Bruce Ridge, Brian Rood, Laura Ross, Michael Moore, Richard Levine, Matt Comerford,
Paul Gunther, Cathy Payne, Meredith Snow, Len Leibowitz
1. Columbus – Len and Bruce spoke about recent conversations with local president Doug Fisher and orchestra committee chair Jim Akins. Len also spoke about the status of the mediation proposal the musicians made a few weeks ago. While it appears there may be some hope of agreeing to mediation, management continues to put conditions on terms for mediation, many of which cannot be agreed to.
There was discussion about some of the AFM Strike Fund policies regarding payment of benefits during scheduled dark weeks of a season, determining who receives the payments (the musicians or the local which then distributes them), how non-payment during dark weeks of a season should be handled with orchestras that pro-rate their salary over 52 weeks, and the number of payments received during a bankruptcy. Governing board members that received benefits in the past spoke about their recollections of how they were handled at the time and Brian related what the Strike Fund Trustees had been told about past practice the past 8 years regarding how dark week payments are handled.
The governing board raised a number of questions regarding some of these policies and encouraged Brian to speak to the trustees and encourage them to change some of these policies, including the number of questions regarding payment during dark weeks.
Bruce has drafted a Call to Action on behalf of the Columbus Symphony and it will be distributed in the next day. Depending upon the success of it, the Call to Action may allow the orchestra to delay making a formal request for a loan from the Emergency Relief Fund. Michael reports that there will be a higher draw available after he closes the books in June.
(Richard had to leave the call.)
2. LCC/PCC meeting – Bruce asked for any suggested topics to raise during the PCC meeting with the IEB this weekend. Laura suggested the IEB be reminded that they have been invited to the conference to participate on at least the first day. There was a brief discussion about the RMA/AFM resolution that was passed at the 2007 conference regarding our hope that their disputes could be resolved, and to offer whatever assistance we could to assist in this resolution. Everyone agreed that Bruce is a very effective representative for ICSOM and the PCC and assured him of their total confidence in this upcoming meeting.
3. A/V negotiations – the next meeting with the managers is on June 30 in New York. There had been discussion about using a facilitator but the person they finally agreed upon is not available. There continue to be issues about who is responsible for the expenses to send musicians to these meetings.
(Richard returned to the call during these discussions.)
4. Senza Sordino – a few tweaks were discussed regarding the June issue about to go to the printer. Laura asked if plans had been made for orchestras that are beginning vacations since the issue has been delayed. Bruce asked the MALs to contact their delegates to see if they wanted the issue to be sent in bulk or to the individual musicians; the issue should be in the mail in about two weeks.
Richard believes it is possible to produce a pre-conference issue but there were concerns expressed about deadlines that continue to change. After explaining why this recent issue had been delayed, he said he would target it for receipt during the first week of August – Len agreed to write something about Columbus, Cathy said she would write about their education programs and Laura and Paul will write about the recent Major Orchestra Librarians Association conference. Richard will let us know what the deadline is.
5. Collaborative Data Project – Bruce reported on this meeting in an earlier e-mail. There are a number of concerns remaining in this process, including the very important issue of access to the information – the main reason for beginning these discussions. Bruce and Brian report that ROPA President Carla Lehmeier-Tatum has many of the same concerns.
6. Bruce's Summer Travels – Bruce will attend the Conferences of ROPA (Houston TX) and OCSM (Victoria BC).
7. Conference planning – Everyone has agreed to the expenses for the keynote speaker from the Americans for the Arts. Our AV needs are mostly PowerPoint capability, PC access and a screen. There was a brief discussion about the education presentations, the bylaws disc, that Len and Peggy need more time for their participatory arbitration workshop, and who should receive the upgraded room (Len is bringing his family so he will get it). ICSOM will reimburse Peggy’s airfare.
Next call: Tuesday, July 15 – 8PM EDT/7PM CDT/5PM PDT