The Committee For A More Responsible Local 47

FORMAL CONVENTION STARTS TODAY!

Greetings Local 47 Colleagues!,

The reactions from the delegates here in Las Vegas has made it an informative and enlightening time at the 2007 AFM Convention! A representative of the Committee arrived last Thursday and has attended the Southern Conference, Canadian Conference and Mid-West Conference as well and other functions that have given the Committee rep a chance to take the temperature of the federation and answer any questions they may have. Getting to know some of the Federation wide representatives has been great, and we should be very proud that majority of those who take part in our Federation are people of integrity, competence and good will.

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I. FINAL COMMITTEE MESSAGE TO THE DELEGATES
II. HARRIET KATZ LETTER TO THE DELEGATES
III. MEMBER COMMENTS

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I. FINAL COMMITTEE MESSAGE TO THE DELEGATES

AFM COLLEAGUES and DELEGATES,

In a recent appearance on the Daily Show with John Stewart, former UN Ambassador John Bolton said, “George Bush was elected to do the will of those who put him there.” As anyone in a Democracy knows, when you’re elected, you’re elected to serve all of the citizens, not just your supporters.

Hal Espinosa, unfortunately, has worked using the John Bolton model for years. He has allowed the RMALA to infiltrate every level of our Local’s hierarchy, and we are far the worse for it. He has allowed the RMALA free reign over the film recording industry in Los Angeles, adversely affecting the livelihood of thousands.

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Greetings Local 47 Colleagues!,

Below you will find a letter from Serena Kay Williams,
Secretary-Treasurer of Local 47. Considering the contents
of the letter, we now consider the matter of being misrepresented
closed.

Freedom of communication prevails folks, congratulations!

THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47

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I. MS. WILLIAMS’ ATTACK ON THE COMMITTEE
II. LETTER FROM CHARLES FERNANDEZ
III. MEMBERS REACTIONS TO MS. WILLIAMS AND RMASF

Dear Local 47 and AFM Members,

Here is why Serena’s claims about the committee are false.

The formation of the committee was a direct result of the Espinosa
administration’s actions. It had nothing to do with Tom Lee or an
election year.

SOME OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR THE COMMITTEE’S FORMATION:

-The ESPINOSA ADMINISTRATION’S doubling of the size of the
general membership meeting quorum (which shut down general
membership meetings for over two years,)

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I. DECEPTIVE NOTICE OF CAINE’S FIRING ON LOCAL 47 WEBSITE
II. SITTING ON THEIR HANDS FOR EVEN LONGER?
III. REFERAL OFFICE APPARENTLY BEING MOVED BACK TO MANDATED LOCATION
IV. MEMBER COMMENTS ON LAST EMAIL

I. DECEPTIVE NOTICE OF CAINE’S FIRING ON LOCAL 47 WEBSITE

At the April 16th Board meeting, members brought to the attention of the Board Mr. Caine’s Felony convictions for FORGERY and GRAND THEFT. Though his two and a half page public record rap sheet had numerous drug charges, convicted or not, the drug charges in and of themselves did not necessarily constitute a threat to the members’ private information.

THE MEMBERS DID NOT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM MENTION THE DRUG CONVICTIONS AT THE BOARD MEETING, because it was the Forgery and Grand Theft that mattered.

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I. RMA-SF see the light about the RMA International (RMALA)
II. WORKSHOPS/SCHOLARSHIPS
III. BUDDY CHILDERS PASSES AWAY

Greetings Local 47 Colleagues,

We’ve just been forwarded these two letters from the RMASF. Every
Local 47 member should read these. We have had known for
quite some time that the RMALA’s business practices have hurt
the country as well as destroyed much of the recording work here,
but now we have proof that their practices have affected jobs far
outside our geographic area. And Hal has let them exist
unrestrained in their actions to the detriment of us all.

Here’s a short quote from the letters below:
“RMALA appears to be dedicated to keeping this work away
from RMA musicians in other chapters, and, in fact, other
musicians within their own Local.”

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DON’T LET THE RMALA PUPPET HAL ESPINOSA TAKE OVER OUR FEDERATION!

AFM Colleagues,

Greetings! For those of you who’ve never heard of us, the Committee for a More Responsible Local 47 came into being over three years ago to restore and protect the rank and file’s voice in Los Angeles, advertise members’ events and pass along important info. We also act as a safe haven for those members who want to anonymously speak out.

Along with the Freelance Musicians Assn and other interested members, the COMMITTEE, among other things, exposed Hal Espinosa’s hiring of a convicted felon as General Manager of our Local and that felon’s unauthorized use of Hal Espinosa’s Local 47 Credit Card to create an email account posing as the Committee. The Espinosa crew had to be forced through a motion to investigate.

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CORE STATUS/ REBUTTAL/ COPYRIGHT DECISION/MEMBER COMMENTS

I. CORE STATUS: THE BASICS
II. LINK TO NES REBUTTAL OF PRESIDENT ESPINOSA’S BLAST
III. SOME INACCURACIES IN THE NEW ERA STATEMENT
IV. RECENT COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD DECISION
V. MORE MEMBER COMMENTS

Dear Local 47 Brothers and Sisters,

We’ve received several letters similar to this…
-Congrats on your success, you are an important part of the “democratic” process. My question is, what is this fi-core thing all about? Can you tell me where to find out about it?

If you read the most recent Overture, there is much discussion of this subject. Mr. Espinosa’s column holds a number of interesting omissions.

While most of what he says about Core Status is true, he leaves out that when a Core-Status musician does a union job they have the exact same rights as a Union musician, including H and W, Pension and secondary market funds. Mr. Espinosa also conveniently leaves out that while he mentions in his OVERTURE column the problems with the Guild, he doesn’t mention the Guild in his email blast.

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I. HAL ESPINOSA’S ANTI-UNION ACTIVITIES AND CONNECTIONS
II. WHY THE COMMITTEE MUST REMAIN ANONYMOUS
DEAR AFM COLLEAGUES,
Have you heard of the Professional Musicians Guild (PMG)? They are a splinter group of mostly RMALA recording musicians.
Here is an excerpt from a recent Variety Article by Jon Burlingame.

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Variety Business: Musicians to tune out AFM union
Over 200 join Professional Musicians Guild
By JON BURLINGAME
L.A. musicians have placed the American Federation of Musicians on notice: Shape up or face possible decertification as their collective-bargaining agent for film and TV recordings.
More than 200 of the estimated 900 professional musicians who are most active on film-scoring dates have already joined the new Professional Musicians Guild, according to PMG president Andrew Malloy.

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I. REQUESTING LOCAL 47 FINANCIALS
II. PROBLEMS WITH DELEGATE BINDING VOTE
III. CONCERT FEATURING THE BLUECAT EXPRESS
IV. MORE MEMBER COMMENTS

I. THOUGHT ABOUT REQUESTING THE 2006 LOCAL 47 FINANCIALS?

Should you decide to request a copy of the 2006 financial report you must make sure to send a formal request to the Secretary’s office and ask for the Full Local 47 and Club 47 2006 Financial Reports, or the Final 2006 Auditors Reports. They will put it together for you, but you need to go down to the Local and pick it up.

A member just went through a real labyrinth trying to get the report and it took him weeks and at least 6 e-mail exchanges to get the report that the bylaws clearly allow ALL members in good standing to have.

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