I. COMMENTARY – WHOSE BLOWING SMOKE? THE CALLER OR THE LOCAL’S NUMBERS?
\nII. THE 1000 BALLOTS – Member Commentary
\nIII. YET ANOTHER SCORING VENUE APPEARS – VIENNA
\nIV. COMMENTS
\nV. EVENTS<\/p>\n
…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
\n…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
\nscoring musician
\n…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
\n…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician<\/p>\n
Name Withheld<\/p>\n
===================================<\/p>\n
—SPECIAL MESSAGE—<\/p>\n
COLLEAGUES,
\nSo the tactics are changing. NOW members are being told that the extra
\nmoney in the bank will allow them to sue more studios to get us work
\nback, (Work the rank and file will never see); and also that the union is
\nnow over $700,000 in debt, which flies in the face of Secretary Lasley
\nreporting at the last GM Meeting at the end of October that the union
\nwas $450,000 in the black for the first 6 months of the year.<\/p>\n
They are getting more desperate and their obfuscations more blatant.<\/p>\n
It is vital that ALL members who see the blog send it to their Local 47
\nand even AFM Colleagues. The AFM has got to know what the Local is
\ndoing here in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Please help us make sure ALL members know what’s going on.<\/p>\n
THE COMMITTEE<\/p>\n
===================================<\/p>\n
I. COMMENTARY – WHOSE BLOWING SMOKE? THE CALLER OR THE LOCAL’S NUMBERS?<\/p>\n
I did actually get this exact call. I know we are not in debt,
\nbut I also know other members are getting the same call. <\/p>\n
So I wrote this:<\/p>\n
***********************<\/p>\n
Will The REAL Truth Please Stand Up?!?!?<\/p>\n
I just got a call from someone on the building committee tasked with
\nmaking phone calls in order to sway me into a yes vote on the sale
\nof the building.<\/p>\n
This individual said that Local 47 was $700,000 in the RED…. A
\nserious deficit which required the sale of our building to clear,
\nor we all go down.<\/p>\n
$700,000!!! Do these people know how to balance a check book?
\nIf so, when was the last time they did it before spending MY
\nmoney I trusted them with?<\/p>\n
I can’t trust this executive board with the money I gave them.
\nThat is now as clear to me as the nose on my face. So how
\ndo they expect me to trust them with millions more of my
\nmoney on a building protected for the members? They
\ncouldn’t even handle the dues money I was paying them.<\/p>\n
I can’t even get my head wrapped around the level of incompetence
\nmembers have allowed to run our Union when no one ran
\nagainst this administration at the last election. <\/p>\n
$700,000 deficit!?<\/p>\n
That phone call meant to scare me into a yes vote, it
\njust\u00a0backfired.<\/p>\n
Oh I am not done. I have more to say:<\/p>\n
Since when did Local 47 begin adopting the practice of
\nmost managements in regards to scaring people into a
\ndecision, threatening “your organization will go dark if
\nyou don’t do as we tell you to! Now agree with us and
\ndo as we want you to do! Let us take away your rehearsal
\nservices because you won’t even have a job if you don’t
\nlet us clear our deficit by removing your rehearsals!!”<\/p>\n
As an orchestral player who is seasoned now in experiencing
\nmanagements scaring the cr*p out of us,\u00a0\u00a0and seasoned in
\nwatching how fear grips us and we end up willingly giving
\nup our rehearsal time because maybe our negotiator was
\nnot willing to fight hard enough for us…. This phone call
\nwas all too familiar. It was like our union stole a page from
\nmanagements playbook or something.<\/p>\n
After experiencing managements, imagine getting this call
\nfrom this campaigner who is clearly in favor of selling the
\nbuilding, and he sounded NO different than most managements
\nthese days: “We have to sell the building (get rid of your rehearsals)!
\nWe need to clear our $700,000 deficit! If you don’t say YES, you
\nwon’t have anything in the end. Better to agree with us.
\nSomething is better than nothing”<\/p>\n
Once again, musicians have to give up what is theirs so they
\ncan clean up someone else’s financial mess?<\/p>\n
Operative words, “someone else’s”.<\/p>\n
We do our part. We show up to rehearsals. We pay for their
\nfinancial mistakes.<\/p>\n
We pay our union dues. Now we are asked to give up our
\nbuilding because of their financial blunders?<\/p>\n
What do we get in return from managements in orchestras
\nand from our union when we are forced to give up something?
\nWe are thrown on stage under rehearsed and low moral,
\nand our union ran off with my money and no accountability
\nother than to try to scare me into now giving up my union building.<\/p>\n
This angers me. This really makes me hot under the collar. Who
\nis a musician suppose to be able to trust if there is no competence
\nin either managements of orchestras or even our union?<\/p>\n
I have one last point to make before I am done:<\/p>\n
Either Local 47 is lying in this campaign, trying to scare me
\ninto a yes vote, OR, The Secretary is the liar when he told
\nmembers that Local 47 is in the black and that the union has
\nno debt. Which one is it? Who is lying?<\/p>\n
Is the executive board lying about being in the black?<\/p>\n
Or are they lying to every member in the union with these
\ncampaigning calls about being in the red by HUNDREDS
\nOF THOUSANDS of dollars!<\/p>\n
There can not be two opposing truths!<\/p>\n
This administration, either way, needs to ALL be thrown out of office.<\/p>\n
They were the last administration under Trombetta who had
\nsecrets and railroaded members for their own agendas.<\/p>\n
And here we are again. Almost the same board because no one
\nin our membership had the guts to run against them and no
\none in our membership cared enough to run an entire slate
\nagainst the slate. Now we have the same administration
\nunder the “leadership” of Acosta, who was former Vice
\nPresident and who clearly learned his top-down aggressive political
\ntactics to strong arm musicians from the former President Trombetta.<\/p>\n
$700,000 in debt!<\/p>\n
I thought musicians had legal protection against an
\nadministration running us into the ground!<\/p>\n
Where is proof of which version is the REAL truth?<\/p>\n
Real truth? Local 47 is happy to report that we are in the
\nblack and have no debt.<\/p>\n
Real truth? Local 47 is $700,000 in the RED, we have to
\nfix our deficit problem ?<\/p>\n
Will the REAL truth please stand up!<\/p>\n
[EC: Gary Lasley said at the Oct., 2015 general meeting the Local
\nwas approx. $450,000 IN THE BLACK for the first 6 months of 2015.
\nSo did they lose 1.15 million dollars from the July to the beginning of
\nDecember?<\/p>\n
Not a chance.<\/p>\n
The RA-RA Caller is lying to every member they tell that to…
\nor Gary Lasley was blowing smoke at the October
\nmeeting, when he said we were $450,000 in the
\nblack at the beginning of October.<\/p>\n
So which is it? Call the local and ask.<\/p>\n
The Musicians’ Club owns the property….the Club is solvent
\n…..pays the property taxes and turns over the surplus to 47.
\nThe value of the Club belongs to the membership.<\/p>\n
As was reported earlier in the blog (November 22nd)
\nby a well placed source:<\/p>\n
FINANCIAL FACTS ABOUT THE LOCAL
\nThe Local has ZERO debt. It has approx. $975,000 in CDs,\u2028invested in multiple places. The Local has always had\u2028enough money to pay CASH for all of the repairs or\u2028improvements and even new buildings, i.e. the rehearsal\u2028rooms.
\nThe Local has spent over a million dollars on the property\u2028in the last few years. The rehearsal building was $530,000.\u2028The auditorium remodel was $360,000. The remodeling on\u2028behalf of the Federation west coast offices moving in was\u2028around $100,000.
\nA new chiller for the bulk of the AC for the building was\u2028$65,000. The Club \u201cCLUB 47\u2033 generates income – $290,000\u2028in 2014. The property tax gets paid, some money gets paid\u2028to the local on the two loans for the rehearsal building and the\u2028auditorium remodel, and barring any other major expenses for\u2028the building, the rest gets turned over to the local. That is in\u2028the club bylaws.
\nSo the idea that the Local can not afford a new roof at this\u2028point is really not true. They will likely end this year in the\u2028black as they have laid off at least four employees in the last\u2028few years, have not replaced our computer system admin,\u2028Candi, who sadly passed away.
\nThey have almost undoubtedly cut legal expenses- I think\u2028in 2013 they spent well over $200,000 of the members\u2028money on that- so the desire and rush to sell 817 Vine\u2028has to be about something else.
\nNot because they can\u2019t figure out a way to pay for the roof.\u2028In late 2012 and the first half of 2013 they came up with\u2028$460,000 to pay the federation back work dues that the Local\u2028owed them. They will take in at least 4 million this year in\u2028dues; they have shrunk the staff and have hopefully curbed\u2028excess spending on lawyers- but they still want at least 10\u2028million dollars\u2026.!]<\/p>\n
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II. THE 1000 BALLOTS – Member Commentary<\/p>\n
What Executive Board Members Say About The Extra 1000
\nPrinted Ballots:<\/p>\n
In answer to your question someone posed on the most
\nrecent blog edition, the extra thousand ballots were not
\nprinted with different language. If that were the case, the
\nexecutive board would have printed a few thousand extra.<\/p>\n
According to Executive Board members, they were printed
\nwith the same language, and at the same time all the others
\nwere printed.<\/p>\n
According to Executive Board members, the extra 1000
\nballots were printed with the intent to give to any individual
\nwho claims they never received a ballot a second ballot… etc<\/p>\n
That I am aware of, there has been no mention by the Executive
\nBoard to the members of any oversight to make certain a
\nperson can not vote twice.<\/p>\n
To my knowledge, the executive board has never made it
\nclear what measure of transparency members have to make
\ncertain the extra ballots are not used as fillers if they are
\nmissing their quota and\/or making certain no one votes
\ntwice. Or, for that matter, helping someone vote who couldn’t.
\nWell, I guess the later notion (helping someone vote who
\ncouldn’t) falls under the category of using the extra printed
\nballots as fillers to make certain the quota is met.<\/p>\n
Regardless what conspiracy theory my mind comes up
\nwith in its state of ZERO trust given to this administration,
\nthe Executive Board has not ever printed anything about
\nthese extra 1000 ballots in the Overture nor have they given
\nmembers any sort of reassurance of full transparency.<\/p>\n
All they have given us is an aggressive sales pitch with very
\nlittle information, and a ballot that does not even ask for
\npermission to sell the building. The ballot is written in a
\nmanner the building WILL BE sold.<\/p>\n
Because of the wording of the ballot, it seems to me that
\nthese extra thousand ballots could be another possible
\nunderhanded move by the Executive Board to make certain
\nthe ballot-quota is reached.<\/p>\n
After all, without transparency, (and in light of a ballot
\nforcing the sale of a building against the will of some
\nmembers who would actually like to vote on IF the
\nExecutive Board\/Club 47 even has permission to sell),
\nhow can ANY member actually know if someone really
\nvoted or not, or if an individual voted twice.<\/p>\n
Consider this: There are extra ballots somewhere. How
\ncan we be certain that the executive board would not use
\ntheir power of secrecy they have demonstrated in regards
\nto this sale to use some of these ballots as fillers to make
\nup for any missed quota needed.<\/p>\n
Considering how hell bent they are to sell the building,
\nto the extent they are not even asking us for permission
\nto sell, it is a FAIR question to ask, “what measures have
\nbeen taken to ensure transparency to the members?”<\/p>\n
Considering all the other secretiveness and the aggressive
\nagenda to sell the building, I certainly do not trust what
\nI hear from board members about an extra 1000 ballots
\nhaving been printed to hand out to anyone who claims
\nthey never received one.<\/p>\n
This administration has demonstrated to the members
\nthat they do not do anything altruistically. They do
\neverything agenda-driven.<\/p>\n
Therefore, in my mind, what are the odds that these
\nextra 1000 ballots will be “fillers” to pad the quota,
\nand some people will vote twice who feel strongly
\nabout selling the building?<\/p>\n
Member With Zero Trust<\/p>\n
[EC: We have a slightly different take. Someone reported
\nto us that they saw a huge stack of returned ballots (either
\nwrong, returned to sender or incomplete addresses) And
\nthose extras could be to replace those.<\/p>\n
Also, As we understand it, the ballots themselves are
\nnumbered, so they can be matched to individual members,
\neven if a replacement is needed.<\/p>\n
We’re certainly for having every measure of accountability
\nfor the vote.<\/p>\n
===================================<\/p>\n
III. YET ANOTHER SCORING VENUE APPEARS – VIENNA<\/p>\n
Listening yet RMA\/AFM\/LOCAL 47?<\/p>\n
The Synchron Stage Vienna was built in the 1940s as an orchestral scoring stage.\u2028The period of film music recordings in the middle of the 20th century was
\nfollowed by classical recordings in the 1960s and1970s.
\nBy the beginning of the 21st century the stage had lost its importance and was
\nmainly used as a rehearsal stage. Herb Tucmandl and his Vienna Symphonic
\nLibrary team are now reawakening the building as the Synchron Stage Vienna.
\nSynchron Stage Vienna, located in the heart of Vienna, the charming capital
\nof music, rated the most liveble city world-wide for the past five years!<\/p>\n
Watch the video here:
\n