Newsletter April 2017

Local 1000 April 2017 Newsletter

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This is our regular monthly email newsletter that goes out to everyone in the first week of each month. It includes reminders, member news and important announcements from the Executive Board and the office.

 News from the Executive Board

Communications Committee

One of the most important things we do is keep in touch with you, our members. We do that through this newsletter, through our website and Facebook pages, and through The New Deal, our yearly print publication.

We need your help! We are looking for members who want to help oversee this very important aspect of our work, including curating and preparing content for our website and Facebook pages, overseeing our monthly e-newsletter, and collecting and editing interesting and inspiring stories for the New Deal. It would involve a small amount of regular work, meeting with other committee members (by Skype or Zoom) and finding and creating content as a group or individually.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Colin at the office together@local1000.org and put “Local 1000 Communications Committee” in the subject line.

 

SERFA 2017

Once again Local 1000 will have a prominent presence at SERFA being held at the Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, NC, May 17-21, 2017. Debra Cowan and John O’Connor will be hosting and facilitating a panel discussion on Thursday, May 18 at 1:45 PM in room 203.

Local 1000 will also be hosting our popular Showcase-Free Zone (SFZ) in the Conference Center lobby from 10:45 PM -12:45 AM. If you would like to host a slot, please contact Debra via email at dcowan@DebraCowan.com. Your membership must be in good standing to host a session, yet all conference attendees are welcome to participate in the SFZ.

 

Connecting Together

As touring musicians we don’t have a union hall that we can gather at to share stories and encourage each other in our common work. However, we do have other ways to gather and talk. Join us April 18th for our monthly Cyber Union gathering. We use the Zoom platform and our calls are only an hour. We meet at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 p.m. Central, 7:00 Mountain and 6:00 Pacific.

Be watching your inbox and both our facebook pages www.facebook.com/local1000afm or www.facebook.com/groups/AFM.Local1000 for details on this months call. And while you are there Like our page or sign up on the members only page.

If you have not been on one of our Cyber Union calls it is simple. Just follow the link below, download the plug-in at Zoom (1 minute download) and you are in! If you have questions please feel free to call Aaron Fowler, 316-207-4715.

Topic: Local 1000 April 2017 Cyber Union Hall

Time: April, 2017 8:00 PM (GMT-6:00) Central Time (US and Canada)

 

Work Dues Equivalency – Set Up An Automatic Monthly Payment!

Are you filing union contracts? If not, please help sustain Local 1000 by automatically paying a small monthly amount every month on your credit card. It’s simple, easy, and effective.

Each time you file a union contract through Local 1000, you pay 2.5% in work dues to the local. Your work dues are the juice that keeps the office running. However, only 20% of our members file union contracts, which means we don’t always have the financial resources we need to work effectively for you.

At our recent Executive Board meeting at Folk Alliance, your board re-committed to “paying our dues,” and those who are not filing union contracts set up an AUTOMATIC MONTHLY PAYMENT for work dues equivalency on our credit cards by phoning Richard in the office. It took less than 5 minutes.

Scale for one gig at a regular venue is $230. 2.5% work dues on that fee is $5.75, or $69 per year. Consider supporting your union by paying $5.75 a month to Local 1000 automatically on your credit card.

You can set up your own monthly payment in minutes by calling Richard in the office at (212) 843-8726 (Tues & Thurs, 10 am – 6 pm). All it takes is your credit card information and a few minutes of your time.

Emergency Relief Fund

Please consider helping your brothers and sisters who may need assistance in the near future by making a small contribution to the ERF when you renew your membership or go to www.Local1000.org and make your donation. $5 or $10 dollars will go a long way if enough members make donations.

Canadian Corner

 

Canadian Cheques

For many years Local 1000 has accepted membership dues and work dues from Canadian members by Canadian cheque. But in order to offer this service, we keep a special bank account with expensive processing fees (US banks don’t routinely accept foreign cheques).

Since we receive very few payments each year by Canadian cheque, the Executive Board has decided to move towards closing our Canadian bank account and only receiving payments by credit card and/or PayPal from Canadian members. This will save us a significant amount of money every year. We have already been in touch with most of our members who have paid by Canadian cheque recently and so far everyone has been fine with the change.

Please contact me at vicepresidentcanada@local1000.org or the office at together@local1000.org if you have any questions or concerns about this change.

Eve Goldberg

 

P2 Situation Updates

US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) has increased the fees for all O and P visa petitions to US $460.

More Information is Available Here

The Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) is now advising Canadian members applying for P2 visas to get their application in at least 120 days before the first engagement.

There have been changes to the P2 forms posted on the CFM website. If you are applying, please make sure you download the latest application, which can be found here:

English: http://www.cfmusicians.org/services/work-permits
French: http://www.cfmusicians.org/services/permis-de-travail

Please contact Canadian VP Eve Goldberg or the CFM for more information.

Local 1000 Membership Update

 

In Memoriam

We regret to share with you that longtime Local 1000 member Ed Stabler has passed away. His obituary is available here.

 

New and Reinstated Members

[Editors note: In the past we have published the names of new and reinstated members in Local 1000’s New Deal. Moving forward we will share these updates in our monthly emailed newsletters.]

Simeon Abbott Ralph Agresta Tafari Anthony Davis Joshua Archer Andre Blais Elizabeth Curry Ryan DeNardo William Doerge Sean Forte

Lisa Helmi Johanson Kate Moore Jim Page Javier Perez-Gomez Skye Petel Alanna Saunders Orit Shimoni Stephanie Umoh Laurie Veldheer

April Birthdays

 

Finally, we would like to wish the following members Happy Birthday! If your birthday falls in April and you don’t see it listed below, or if the date is incorrect, please send an email to our Birthday Bunny, Deborah Van Kleef with your birthdate, current phone number and email address.

04/01 Stacie Tabb 04/03 Dennis Mackrel 04/04 Benedict Gagliardi 04/05 Anthony Chatmon 04/05 Andrew Collins 04/06 Hali Hammer 04/07 Janis Ian 04/07 Ian Robb 04/08 Andrew Pacheco 04/09 Michael Browne 04/09 Brian MacMillan 04/09 John Showman 04/09 John Wort Hannam 04/10 David Rovics 04/10 David Rowe 04/11 Aviva Chernick 04/11 Duncan Phillips 04/13 Kate Reid 04/13 Chris Verhoeve 04/16 Armand Aromin 04/16 Thomas Lewis

04/18 Darryl Poulsen 04/19 William Doerge 04/19 Michael McKenna 04/20 David Hakan 04/20 Clint Milburn 04/20 Judy Werle 04/21 Will Danforth 04/23 Phil Cohen 04/23 Lydia Adams Davis 04/23 Si Kahn 04/23 Catherine MacLellan 04/24 Roger Day 04/24 Dana Idlet 04/25 David Theroff 04/26 Jeremy Kittel 04/26 John “Billy” Ware 04/27 Erika Kulnys 04/27 Evalyn Parry 04/30 Kev Corbett 04/30 Ken Whiteley

In Solidarity,

AFM Local 1000