other two pieces to recede in tandem.
The Labor Movement must grow from The South because workers in
anti-union states understand what we are up against and how much there
is for us to learn and teach. In state government houses that
welcome wealthy business interests at the front gate, the workers are
forced to use the back door, if they are allowed in at all.
Though musicians enjoy the benefits of our inherent (or practiced)
charisma, we must not allow the flattery of capitalists to make us
forget which class we are actually in. We all know how much work it
takes to make music look this easy.
At our next Virtual Meet Up, we will discuss how to create economic
opportunity in our Locals through the Music Performance Trust Fund and
how this is connected to our ability to improve the lives of musicians
through facilitating the use of Single Engagement Contracts and The AFM
Pension.
I look forward to seeing you at the next SoCo Virtual Meet Up!
In Solidarity,
Aaron Lack (he/him)
President, AFM Southern Conference of Locals
President, Austin Federation Of Musicians, AFM Local 433
Conference Activities
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.
Annual Meeting
Just a reminder that the next annual meeting will take place June
21-22, 2025 in Dallas. As information becomes available, it will be
posted on our website at https://afmsoco.org/conference/2025.html