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

Stephanie Magnus and Laura Ross, Directors

2025Q2


Meeting Updates


Welcome to Dallas letter from Stewart Williams

...please click here.


June Annual Meeting Deadlines:



Please complete your registrations and bookings and Local reports as soon as possible, but no later than the end of the month!

The negotiated hotel rate is $145 per night, and we are aware that the booking link was not always working correctly, so if you have already booked your room and did not receive our rate please let us know so we can correct your booking with the hotel.

The Local reports will be used by the Appreciation Committee and the registration will be used to print badges in advance so please make sure to complete these by the deadlines!

AFM News/Reminders


Action Network
The AFM has just made Action Network available to Locals for free. This communication tool includes surveys, petitions, email newsletters, and more. Are you using Action Network? If so, please let us know as we are planning a roundtable this summer and would like to identify which Locals have experience using this tool.

990 Filing
Just a reminder that for most Locals, 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.

SSD Pernambuco Update

Brazil will likely be taking an extreme and draconian position with regard to the movement of Pernambuco across borders when the international treaty terms are negotiated in November in Uzbekistan. As of now there is still no advocacy piece to be undertaken, but it would be prudent to once again remind musicians to take the steps they can right now to ensure their instruments and bows are documented. Below is the League’s “Know Your Bow” resources, which you may want to share with your musicians. Feel free to ask AFM Legislative Director Ben Kessler if you have additional questions about this.

https://americanorchestras.org/know-your-bow-tips-for-owners-and-users-of-pernambuco-bows/


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.

 

The President's Dispatch

Dear Siblings, Sisters, and Brothers,

Our Annual Meeting is coming up fast and I’m so excited to see everyone in Texas next month! The Agenda Committee has been working on including discussions, workshops, and information that you, the delegates have asked for, and also to include more time for delegates to interact and network with each other.

Recent threats to the National Endowment for The Arts and public media directly affect our work. This requires us to prioritize The AFM’s mission to “Build political power to ensure that musicians’ voices are heard at every level of government to create economic opportunity and foster social justice;” Unions have people power and we must use it to improve the musician economy of The South and our entire international union. 

At this Annual Meeting, we will study: organization to bring more musicians into the fight; legislation to correct imbalance and unfairness in our laws; and communication with our members and future members.  We will also connect with resources that our union has achieved to assist the largest demographic of musicians in our union: freelancers.  If you consider it for a moment, there are very few musicians who do not work in a freelance capacity at least some of the time.

With the vast and diverse combination of knowledge and experience in our conference, I am certain that we will emerge from this year’s Southern Conference stronger and more united than before!

Aaron Lack (he/him)
President, AFM Southern Conference of Locals
President, Austin Federation Of Musicians, AFM Local 433

Conference Activities


Our Annual Meeting will take place June 21-22, 2025 in Dallas. Committee assignments, agenda, and more will be available in advance on our website and will updated as we get closer: https://afmsoco.org/conference/2025.html

We expect the agenda and committee assignments to be finalized before the end of May.