Cliff's Notes

I would like to start the New Year by thanking you all for allowing me to be the president of this wonderfully diversified and talented union. As far as I�m concerned, we have the best players in the nation and I�m proud to represent you.

Recently, I flew to Washington DC with Lisa Fox to participate in Digital Distribution Discussions with other officers of the AFM. The meetings were extremely informative.

In short, we found out how recording musicians (sidemen) will receive royalties from the digital performance (satellite, webcast, cable, etc) and download (iTunes, Napster, etc.) of music that they recorded. The AFM is working very hard at collecting and distributing these funds (go to http://www.soundexchange.com). They are also preparing for future digital distribution negotiations with record companies later this year.

On our downtime in Washington, I was able to socialize with President Tom Lee (he plays a mean piano), Secretary Treasurer Florence Nelson and many other officers that gave me tremendous input on how to improve the 655. Bruce Bouton from Nashville 257 introduced me to a fine computer program �Contract Creator� that will help our office quickly process recording contracts. Our tests of the program have gone very well and we should be using it by the end of the month. It costs $79.00; this makes me very happy. Ray Hair from Dallas gave ideas for our �soon to be� booking agency. The 655 Executive Board formed a committee to review these ideas and hopefully we will be up and running by March.

Speaking of bookings, we will be taking steps to advertise to the lucrative wedding market. If you are interested in getting some wedding gigs, and you have a photo, song list and recorded music, please get it to us, so that we can post you at our free web site. We really need freelance symphonic solos/groups to grab the ceremony/cocktail buyers.

I�m always looking for input, so please feel free to drop me an email at cliff[at]AFM655[dot]org

Proud to Represent You

Cliff Walker