From the President

Change was the theme of the 2010 AFM Convention. Elections were held for all of the International Officer positions and our newly elected AFM Officers assume their duties on August first.

Ray Hair, who steps into the position of International President, has spent the last sixteen years serving as the president of Local 72-147 in Dallas and has served as a member of the International Executive Board (IEB). He has been a professional club-date, recording, and traveling musician since 1964. Bruce Fife, the President of Local 99 in Portland, Oregon becomes our new International Vice President. The incumbent Canadian Vice President, Bill Skolnik, remains in office as does our International Secretary-Treasurer, Sam Folio, who is a member of our Local 655. The remaining members of the new IEB are Tino Gagliardi (New York), Tina Morrison (Spokane), Dave Pomeroy (Nashville), Vince Trombetta (Los Angeles), and incumbent Joe Parente (Philadelphia).

I would like to address the recording musicians about the importance of informing us of recording engagements, whether you are told it is a union session or not. Often times a musician is told that a session is non-union and they believe that when it is not true. All of the major Labels and their artists have agreements with the AFM and are required to pay certain wages and benefits, but if the union does not know that a musician is on the session, the musician will not be put on the contract and will not receive any of the pension, royalties, new use (which may be paid to you or your heirs decades after the session), not to mention the usually higher upfront wages. Someone along the line is keeping your money if sessions are not reported. Another thing to watch out for: when you are told that you are playing a union session, do not assume that the union knows about it and that the paperwork is going to get filed. Members have been left off contracts. We would like to clean this up. If you are hired for a session, please let us know so we can let you know what you should expect from that session.

Here is a list of some of the songs for which our members have received new use payments so far this year: