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Tin Sandwich Music |
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John, i completeley understand. ever since I got my first internet account. The topical forums were always that way. I wish there was a way for it not to be so topical. More in the form of a suggestion process so that , as I said before, the vast membership could feel like they are really being represented by their union and not just paying dues in order to simply receive a quarterly printed on newsprint paper. This could be a forum for discussion. I think the local's budget should finance free concerts for the public even if the MTF is inadequet to fund them. Why should union members , who would like to perform for the public, have to depend on the meager handout from the MTF, besides the beauracracy involved is discouraging to start with. The MTF is practicaly useless today Our local could revive , singel-handedly, "Live Music" interest in our Boston area if the offices actually devoted some time and energy to it. Conditions are so adversarial even for the most experienced and seasoned musicians of Boston. Even the BSO and POPs have subsidies, however, the majority of energy spent by our local is on these ventures that benefit only a few musicians with great salaries to begin with, not to mention the promoters! Boston was known once as a great city for live music of every kind. Now most of us can't even get a gig where they 'pass the hat". Why has Berklee College Of Music cornered the market on cheap live enertainment, mostly by college students subsidized by their parents. I wish our union local had the strength and organization of the the Plumbers local or The State Police union. I wish it had the strength to stand behind it's membership by actually investing in it and giving something back in the form of greater visibility, promotion of 'itself' and 'Us' . Alas, this doesn't happen. This could be the forum for discussion. Our very survival, the thing we devoted our lives to and then joined the"Union" to cement and codify a profession for professional musicians. So, no. It doesn't happen with us. All musicians are left to their own devices to "promote a gig", a gig that hardly pays enough to justify leaving the house. Yet , we play them, they are usually under scale, but we still belong to the Union. Those Nightclubs or Restaurants want performers who "promote themselves" or fill the house with friends and family. What student/school venture can't do that at least once? Berklee College can do that any day of the week, they have the human resources and the money (plain and simple). No doubt the students get work -study credit as well. It feel as if we as a Union and it's constituency have been undermined! That's my new suggestion, and thanks. I will also forward this to our new President and post it on my own website as well. Mike Turk
John Grimes <jgrimes@BostonMusicians.org> wrote: Hi Mr. Turk, We had considered that question in the past and the experience we had observed from other locals in the country who had tried it was that the forum eventually breaks down into something other than cordial exchanges. There are so many musicians that are angry because their part of the industry (the style of music they play and the audience for it) is dying and they always seem to find a way to blame the union for that death. It ends up being a mud-slinging forum where for better or worse, angry members lash out at the Local and sometimes each other. When we created this new website, we agreed in the end t that just being able to receive an e-mail with an issue would help us to respond and we do so promptly. Certainly, you may feel this cuts down on the democracy part of things and you are probably right. We have a new President and you may be able to prevail upon him with your idea. Why not write him directly . His e-mail address is patorch@msn.com It certainly is a function that our webmaster could put into play for a bit more money. Creating this kind of forum would be something our board of directors would need to approve. Also, some blog sites actually go through a censorship process that makes sure personal attacks are extricated so as not to inflame things too much within the organization. That doesn’t mean removing opinions. There could be guidelines of decorum established. I know from personal experience that the Orchestra L website which I belong to (ICSOM members and union officers have access) has these rules. Still, members send in all kinds of e-mail blogs on a variety of topics and the forum is continuous. I find when an issue gets a bit too inflamed and the bickering starts on a particularly hot issue, a few years back some people got a bit below the belt, but soon they were called on it and in recent time the exchanges have been more respectful. Otherwise what happens is that members get very turned off and stop reading the blogs…..so, it ends up being counter productive to the notion of having a forum for a healthy exchange of ideas. In any event, I’m just temporarily acting as President for a couple more weeks in transition to the new administration, so you would be best to address our new “leader” on this topic. Why not write him and let him ruminate on this as well. We are adding 3 new members to the Board, so discussions about ideas will take up a lot of our board’s future meeting times. Sincerely, John Grimes Vice President |
My response to Vice President John Grimes |
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Dated January 11th 2008 |
