It's Time For Some Changes

Before I launch headlong in to this blog, I'm going to give myself a short disclaimer:
My views here do not in any way reflect the views of those I write about, or who are mentioned in this blog.
I mean no malice toward anyone; nor harbor any ill will, even toward those viewed in a not so positive light.
My true aim here is to clarify for myself some of the misgivings that I have had or that I have about being in the Musicians Union and about being in the music business.
The American Federation of Musicians is a great organization and has done many wonderful things for a great many people who aspire to careers in all aspects of the music industry. CDT

Like many other professions, music has a professional organized arm, it's called the The American Federation of Musicians. Here in the Charleston West Virginia area our local is AFM local #136.
The ultimate goal of the Union is to foster and help those with aspirations toward careers in music. Help by most available positive means necessary. Which include and are not limited to promotion, promulgation, career building etc.
For a number of years as an organization we struggled with being totally professional; by that I mean the members didn't take it as seriously as we should have to get the desired results from being involved in the local or national music industry. Chief among the reasons why members were/are disheartened with local is that it is felt that things are not always in reality as they are preported publicly.
For those reasons some of the people who have governed us have not always been forthright about their dealings on behalf of the members...in short, personal agenda had become the norm on many occasions.
A few years ago the president of our local was indicted and then convicted of federal racketeering charges. He was a nice man and I genuinely liked him, but it was just plainly wrong to do the things that he did, and expect the membership to adhere to the rules of the local, or participate in being members at all.
I have been a member in good standing for years, starting with being a member of local # 802 in New York City. I also must add that I truly believe in the organization as a whole in general. I know first hand the many things that it has done for me when I was an active participant. I also learned alot about the business of music which also has been helpful to my career aspirations.
While I've been friendly with most of the staff of this local, I've also seen them make what I think are some horrific blunders, for example: not completely disclosing all monies spent on behalf of the local; there has been no paper trail for us to follow. Hiring an office manager, where there is no clear need for one. I made the suggestion sometime ago that whenever our newsletter is published there should be one article per issue that thoroughly explains how our membership monies are categorized and broken down...what pays for what.
Those are just miniscule examples of the things that are transpiring here, and it's very sad to see because Charleston has some talented musicians who deserve to have our professional organization run correctly and astutely by people who have the complete best interest of the members.
Because of some of the negative changes that I've seen in the local I have opted to not continue my membership at this time, as a vocalist that is my right, but that saddens me as well, because at a time when music is absolutely needed by a distraught nation it's a feather taken out of our caps to not be involved in the right way, to which I say...it's time for some changes.
As professional musicians (meaning non student musicians), whether full time or part time, we need to be organized, we need to stick together to increase our professional status thereby increasing to whatever degree our monetary gain.In other words if we expect for club owners, concert halls, restaurantuers and the like to take us seriously, we need to be serious about the health of our organization. Starting from the top down.
MUSICIANS OF THE WORLD UNITE !!!