August 2024 Newsletter

Dear Union Family,

This is our regular monthly email newsletter. It includes reminders, member news and important announcements from the Executive Board and the office.

News from the Executive Board

Presidents Message

Greetings Union Siblings

I hope this August newsletter finds you well and enjoying the fresh fruits from the garden.

The E Board would like to give a big thank you to the fine folks at A Still Small Voice 4U Foundation for making grants available to 15 of our members for the second year. These grants cover concerts that are free and open to the public. Thanks also to Joe Jencks for helping to put together this partnership.

A big shout out to our birthday bunnies! Members always mention their birthday calls as a real plus. Birthday bunnies not only connect with our members, they also report back when a phone number is out of service. It is important that we maintain current contact information for all our members. If you have changed your phone number, postal address or email, please contact one of our office staff, at richard@local1000.org or colin@local1000.org and update your information. You can also update your information at the AFM website. 

I want to urge you to add our upcoming two membership meetings to your calendar. The first will be Tuesday, October 1st, right before the Folk Music Ontario conference in Mississauga, ON (October 3-6). The third and final meeting for 2024 will be Thursday, November 21st at the beginning of the NERFA conference in Portland, ME. To participate virtually, see Zoom links below.

We hold officer elections at the third membership meeting of the year. This year the positions of U.S. Vice President and East Coast Representative are up for election. Any member in good standing may be nominated or declare their candidacy by email to Secretary Treasurer Donna Nestler at secretarytreasurer@local1000.org no later than September 15. Members will receive a list of candidates 30 days prior to the November 21 membership meeting. 

Finally, as you book and perform your fall gigs, I urge you to either file contracts or pay estimated work dues. AFM members are required to pay 2.5% work dues on all musical performances, even those that pay below scale. This vital income stream allows us to keep our doors open and serve our members. We currently have 350 members, of whom 80% are paying no work dues at all. If a monthly or quarterly estimated work dues payment works for you, contact co-Administrative Director Richard Coombs at richard@local1000.org or 212-843-8726 to set up automatic payments. 

Happy traveling!

Aaron Fowler

Canadian Report

Hello Canadian Members of Local 1000,

I’ll get right to the point: The U.S. government continues to make entry for touring musicians increasingly difficult. Last year the cost of applying for a P2 visa was raised. Now they have extended the approval time to 185 days. 

The longer processing time began when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began requiring applicants to send their petitions to a new distribution center in Texas, to then be assigned to an office in either Vermont or California. The California office already takes an unconscionable amount of time to issue approvals, though the one in Vermont seems considerably more efficient. The only way to avoid the uncertainty caused by this new procedure is to pay a premium processing fee of $2,805 (though you may still wait up to a month).  Already, one of our members has had to cancel a U.S. tour due to a delayed response from USCIS. 

This situation will impact all Canadian musicians attempting to tour the U.S.  American Federation of Musicians (AFM) officials in both the U.S. and Canada continue to lobby intensively on border crossing issues. Local 1000 will continue to monitor this issue, but for the most up-to-date information, check the Canadian Federation of Music (CFM) website at:  https://cfmusicians.afm.org or call 416-391-5161.

For assistance with your P2 application, contact Liana White at CFM:  https://cfmusicians.afm.org  She can advise you on how processing time may affect your plans.

Please feel free also to contact me about this issue and to discuss it with venues, politicians and your fellow musicians.

Arthur McGregor
vicepresidentcanada@local1000.org

Fair Trade Music Committee Update

The Fair Trade Music Committee has been active and busy building the most ambitious organizing campaign in our local’s history.  We’ve spent the past year doing training, identifying strategies, and reaching out to members, supporters, and potential organizing targets.  As fruitful as these efforts have been, we need the involvement and help of more of our members.

How can you help?

*First, sign the statement of support: https://www.local1000.org/statement-of-support-for-working-musicians/

*Second, contact us at fairtrademusic@local1000.org.  We need our members to get organized among ourselves.  This means reaching out to fellow musicians, union and not, to share visions about how to assure decent wages and benefits, items that need to be tackled in our workplaces and work lives.  Get educated, get involved.

Finally, we have materials…postcards lining out our goals (w/a QR code to learn more), Fair Trade Music guitar picks, and stickers.  Take them to your gigs, put them out on your merch table.  We need our audiences to get excited about the program and lend their support in getting their local venues to come on board.

This is going to take more than a committee.  This is going to take all of us.

Membership Meetings

We have two membership meetings left this year. Meetings are only for members in good standing with Local 1000. Membership status will be checked before anyone is admitted into the meeting. Agendas will be sent in September for the October meeting and in October for the November meeting.

The first will be Tuesday, October 1^st

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88156075621

Meeting ID: 881 5607 5621

The final meeting this year will be Thursday, November 21^st

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88196475914 

Meeting ID: 881 9647 5914

Executive Board Nominations

Nominations for US Vice President and East Coast Rep will be held at the third membership meeting of the year. This year that meeting is November 21^st. Any eligible Active Member in good standing may declare their candidacy for one of these offices by advising the Secretary-Treasurer, Donna Nestler, of such in writing no later than September 15 of election year. Members will then be notified of the slate of officers 30 days prior to the third membership meeting. 

Important Upcoming Dates

• Thursday, August 2910 – Executive Board Meeting 12:30 PM Eastern
• Wednesday, September 25 – Women’s Coffee Hour 12:00 PM Eastern
• Tuesday October 1 – Membership Meeting 6:30 PM Eastern
• Monday October 7 – First Monday Coffee Hour – 3:00 PM Eastern
• Thursday October 10 – Executive Board Meeting 12:30 Eastern
• Thursday, November 21 – Executive Board Meeting 12:30 PM Eastern
• Thursday, November 21 Membership Meeting Time TBA

For more information, view the Local 1000 calendar

Current Contact Information Needed

If you have changed any of your contact information since joining Local 1000, please contact the office, richard@local1000.org or Colin@local1000.org and let them know your current information. This includes your phone, address, or email. You can also go online to the AFM website to check and update your contact information. 

Tribute to Bernice Johnson Reagon

We were saddened to hear of the passing of former Local 1000 member, Bernice Johnson Reagon, who died on July 16. Member Jesse Palidofsky penned this tribute to her after an encounter earlier in July, which we wanted to share with the membership. 

TRIBUTE TO BERNICE (Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon)

Civil rights shero

SNCC organizer

Co-founder of the Freedom Singers

MacArthur Fellow

Doctor of History, now retired from teaching at American University

Director of Music and African American Culture for the Smithsonian Institute

Founder of the earthy and transcendent warriors for justice, the women’s acapella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock

This afternoon your long-time partner Adisa wheels you into the common area in the middle of my music program at a local care facility

Your queenly stature is diminished by myriad health issues and yet you bear yourself ever-regally   

I am seized with awe and terror

What could I, late-blooming vessel of musical healing,

Possibly have to offer you?!!!

If I were singing in the presence of Woody or Ella or Dylan or Robeson or all four of the Beatles, it could not feel more intimidating

I have followed your career for nearly half a century. 

Years ago I joined the Traveling Musicians Union–Local 1000 of the American Federation of Musicians—even though I was infrequently performing on the road

Just so that I could attend the very first Local 1000 retreat 

And be in your presence at that hotbed-incubator of social justice movements

The Highlander Center in the mountains of east Tennessee

Where you would be honored by your union peers

John McCutcheon, Holly Near, Ken Whitely, Bev Grant, Kim and Reggie Harris, Tom Chapin.

It was life-changing for me to be there and to find my tribe. 

You had been at Highlander as a 19-year-old

Where you were encouraged to start the SNCC Freedom Singers.

When I mention over the dinner table at Highlander 

That I first heard Sweet Honey at an outdoor concert in 1976

At the Mariposa Folk Festival on Toronto Island, Ontario

I am blessed by your electric gaze and uproarious guffaw

“Oh, you were there during the mons-o-o-o-ns!!!”  (In the middle of Sweet Honey’s mainstage set, torrential rains scattered all the listeners crowded on the lawn to places of cover, while the group gamely continued with their inspired set, which included the first performance of “Joann Little”.)

I breathe in deeply and continue with my program,

Swinging the guitar and blowing my racked harmonica,

Focusing my gaze on the balding barbershop singer Dennis and Dr. Jill the psychologist and Ayse from Istanbul and Dolores, dancing jubilantly in her chair, while Bill meanders with his walker on the periphery, 

This whole roomful of beloved faces with whom I have been privileged, for years, to share Friday afternoon “happy hour” harmony. 

I only allow myself to gaze at you peripherally every now and then

And yet I settle even more deeply into that delightful sweet spot

As I see you join in, with beaming smile, on

“Lean On Me”, “Blueberry Hill”, “Go Down Moses” and “Summertime”.

Your euphoric spirit radiates from the core of your being

When we close our time with “This Little Light of Mine”—

A song that in this dominant White culture 

Has been “Kumbaya-ed” into submission by uninspired musicians,

Tamed and eviscerated of all its inherent power–

Though if you heard Sweet Honey’s version of either of those songs, you would forever be set right.

And yet, at the height of the Struggle

A song that you, Fanny Lou Hamer and thousands of unnamed others—

Black sharecroppers, domestic workers, schoolteachers, garbage men–

Sang in packed churches in the deep South,

And it helped you tap into the soul-force to face

The cruel brutality of the barbaric sheriffs and vicious vigilantes

With their savage attack dogs and high-pressure fire hoses

That very same evening here in D.C.

At the sold-out 80^th birthday celebration concert 

Honoring the fabulous baritone crooner, jazz impresario and 

Former Washington pro football team defensive back Dick Smith

I am chatting with Pam, wonderful Black woman vocalist

With whom I have occasionally sung.

I am relating my experience of that afternoon

And how intimidated and gob-smacked 

I felt to be singing in Bernice’s presence.

To my utter astonishment it dawns on me

That the woman sitting beside Pam

Is Yasmeen Williams, long-time member of Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Yasmeen looks me dead in the eye and says,

“We all felt that way!”  

Emergency Relief Fund Update

Good news! The Emergency Relief Fund (ERF) offers grants of up to $500 to members in good standing for emergency medical or unforeseen circumstances that impact their ability to work. This new policy replaces the old no-interest pay-back loan model and we hope to be able to keep offering the $500 grants as long as the fund remains solvent. If you are a former ERF grant recipient, we ask that you “pay it forward” by donating to the fund whenever you are able, to help ensure that others can get support when they need it. We also hope that past recipients will participate in future fundraising activities, so we can continue to help members in need. 

To apply for an ERF grant, go to: https://www.local1000.org/resources/emergency-relief-fund/

Committee and Executive Board Work

The bulk of the work of this union gets done through hundreds of hours of volunteer labor by committee members and the Executive Board. The E-Board meets every 6 weeks via zoom and the committees meet regularly. If you want to join the excitement or have a concern that you think we should address, please contact President Aaron Fowler. It takes all of us working together to stand up and fight for our rights. Please consider joining us. You can make a difference.

Conference call: You can represent Local 1000

Local 1000 hopes to be represented at more conferences to reach musicians throughout the independent music industry. Our labor and voices are needed now more than ever, for members and non-members alike. If you plan to attend a conference and want to help spread the word about Local 1000 please contact President Aaron Fowler to see how you can be an ambassador for your union. It’s not hard to do and is a great conversation-starter.

Social media handles

Are you connected to Local 1000’s social media accounts? If so, make sure you like or follow us on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afmlocal1000

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/local1000afm

Facebook Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/local1000afm

We also have a private Facebook page for Local 1000 members only, to facilitate communication and promote discussion of union issues among our members. Please ask to join this page to connect with your fellow members (Friends of our local are encouraged to like our public page instead.)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AFM.Local1000

Member News

Tell us your news! Have you released an album, won an award, been involved in an interesting initiative that you’d like to let people know about?

If you have exciting news to share with Local 1000 members, we want to know. Submit Your News Here!

We’ll include your news in an upcoming Local 1000 e-newsletter, and we’ll post it on our public Local 1000 page at https://www.facebook.com/local1000afm

Note: Submissions should highlight significant career events. Please do not submit gig or tour announcements!

August Birthdays

Finally, we would like to wish the following members Happy Birthday! If your birthday falls in August and you don’t see it listed below, or if the date is incorrect, please send an email to Deborah Van Kleef with your birthdate, current phone number and email address. Thanks to Deborah and fellow Birthday Bunnies, Lydia Adams Davis, Arthur McGregor and Tim Van Egmond.

In Solidarity,

AFM Local 1000