Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Was There a 2007 Convention?

The latest issue of the International Musician (IM) spares all mention of it.

The 2007 Convention was a volatile gathering with many changes debated and voted on. Perhaps the publisher thought there was no news fit to print?

Our President again fails to mention anything of substance—not even repeating his campaign promises of change, recruitment and retention. Instead, we get a thinly veiled attack on the Recording Musicians Association (RMA), which has been practically the only thing coming from his direction for several months, and is becoming more tiresome with each reiteration. (See page 2, August 2007 IM.)

In addition, his diversity comments did not mention the issues regarding African-American delegates. Though our Union may be diverse in its fraternal attitude towards all musicians, we all must come to terms with the fact that our voting delegates, as well as our Union population, do not reflect that diversity.

The most amusing portion of the latest IM was Sam Folio's assertion that "classical music thrives," with the seemingly contradictory report of John C. Hall, Jr. of the Music Performance Fund (MPF) on the next page (pages 6-7). Is Sam Folio referring to the fact that classical music thrives in China? Having just returned from China myself, I can attest that live music filled the lobbies of many hotels and restaurants, and parks hosted many classical concerts. It reminded me of better times in the United States. However, I'm not sure Sam Folio can take the credit for it.

The only thing he should take credit for is giving our Union a false appearance of solvency, by reaping the benefits of foreign orchestras displacing American Union musicians. See:

1 comment:

June said...

Your posts are so so good. Unfortunately, most people probably are afraid to answer or too dumb to understand how clearly you put things. Looking back at the convention, I would say dummies are the prevalent group representing members.