SPECIAL MAILING: RESOLUTION TO MUZZLE RMA PRESENTED TO AFM CONVENTION

6/23/16
HISTORIC RESOLUTION PRESENTED AT THIS WEEK’S AFM CONVENTION
Resolution to remove the RMA from any role in the creation of
contracts.

I. RESOLUTION No. 4
II. HISTORY CALLING FOR THE RMA REMOVAL RESOLUTION
III. NON-UNION RECORDING LOCALES
IV. EVENTS

…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
scoring musician
…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician

COMING NEXT WEEK

+Late next week will be a bombshell edition on the AFM Convention –
Please read and share to all you know!+

======================================

I. RESOLUTION No. 4

Here is the RESOLUTION presented to the LAW committee and
the AFM Convention this week in Las Vegas.

Recording contracts and RMA role

WHEREAS, The RMA policy of refusing to allow buyouts options for
AFM recording contracts, has resulted in an 80%+ reduction of
recording work in Los Angeles and across the federation, also
playing a role in Local 47 needing to sell it’s historic building

and

WHEREAS, This policy promoted by the RMA has led to multiple
locations across the federation recording non-union because
contracts are unusable. (i.e. Nashville, Los Angeles – dark,
Virginia, Indiana, New York – dark, San Francisco – dark,
Vancouver, etc., Seattle)

WHEREAS, Repeated lawsuits by the RMA, through its surrogates,
against the AFM have squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars
of rank and file musicians’ dues in frivolous and self-serving
litigation.

WHEREAS,  the unsuccessful campaign instigated by the RMA
against Lions Gate has also wasted tens of thousands of dollars
of rank and file musicians’ dues; and

WHEREAS the Colorado Symphony has decertified the AFM because
of ineffective media restrictions. (This was later removed)

Whereas the AFM, while adopting most of the RMA’s ineffective
policies, has refused to sanction union members in Nashville
doing non-union recording projects despite the fact that the
Nashville local president is a member of the IEB; and

WHEREAS, Officers of the RMA have participated in recording
sessions outside of the U.S. and have played on domestic
library recording sessions also without AFM sanctions; and

WHEREAS, both the AFM and RMA have no program, whatsoever,
to improve the economic hardships faced by recording musicians:
therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the AFM move forward to allow proper buyout
and competitive contracts in areas such as Video Games, Trailers,
Samples, Low and Medium Budget Films etc.; and be it further.

RESOLVED, That to accomplish this, the destructive influence of
the RMA be removed by excluding it from any role in the
formation, execution or creation of any AFM contracts

Submitted by Local 300

===============================

II. HISTORY CALLING FOR THE RMA REMOVAL RESOLUTION

Colleagues,

Long time AFM and Local 47 member Charles Fernandez attended
the convention with the intention of speaking in support of the
resolution.

Unfortunately, Member Fernandez was not informed as to when the
committee would discuss Resolution 4, so was not in attendance
when it was. Whether this was by design, or accidental, we don’t
know. We do, however, know that member Fernandez was not
allowed to speak on the floor of the convention, though he was
told he could speak to the committee before the decision.

In other words, the committee made the decision without allowing
support expressed for the resolution, while no doubt the RMA was
there to influence the committee and a decision was made as to it’s
fate without any feedback from those who wrote the resolution.

Naturally, the sheep at the convention all bowed their heads and
said nothing, though they know better than anyone the damage
the RMA has caused.

Member Fernandez was to speak in favor of the resolution, owing to
his extensive knowledge of the origin and result of the RMA’s
outsized role and control of Local 47 and the AFM.

Below you will find Member Fernandez’ entire presentation
prepared for the LAW Committee (Which they never heard.)

ABOUT THE RESOLUTION TO REMOVE THE RMA FROM CONTRACT ROLES
Local 47 member, Charles Fernandez

The RMA in its original form was the RMAC in the 60’s. It’s incarnation
as the RMA originated in the early 1980’s.

The original concept behind special payments in the 1960’s was to
attract business with lower, more affordable rates up front with the
understanding that if a film was successful, a percentage of that
success (profit) would go to the musicians.

Back when Los Angeles and New York were the only places to record
this worked fine. The RMA LA contractor, however, spent years
charging triple and quadruple scales, believing that they had a corner
on the market and that producers would never seek another option.
This same RMA contractor would book most big rooms in town
making them unavailable, then cancel all but one at the last minute.
The contractor would also over book musicians to make them
unavailable, then cancel them at the last minute as well.

An employee at a major music copyist’s office once overheard this
main RMA contractor telling a potential client, “I’ve got the only
orchestra in town and I’m not available, so you need to go elsewhere.”
This at a time when you could easy have 6 or 7 top notch orchestras in
Los Angeles working at once. It’s not much different today, considering
there are immeasurably more “A-list” players in Los Angeles than there
are on the “A-list”.

It was bound to happen that producers would tire of being fleeced and
begin looking elsewhere to record.

With Mr. Holland’s Opus and Die Hard II, Seattle proved it could score
anything LA could and record it did. London as well could and did score
projects big and small. The horse had left the barn, movie studios could
no longer be held hostage by triple and quadruple budgets and huge
back end payments.

Some RMA members say that the strike of the 1980’s opened the door
to studios looking for other recording options. If the RMA leadership
had had even the slightest interest in a long term view, the exodus
could have been slowed, but the back end made the result inevitable,
strike or not.

The RMA has controlled big budget recording and Local 47 in Los
Angeles for a long time and to a large extent still does. One wrong
word and your recording career was over as can be attested to by
100’s of musicians who fell “out of favor” with the RMA leadership.
This same threat doesn’t work so well anymore since the work is a
shadow of it’s former self.

Once the work started to leave, the RMA Leadership covered their
ears or simply refused to see the inevitable. They were and are the
buggy whip makers in the age of the remote recording, internet and
cloud technology whose only concern was and is the size of their
July check, regardless of the damage caused to anyone else.

But what has the RMA done besides being completely in denial on
the backend? Local 47 is little more than RMA West, and most of
the IEB has not had the spine to stand up to them.

A WAR

Let’s talk about the Tom Lee years. The RMA leadership detested
Tom Lee because he wouldn’t genuflect to the RMA and insisted
on working on the behalf of ALL members.

A case in point was his “Video Game Agreement”. To this date, it
is only the Tom Lee VG agreement put out by the AFM that has
ever been used for any significant work.

WHY?

Video games have no back end, never will, but the VG Companies
will not sign an assumption agreement. The Tom Lee contract
allowed composers to sign the assumption agreement (No back
end to pay, no problem for the composer).

Video Games were scored AFM with this contract; composers,
players and the companies were happy.

But since the RMA leadership didn’t have a big say in it’s writing,
and because anything having to do with Tom Lee had to be bad,
the RMA leadership hated this contract.

They hated it so much in fact, that as an orchestra prepared for
five days of double sessions for the Simpson’s Video Game, someone
associated with RMA put notes on the stands of the players saying
in effect, “We don’t like this contract and we don’t think you
should be working under this contract.”

Half the orchestra bailed on the sessions, afraid of blacklisting if
they stayed. The VG Companies were livid and vowed never to
return to Los Angeles. The studio and their crew lost a week of
work. So the work remained union, but went to San Francisco.
None of those companies would touch LA and the “RMAers” with
a 20 foot pole and still won’t.

The RMA leadership never forgot this, as you will see.

THE PMG (THE GUILD)

The RMA Leadership created an illegal “Union” (their word) called
the Professional Musicians Guild to record Video Games in the event
that Tom Lee was re-elected. The listed leadership for both the RMA
and the PMG were similar. Marc Sazar was listed as the PMG Secretary
Treasurer, Vice-President of the RMA, while even being the web master
of Local 47. Conflicts of interest do not come much bigger than this.
Hal Espinosa, then president of Local 47, was nothing more than an
advocate for the RMA and whatever itch that wanted scratched.

At the video game conferences in San Francisco, these RMA/CMG
members introduced themselves as AFM members who were
authorized to handle video games contracts (A blatant lie). They
also told the game industry reps that they should call the “guild”
when they’re ready to record. If you called the number on the “GUILD”
business card you reached the RMA OFFICE IN THE LOCAL 47 BUILDING.
The Local said nothing. If the RMA leadership couldn’t get the work
legally, they’d try to do so illegally.

This illegal organization violated AFM Bylaw (Article 10, Section 3) by
creating an illegal competing union in the federation’s jurisdiction,
trying to take over Video Games negotiations, and falsely claiming
AFM approval.

They even got a journalist to write an article for them.

————

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…

————

The Guild’s goal was perfectly clear, and in their own words, it was
an attempt to bust the AFM.

With one of their Officers being the Secretary-Treasurer of the PMG,
the Vice President of the RMALA and webmaster of Local 47, the
conflict of interest between the RMA and the GUILD could not be more
solid.

No less solid was the link between the GUILD and LOCAL 47.

At a conference in New England at the time, Mr. Espinosa not only
defended the GUILD, and admitted that one of the PMG’s officers held
an enforcement position at the Local (The Hearing Board), but went
further and said he would take no action against any GUILD member
unless forced to by the Federation.

His true loyalties were clear; to the RMALA above all. The IEB was no
more help than President Espinosa. The governing body of our federation
would do nothing to stop this illegal guild, or was simply impotent to do
so. Local 47 was (and still is) owned by the RMA, but it turned out so was
the IEB.

In truth, it was all about getting back at Tom Lee at the member’s
expense.

THE LAWSUITS

Then there were the lawsuits. The RMA leadership would call a contract
promulgated or that they didn’t have enough input. Or it was a tax
they didn’t like. They even got the RMA Membership up in arms about
a sliding scale of tax payments that was actually put in place by the
RMA leadership itself, as well as changing the rules so that only those
players who spent enough hours recording could vote on contracts,
(Shutting out a vast majority of their own members nation-wide), yet they
shifted the blame to Tom Lee, and the gullible bought it hook, line and
sinker.

The RMA then created a company called FAREPLAY, to collect money
from RMA Members to help pay for the Lawsuits.

Though the RMA kept losing these suits, they made it clear that as
long as Tom Lee was the AFM President they would make the AFM’s
life hell and that they would see the AFM member’s dues spent fighting
the RMA Lawsuits.

At the following convention, the votes were in, and the RMA’s candidate,
Ray Hair was elected. The RMA had not forgotten about that Video Game
work though, and if they couldn’t have it no one could. This is where we
see the true pettiness and insidiousness of the RMA leadership.

One of the first things the newly elected President Hair was told to do was
to decree that ONLY COMPANIES could sign the VG assumption
agreement, not composers. In that moment, all video game scoring not
grandfathered in with the Tom Lee Contract was lost, gone off to Seattle,
or London or anywhere, or eventually, Nashville, but never AFM again. As
I said, if the RMA leadership couldn’t have it, no other AFM members
could.

Another example of RMA Arrogance?  Two RMA leaders from Los Angeles
went to a meeting with the RMASF board and had the gall to tell them,
according to sources, “Why don’t you guys concentrate on side-lining
and leave the recording to us.”

It wasn’t long after that, that the RMASF, seeing the true nature of the
RMA and that it will only ever be about the RMA Los Angeles, disbanded
their chapter.

Eventually, and fairly recently, President Hair stopped filing every lawsuit
the RMA leadership wanted.

The Result? One of those same two RMA leaders stood up in a meeting
and announced to the room that Ray Hair was the worst president the
AFM had ever had. Quite a statement coming from one of his creators,
and all because he (Ray Hair) wouldn’t continue to kiss the ring and file
all the lawsuits the RMA leadership wanted (Spending rank and file’s
dues money).

Of course these lawsuits would only benefit the RMA elites. It seems
President Hair is now in new “Tom Lee”.

BUH BYE WORK!

It is estimated that Los Angeles has now lost over 85% percent of its
work, even worse in the rest of the federation. Many musicians, in
Virginia, Nashville, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles and
elsewhere, tired of not working and needing to feed their families and
pay their mortgages are giving the finger to the AFM and either working
dark dates or going fi-core, and all because the AFM refuses to stand up
to a minuscule band of very selfish, greedy people (not all RMA members
to be sure, but the leadership and a few others.)

Oh,… and sidelining? The RMAERS and their contractor began doing
sidelining, and have even taken over some of the USC film scoring
sessions, something that just a few years ago would be anathema to
them. The Local administration helped that along by gutting the referral
service of Local 47 and having all calls about sidelining transferred to the
electronic music services office, home of guess who. They now try to take
over orchestras, having poisoned their own watering hole, and are trying
to push out the rank and file middle class in the process.

Let’s Review:

The Guild; The Lawsuits; Fareplay; The insidious conduct; all these point
to an organization that has become poisonous to the federation and must
be side-lined if the federation is to come back from the brink recording wise.

When I joined Local 47 it had over 13,000 members, now it’s half that.

While no one expects the major motion pictures to go buyout, we need
buyouts contracts for Video Games, Libraries, Sampling, Trailers and
lower budget projects.

For the companies, they’re willing to pay more for a buyout, but on the
other hand, I was told by an orchestrator for one of the biggest VG
Franchises that the company was willing to pay $100,000 extra to go to
London rather than record AFM. Now that’s bad blood!

Increase all the scales by 50%, or 100%, on a buyout basis and you’ll find
a lot of those dark dates coming back to the AFM, with the
commensurate increase in dues, health and welfare and pension paid. Far
more of our work would be on contract, and the ONLY ones who’ll
complain will be those who’ve done so very much to destroy our
federation. Hell, if we’d done it years ago the members may not have
been persuaded  to sell the iconic Local 47 building.

The choice is up to you, but now neither you nor anyone else can say they
weren’t warned or informed. Keep kissing the RMA’s ring, and you kiss
the AFM’s recording future good-bye.

Thank you for your time,

Charles Fernandez

=============================

III. NON-UNION RECORDING LOCALES

Member Fernandez was to present to the committee an
incomplete list of 23 recording locations where clients
can record as a buyout.

As we do not want to promote the details of these recording
options, we will only include their locations. (Some have more
than one.):

1) Armenia
2) Bratislava
3) Costa Rica
4) France
5)Lisbon
6) London (4 options)
7) Los Angeles (3 options)
8) Macedonia
9) Mexico
10) Nashville
11) New York
12) Prague
13) San Francisco
14) Seattle (2 options)
15) Tiblisi, Georgia
16) Vienna

There are certainly more options than are listed here.

[COLLEAGUES,
So as was made clear, the AFM LAW COMMITTEE and AFM decided to
continue to kiss the RMA’s ring and let our recording industry die.

Congrats folks,

No doubt apathy and nonunion recording will grow, but remember…
We did not leave our union, our union left us to genuflect for an
unethical and greedy recording musician leadership. And the sheep
have gotten what they deserve.]

NEXT TIME: COLLECTED COMMENTS THAT SPEAK TO THE SUBJECT OF THE
REJECTED RESOLUTION.]

=======================

IV. EVENTS

DEAN AND RICHARD

DEAN AND RICHARD are now playing every third Friday
at Culver City Elks 7:30pm-10;30pm,
11160 Washington Pl.
Culver City, 90232
310-839-8891

————————————-

LA WINDS JAZZ KATS 584

NO COVER, NO MINIMUM.
Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at Viva Cantina
7:30-10:00.
900 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

Free parking across the street at Pickwick Bowl.
Come hear your favorite charts played the way they
should be.

We are in the back room called the Trailside Room.

Come on down. Guaranteed to swing.

—————————————

AUDITIONS FOR CALSTATELA SYMPHONY

Please pass the word that the annual auditions for the CalStateLA
Symphony Orchestra/Olympia Youth Orchestra for the 2016-2017 season
will begin in June through mid August immediately after the season is
over.

Qualified students may submit the form on line at the website
http://www.olympiaphil.org

under “youth orchestra”.

I will be in touch to set up a time during the summer. The next
season begins late September of this year through early June of 2017.

The orchestra consists of talented students age 12 through college
age. Rehearsals are at CSULA on Sundays at 4:30-7PM. Tuition is $650
for the entire year. Scholarship is available on a need or merit
basis depending on instrument and individual student. The orchestra
students will also be able to take optional transferable college
credits from CSULA, perform with college music students in 4 on and
off campus concerts.

This is a great orchestra with lots of talented students taking part.
I look forward to hearing from students learning all orchestral
instruments.

Thank you!

Fung Ho
Music Director & Conductor
CalStateLA Symphony Orchestra/Olympia Youth Orchestra

—————————
6/14/16

The Orchestre Surreal

Featuring:
Elvis Schoenberg
Dangerous Dan O’Callaghan
The Fabulous Miss Thing
and
Los Angeles’s Most Notorious Musicians

at

Typhoon
LA’s Most Hip Pan Asian Restaurant.

Tuesday June 14th
one set

7:30-9:00

A Special Event Show

Among our usual mashups and
genre bending arrangements
We will be performing
a special Tribute to

Keith Emerson.
On the program:
two of Keith’s rarely heard orchestral works,
Glorietta Pass and After All Of This
also a piece that Keith conceived that was written for him and the
Orchestre Surreal. Pacific Honky Tonk 231 Blues
plus orchestral versions of ELP tunes.

———————————————
6/15/16

CONCERTS AT THE “BOWL”

The Corbin Bowl and San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra
Present Concerts at the “Bowl” in the “Corbin Lounge”
Wednesday Evenings at 7:30 pm

June 15
The Screaming Clams
Rock ‘n’ Roll with music of the ’60s and early ’70s, featuring
Jimi Dee, lead quitar and vocals; Joel Domine, keys and guitar;
Larry Muradian, bass; Nick Scarmack, drummer and Rebecca Ray,
vocalist extraordinaire

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OTHER CONCERTS IN THE SERIES

June 22

The Blues Bandits
Play and sing the “Blues,” featuring David Reo, guitar and vocals; Jimi Dee,
guitar and vocals; Larry Muradian, bass and Chuck Burkinshaw, drums

June 29
The Screaming Clams, part 2
Rock ‘n’ Roll with music of the ’60s and early ’70s, featuring
Jimi Dee, lead quitar and vocals; Joel Domine, keys and guitar;
Larry Muradian, bass; Nick Scarmack, drummer and Rebecca Ray,
vocalist extraordinaire

“Lounge” at the Corbin Bowl
19616 Ventura Boulevard, Tarzana

Free Admission/ONE Drink Minimum
Persons under 21 years of age not admitted

——————————————
6/15/16
THIS WEDNESDAY June 15
The BBB  featuring Bernie Dresel returns for
the first time since our live recording
to

Joe’s Great American Bar & Grill  in Burbank
from  8:30pm-11:15pm
NO COVER CHARGE!!
No reservations necessary!!
21 and older
4311 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
6/26/16
——————————————
Dear Doctor Wu Fans,

We will be appearing at the Santa Monica Endless Summer
SOULstice Festival on Sunday, June 26th 2016 from 5:00 to 7:00
PM, where we will play two sets of your favorite Steely Dan tunes.
Please bring your friends along and enjoy a great time with us!

Edgemar Courtyard
2440 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
5:00 – 7:00 PM

We hope to see you there!

The Doctor Wu Band
http://www.doctorwuband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/doctorwuband

—————————————-
6/27/16
Music at Westwood presents
MARIA NEWMAN’S
REQUIEM
Missa Mortem Da Pacem
Mass for Peace

Join us for an extraordinary evening of music with
Westwood Master Choir and Soloists
with the
Westwood Chamber Orchestra

June 26th at 5pm

Westwood Presbyterian Church
10822 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024

—————————————–

MASTER IN FLM MUSIC APPLICATIONS STILL BEING ACCEPTED

The Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program
At The
Seattle Film Institute

is still accepting applications to the One year

Master of Music (MM) in Film Composition

Recently rated as the #4 school for film scoring education
in the world by Music School Central and the #2 school
for earning a Masters of Music degree in Film Composition

Study with program creator and lead instructor

Hummie Mann

2 Time Emmy Award Winning film composer of
“Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and featured in
Variety Magazine’s article “Leaders in Learning”

Click here to listen and watch student scores from previous years

Applications are now being accepted for the 2016
school year We offer rolling admissions – applying
early is recommended Scholarship support is
available to early applicants

================================

You can read all previous offerings at:http://www.responsible47.com

UNTIL NEXT TIME,
THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47

2 Responses to “SPECIAL MAILING: RESOLUTION TO MUZZLE RMA PRESENTED TO AFM CONVENTION”

  1. Anonymous says:

    So Chuck was late to the gig, I guess.

  2. Anonymous says:

    “Long time AFM and Local 47 member Charles Fernandez attended
    the convention with the intention of speaking in support of the
    resolution.

    “Unfortunately, Member Fernandez was not informed as to when the
    committee would discuss Resolution 4, so was not in attendance
    when it was. . . . and a decision was made as to it’s
    fate without any feedback from those who wrote the resolution.”

    Well, *that’s* interesting. So it was Chas wrote the resolution, not Local 300! Huh. The right to submit resolutions only belongs to delegates, conferences and locals. That’s a pretty underhanded technique, enticing a local to shill for him.

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