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
2025Q1
Meeting Updates
March Virtual Meeting
The next virtual meeting will be held on March 11, 2025 at 11AM Central/Noon Eastern. We will
discuss the recent letter from AFM attorneys regarding the political
environment for organizing and avoiding relying on the National Labor
Relations Board. We will be joined by AFM Organizing Director Gabe Kristal who will walk us through our alternatives.
AFM News/Reminders
LM reports, 990
Just a reminder that for most Locals, your Department of Labor LM
return is due by March 31 and your IRS 990 return is due by May 15. We
highly encourage you to file on time as penalties for late filing can
be severe.
Federation Symphonic Work Dues
This is just a reminder that your Local may owe Federation Symphonic
Work Dues if any of the following apply: 1. You use an SSD negotiator
for CBA negotiations (for the duration of the CBA); 2. your symphonic
CBA covers at least 60 regular musicians with at least 15 performances
per year; or 3. your symphonic CBA covers at least 16 musicians
performing at least 100 services per year. If any of these apply, 0.55%
of scale wages earned, paid by the Local and not as additional musician
work dues, is due to the Federation, payable on a monthly basis. These
dues support the operations of the department. For questions, please
contact Symphonic Services.
TSA and Airline Baggage
This is a reminder that information about bringing musical instruments
on airlines is available in the members section of the AFM website.
Included are airline baggage policies for each airline, the TSA letter
stating musicians' rights to bring instruments into the cabin, and a
complete Flying Guide. From AFM.ORG, log in, navigate to the "Document
Library", and look for "Travel Information." Any issues musicians
experience when traveling with their instruments should be reported to
the AFM Legislative Department.
Action Network
The AFM is conducting training for the newly-available tool for
organizing and networking, Action Network on February 19-20. Action
Network includes messaging, emailing, and petition tools. If you did
not receive information on registration, please contact Dave Shelton or
Antoinette Follett at the AFM.
The President's Dispatch
Dear Siblings, Sisters, and Brothers,
It
has already been a challenging year for local officers and our
members. The uncertainty caused by the rapid actions of the new
administration in Washington D.C. make it difficult for all of us to
forecast the coming year.
With the weakening of the National Labor Relations Board and other
safeguards against worker exploitation, musicians must reinvigorate all
of our avenues for collective action to achieve our goals and rely less
on government structures that are now out of our control.
The best medicine for the anxiety that has bubbled up this term is also
collective action with our fellow musicians. This shift in strategy
will also help our local unions to continue to unite musicians across
all workplaces, some of which did not have access to the NLRB or other
worker protection in the first place.
Let’s continue building solidarity across The Southern Conference so
that it can become the strong musical labor force that the music we
create deserves.
I look forward to seeing you at the next SoCo Virtual Meet Up and at our Annual Meeting in Dallas this June!
Aaron Lack (he/him)
President, AFM Southern Conference of Locals
President, Austin Federation Of Musicians, AFM Local 433
Conference Activities
Welcome New Local Officers!
Congratulations to the newly elected Local officers who are now new
delegates to the Southern Conference! From Knoxville we have President
Rachel Loseke; from New Orleans we have President Tim Brown, VP Ryan
Batiste, and Secretary-Treasurer Elmo Price;
from Orlando we have President Sam Zambito (again!) and VP Madison
Harding; from Richmond we have President Anna Rogers, VP Timothy Judd,
and Secretary-Treasurer Jonathan Greenberg; and from San Antonio we
have President Aurelia Rocha and Secretary-Treasurer Riely Francis.
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