The Committee For A More Responsible Local 47

****** HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE COMMITTEE******

I. SPECIAL “MEMBER CALLED/CLUB 47” MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH
II. COMMENTS
III. EVENTS

…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer

…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’

scoring musician

…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician

…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician

Name Withheld

===================================

I. SPECIAL “MEMBER CALLED” MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH

On January 4th, Monday at 7PM please be at the Local to
voice your opinion.

Please plan now to be at the special meeting called by concerned
members about the potential sale and the Local’s methods
in regards to the sale.

Concerned members called for a special meeting to
address their concerns on the building sale and the Local’s
conduit in regards to the sale.

There were three areas of concern to be considered:

1) Nullification of the Ballots and the reissue of said ballots
with a totally clear meaning, not the duplicitous ballots we
were sent.

We were informed the the Local would call that Motion out
of order. Seems after some research that once ballots are
sent they cannot be recalled and must run their course.
How convenient…

2) The delay of the sale until members are fully informed of
all aspects of the sale. Who benefits, who get the money, who
oversees the money, etc.

3) Guarantee that all letters and comments sent to the Local
about the sale, pro and con are immediately printed on the
Local’s Website AND in the next print issue of the Overture.

We need your voice and your support!

Please be there.

===================================

II. COMMENTS

My thoughts are that the local member/realtor should
donate his entire post-tax fee to a music school or
music education program. Or something similar.
It’s a blatant and offensive conflict of interest.

Sir Tesla

————————————-

If you owned your house outright with property tax protection…
would you really sell and make a move that would be guaranteed
to increase your overhead because you needed repairs or a new
roof? We could have had a referendum for a loan to take on such
expenses…and not just liquidate. The Club has reported a profit
every year …you don’t see something wrong with this picture?
You would liquidate? Bankruptcy is nonsense!

————————————-

As a Local 7 member, I’m pretty POed that this is the 2nd time
Local 47 has scheduled a function the same night as Local 7.

Doesn’t anybody check these things?

————————————-

I just got an email from BMI where they are going to bundle
votes to send to Congress.

How difficult would it be to bundle votes which oppose issues
in the union and present them to L47. This is something both
RMALA and 47 would overly discourage . If anything just to
have on record.

This could be an opposition voice of most of the 7000
members and sent directly to the Board in future matters
from the committee.

Someone suggested voting through emails years ago and
was shot down because they didn’t want most musicians
to have a voice only the ones who controlled the work.

(more…)

I. SPECIAL “MEMBER CALLED” MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH
II. COMMENTS
III. EVENTS

…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
scoring musician
…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician

Name Withheld

===================================

I. SPECIAL “MEMBER CALLED” MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH

On January 4th, Monday at 7PM please be at the Local to
voice your opinion.

Please plan now to be at the special meeting called by concerned
members about the potential sale and the Local’s methods
in regards to the sale.

Concerned members called for a special meeting to
address their concerns on the building sale and the Local’s
conduit in regards to the sale.

There were three areas o concern to be considered:

1) Nullification of the Ballots and the reissue of said ballots
with a totally clear meaning, not the duplicitous ballots we
were sent.

We were informed the the Local would call that Motion out
of order. Seems after some research that once ballots are
sent they cannot be recalled and must run their course.
How convenient…

2) The delay of the sale until members are fully informed of
all aspects of the sale. Who benefits, who get the money, who
oversees the money, etc.

3) Guarantee that all letters and comments sent to the Local
about the sale, pro and con are immediately printed on the
Local’s Website AND in the next print issue of the Overture.

We need your voice and your support!

Please be there.

===================================

II. COMMENTS

I am glad that the special meeting will request information
regarding money. Will any officers of the local benefit
financially from the building sale? I state the obvious that
that would land them in jail. But I wouldn’t put it past one
or more when so much money is on the table. It may be just
too much to resist.

Mr. Kool Aid

————————————-

The realtor stands to make at least around $192,000
(2.5% of $22m, with a 70/30 split with the company).
From what I understand the L47 realtor is a local L47 member.

[EC: Yes, ONE of the realtors from Hilton and Hyland is a
Local 47 member, violinist and RMA Member, Darius Campo.
Some have called that a conflict of interest.

Any thoughts?]

————————————

Comment:
Our building is prime real estate. There are so many other
ways to make up any ‘short fall’ with this property. There
needs to be real, successful, accomplished business people
employed to run this local. Every other suggestion is a joke.

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(more…)

I. SPECIAL “MEMBER CALLED” MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH
II. CALL NUMBER THREE – MEMBER COMMENT
III. PARANOIA – MEMBER COMMENTARY
IV. COMMENTS
V. EVENTS

…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
scoring musician
…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician

Name Withheld

===================================

I. SPECIAL “MEMBER CALLED” MEETING ON MONDAY, JANUARY 4TH

On January 4th, Monday at 7PM please be at the Local to
voice your opinion.

Please plan now to be at the special meeting called by concerned
members about the potential sale and the Local’s methods
in regards to the sale.

Concerned members called for a special meeting to
address their concerns on the building sale and the Local’s
conduit in regards to the sale.

There were three areas o concern to be considered:

1) Nullification of the Ballots and the reissue of said ballots
with a totally clear meaning, not the duplicitous ballots we
were sent.

We were informed the the Local would call that Motion out
of order. Seems after some research that once ballots are
sent they cannot be recalled and must run their course.
How convenient…

2) The delay of the sale until members are fully informed of
all aspects of the sale. Who benefits, who get the money, who
oversees the money, etc.

3) Guarantee that all letters and comments sent to the Local
about the sale, pro and con are immediately printed on the
Local’s Website AND in the next print issue of the Overture.

We need your voice and your support!

Please be there.

===================================

II. CALL NUMBER THREE – MEMBER COMMENT
How many calls have YOU gotten?

Many members have started feeling absolutely harassed
by the number of calls they’re getting trying to strong-arm
them into voting yes….

Here’s one we thought you’d enjoy:
 
Received “call number 3” today from the folks trying to get
us to return our ballots with a “yes” vote.

I am NOT making this up! This is exactly how the conversation went-

The caller, John said

1. “Our Local is $761,971 in debt! We must sell the building”
I asked about the financial statement at the Oct 5 Musicians
Club meeting – “Our Local is $900,000 in the black”

He replied that the $900,000 is “in reserve”
I asked “which is it, John? Both statements can’t be true”

2.“Our building needs a new roof! Estimate is $200,000!
We must sell the building”!

I asked why then at the Oct 26 General meeting did our
Officers state the building is “structurally sound”?

3. “Our building needs $50,000 in electrical grid upgrades!
We are “at capacity!” We must sell the building”!

I said “Since we are under Building Code laws from when
the structure was built, we are legal”

I forgot to point out to him that the 2nd floor is 2/3 empty

4. “We are out of Building Code compliance– we have no
elevator to allow wheelchair customers access to the Musicians
Credit Union”!

I said “Since we are under Building Code laws from when the
structure was built, we don’t have to have an elevator. And
if necessary we could easily move the Credit Union downstairs
to give access”.

I then asked John the all-important questions-
“Are you a Local #47 Member”? –No

“Are you employed by the advertising firm trying to get everyone
to vote “Yes” with rah-rah tactics? –No

“Are you being paid to make these phonecalls??!! –Yes –
PAID BY THE LOCAL! (Our dues)
 
I told John that virtually every member I talk with says the same
thing-

“We don’t have enough info yet to make an informed decision,
yes or no”

In other words the “callers” are now using a list of “emergency facts”
saying a yes vote is the only way to avoid disaster.

Lastly, I pointed out to John that –
The majority of our members are well educated and intelligent;
That we know better than to rush into a Real Estate decision;
That providing us all with information pro and con, rather than 
this emotional rah-rah ad campaign would have got far better
results so far;
And that these secret “frantic” actions have made everyone
wonder why are we in such a hurry?
 
I’m not against selling the building, but I want to know all the
facts first, thank you very much.
 
ANONYMOUS COMMENT – saying what everyone else is thinking.

===================================

III. PARANOIA – MEMBER COMMENTARY

“Just because someone is paranoid it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a
conspiracy.”

None of this stuff adds up. It’s all ambiguous.

Ambiguity is the protector of incompetent leadership.

All year, the S/T has reported that “We’re in the black.” Now, without
explanation, they are $700K in the red. But wait, the EB is great at
managing the finances – they said so themselves. Now, I just found
out that Local 47 is behind on its per capita payment to the AFM,
which was due in November. Yet, they were 400K plus in the
black at the end of October.

Maybe the time has come (The Time Is Now?) to do a forensic
financial audit of the local and get to the bottom of it all.
There are provisions in the Local Bylaws for it:

§V-4 (Secretary/Treasurer duties):

“(n) keep an accurate and current account of the properties and
of all financial transactions of the Local, as well as an account of
all receipts, disbursements, and transactions pertaining to security
and trust deposits, all of which shall be open for inspection by the
Executive Board or by any member at any time during normal
business hours and make certain that the property of the Local
is properly insured;”

§XIII-2 (Right to information):

“Right to Information: Every member shall have the right to information
concerning the rules, action, and other matters affecting the membership
of the Local, and shall have the right to a copy of the annual Financial
Report of the Local and to have reasonable access to any books, records,
accounts, or other supporting documents connected with the finances of
the Local. Every member shall have the right to a current copy of the
Bylaws of the Local and of the Federation.”

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IV. COMMENTS

About the video on the Vienna scoring stage, it speaks
volumes about our business and the LA musicians promoting
it.

(more…)

I. COMMENTARY – WHOSE BLOWING SMOKE? THE CALLER OR THE LOCAL’S NUMBERS?
II. THE 1000 BALLOTS – Member Commentary
III. YET ANOTHER SCORING VENUE APPEARS – VIENNA
IV. COMMENTS
V. EVENTS

…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
scoring musician
…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician

Name Withheld

===================================

—SPECIAL MESSAGE—

COLLEAGUES,
So the tactics are changing. NOW members are being told that the extra
money in the bank will allow them to sue more studios to get us work
back, (Work the rank and file will never see); and also that the union is
now over $700,000 in debt, which flies in the face of Secretary Lasley
reporting at the last GM Meeting at the end of October that the union
was $450,000 in the black for the first 6 months of the year.

They are getting more desperate and their obfuscations more blatant.

It is vital that ALL members who see the blog send it to their Local 47
and even AFM Colleagues. The AFM has got to know what the Local is
doing here in Los Angeles.

Please help us make sure ALL members know what’s going on.

THE COMMITTEE

===================================

I. COMMENTARY – WHOSE BLOWING SMOKE? THE CALLER OR THE LOCAL’S NUMBERS?

I did actually get this exact call. I know we are not in debt,
but I also know other members are getting the same call.

So I wrote this:

***********************

Will The REAL Truth Please Stand Up?!?!?

I just got a call from someone on the building committee tasked with
making phone calls in order to sway me into a yes vote on the sale
of the building.

This individual said that Local 47 was $700,000 in the RED…. A
serious deficit which required the sale of our building to clear,
or we all go down.

$700,000!!! Do these people know how to balance a check book?
If so, when was the last time they did it before spending MY
money I trusted them with?

I can’t trust this executive board with the money I gave them.
That is now as clear to me as the nose on my face. So how
do they expect me to trust them with millions more of my
money on a building protected for the members? They
couldn’t even handle the dues money I was paying them.

I can’t even get my head wrapped around the level of incompetence
members have allowed to run our Union when no one ran
against this administration at the last election.

$700,000 deficit!?

That phone call meant to scare me into a yes vote, it
just backfired.

Oh I am not done. I have more to say:

Since when did Local 47 begin adopting the practice of
most managements in regards to scaring people into a
decision, threatening “your organization will go dark if
you don’t do as we tell you to! Now agree with us and
do as we want you to do! Let us take away your rehearsal
services because you won’t even have a job if you don’t
let us clear our deficit by removing your rehearsals!!”

As an orchestral player who is seasoned now in experiencing
managements scaring the cr*p out of us,  and seasoned in
watching how fear grips us and we end up willingly giving
up our rehearsal time because maybe our negotiator was
not willing to fight hard enough for us…. This phone call
was all too familiar. It was like our union stole a page from
managements playbook or something.

After experiencing managements, imagine getting this call
from this campaigner who is clearly in favor of selling the
building, and he sounded NO different than most managements
these days: “We have to sell the building (get rid of your rehearsals)!
We need to clear our $700,000 deficit! If you don’t say YES, you
won’t have anything in the end. Better to agree with us.
Something is better than nothing”

Once again, musicians have to give up what is theirs so they
can clean up someone else’s financial mess?

Operative words, “someone else’s”.

We do our part. We show up to rehearsals. We pay for their
financial mistakes.

We pay our union dues. Now we are asked to give up our
building because of their financial blunders?

What do we get in return from managements in orchestras
and from our union when we are forced to give up something?
We are thrown on stage under rehearsed and low moral,
and our union ran off with my money and no accountability
other than to try to scare me into now giving up my union building.

This angers me. This really makes me hot under the collar. Who
is a musician suppose to be able to trust if there is no competence
in either managements of orchestras or even our union?

I have one last point to make before I am done:

Either Local 47 is lying in this campaign, trying to scare me
into a yes vote, OR, The Secretary is the liar when he told
members that Local 47 is in the black and that the union has
no debt. Which one is it? Who is lying?

Is the executive board lying about being in the black?

Or are they lying to every member in the union with these
campaigning calls about being in the red by HUNDREDS
OF THOUSANDS of dollars!

There can not be two opposing truths!

This administration, either way, needs to ALL be thrown out of office.

They were the last administration under Trombetta who had
secrets and railroaded members for their own agendas.

And here we are again. Almost the same board because no one
in our membership had the guts to run against them and no
one in our membership cared enough to run an entire slate
against the slate. Now we have the same administration
under the “leadership” of Acosta, who was former Vice
President and who clearly learned his top-down aggressive political
tactics to strong arm musicians from the former President Trombetta.

$700,000 in debt!

I thought musicians had legal protection against an
administration running us into the ground!

Where is proof of which version is the REAL truth?

Real truth? Local 47 is happy to report that we are in the
black and have no debt.

Real truth? Local 47 is $700,000 in the RED, we have to
fix our deficit problem ?

Will the REAL truth please stand up!

[EC: Gary Lasley said at the Oct., 2015 general meeting the Local
was approx. $450,000 IN THE BLACK for the first 6 months of 2015.
So did they lose 1.15 million dollars from the July to the beginning of
December?

Not a chance.

The RA-RA Caller is lying to every member they tell that to…
or Gary Lasley was blowing smoke at the October
meeting, when he said we were $450,000 in the
black at the beginning of October.

So which is it? Call the local and ask.

The Musicians’ Club owns the property….the Club is solvent
…..pays the property taxes and turns over the surplus to 47.
The value of the Club belongs to the membership.

As was reported earlier in the blog (November 22nd)
by a well placed source:

FINANCIAL FACTS ABOUT THE LOCAL
The Local has ZERO debt. It has approx. $975,000 in CDs,
invested in multiple places. The Local has always had
enough money to pay CASH for all of the repairs or
improvements and even new buildings, i.e. the rehearsal
rooms.
The Local has spent over a million dollars on the property
in the last few years. The rehearsal building was $530,000.
The auditorium remodel was $360,000. The remodeling on
behalf of the Federation west coast offices moving in was
around $100,000.
A new chiller for the bulk of the AC for the building was
$65,000. The Club “CLUB 47″ generates income – $290,000
in 2014. The property tax gets paid, some money gets paid
to the local on the two loans for the rehearsal building and the
auditorium remodel, and barring any other major expenses for
the building, the rest gets turned over to the local. That is in
the club bylaws.
So the idea that the Local can not afford a new roof at this
point is really not true. They will likely end this year in the
black as they have laid off at least four employees in the last
few years, have not replaced our computer system admin,
Candi, who sadly passed away.
They have almost undoubtedly cut legal expenses- I think
in 2013 they spent well over $200,000 of the members
money on that- so the desire and rush to sell 817 Vine
has to be about something else.
Not because they can’t figure out a way to pay for the roof.
In late 2012 and the first half of 2013 they came up with
$460,000 to pay the federation back work dues that the Local
owed them. They will take in at least 4 million this year in
dues; they have shrunk the staff and have hopefully curbed
excess spending on lawyers- but they still want at least 10
million dollars….!]

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II. THE 1000 BALLOTS – Member Commentary

What Executive Board Members Say About The Extra 1000
Printed Ballots:

In answer to your question someone posed on the most
recent blog edition, the extra thousand ballots were not
printed with different language. If that were the case, the
executive board would have printed a few thousand extra.

According to Executive Board members, they were printed
with the same language, and at the same time all the others
were printed.

According to Executive Board members, the extra 1000
ballots were printed with the intent to give to any individual
who claims they never received a ballot a second ballot… etc

That I am aware of, there has been no mention by the Executive
Board to the members of any oversight to make certain a
person can not vote twice.

To my knowledge, the executive board has never made it
clear what measure of transparency members have to make
certain the extra ballots are not used as fillers if they are
missing their quota and/or making certain no one votes
twice. Or, for that matter, helping someone vote who couldn’t.
Well, I guess the later notion (helping someone vote who
couldn’t) falls under the category of using the extra printed
ballots as fillers to make certain the quota is met.

Regardless what conspiracy theory my mind comes up
with in its state of ZERO trust given to this administration,
the Executive Board has not ever printed anything about
these extra 1000 ballots in the Overture nor have they given
members any sort of reassurance of full transparency.

All they have given us is an aggressive sales pitch with very
little information, and a ballot that does not even ask for
permission to sell the building. The ballot is written in a
manner the building WILL BE sold.

Because of the wording of the ballot, it seems to me that
these extra thousand ballots could be another possible
underhanded move by the Executive Board to make certain
the ballot-quota is reached.

After all, without transparency, (and in light of a ballot
forcing the sale of a building against the will of some
members who would actually like to vote on IF the
Executive Board/Club 47 even has permission to sell),
how can ANY member actually know if someone really
voted or not, or if an individual voted twice.

Consider this: There are extra ballots somewhere. How
can we be certain that the executive board would not use
their power of secrecy they have demonstrated in regards
to this sale to use some of these ballots as fillers to make
up for any missed quota needed.

Considering how hell bent they are to sell the building,
to the extent they are not even asking us for permission
to sell, it is a FAIR question to ask, “what measures have
been taken to ensure transparency to the members?”

Considering all the other secretiveness and the aggressive
agenda to sell the building, I certainly do not trust what
I hear from board members about an extra 1000 ballots
having been printed to hand out to anyone who claims
they never received one.

This administration has demonstrated to the members
that they do not do anything altruistically. They do
everything agenda-driven.

Therefore, in my mind, what are the odds that these
extra 1000 ballots will be “fillers” to pad the quota,
and some people will vote twice who feel strongly
about selling the building?

Member With Zero Trust

[EC: We have a slightly different take. Someone reported
to us that they saw a huge stack of returned ballots (either
wrong, returned to sender or incomplete addresses) And
those extras could be to replace those.

Also, As we understand it, the ballots themselves are
numbered, so they can be matched to individual members,
even if a replacement is needed.

We’re certainly for having every measure of accountability
for the vote.

===================================

III. YET ANOTHER SCORING VENUE APPEARS – VIENNA

Listening yet RMA/AFM/LOCAL 47?

The Synchron Stage Vienna was built in the 1940s as an orchestral scoring stage.
The period of film music recordings in the middle of the 20th century was
followed by classical recordings in the 1960s and1970s.
By the beginning of the 21st century the stage had lost its importance and was
mainly used as a rehearsal stage. Herb Tucmandl and his Vienna Symphonic
Library team are now reawakening the building as the Synchron Stage Vienna.
Synchron Stage Vienna, located in the heart of Vienna, the charming capital
of music, rated the most liveble city world-wide for the past five years!

Watch the video here:

THE COMMITTEE

========================================

IV. COMMENTS

I have followed the saga of a potential building sale
with both interest and amusement. Interest because those
who wish to be honest members of the local on behalf of
their brothers and sisters need only to follow the money.

Who stands to benefit financially from this transaction?

And amusement because this sort of trickery has been
tried before in another local. Unsuccessfully I might add.

So if you are truly skeptical and want to protect the
future of the local, get off your collective rear ends
and do something.

Mr. Kool Aid

———————————————–

I am truly grateful to the holder of this site who
has shared this impressive article at at this time.

———————————————

I recently received another call from some local 47
employee wanting to discuss the vote on selling the
building. He mentioned several reasons why the union
needed to sell it – it was old, needed repairs, etc.

But then he said they had a $700,000 deficit and that
really caught my attention. I could of sworn that at
one of the October meetings one of the officers said
they had a surplus of $450,000 or close to that for
the first half of the year. Now the guy says they have
a $700,000 deficit?

Did they just blow through over a million dollars?
I don’t know what or who to believe! The guy asked
me if I had voted and I said not yet. I found the ballot
and saw that 22 million number- If I can’t trust them
with 450 or 700 thousand, no way can I trust them
with 22 million!

A NO vote is going into the mailbox next week from me

[EC: As we’ve said many times, we do not believe this
ballot can be trusted. In our view the only way to
guarantee a no vote is not to send it in!]

———————————————-

Just got a  call from an employee at local 47 (Is that even legal?)
encouraging me to vote yes to sell the building. I told him I was
concerned about wording of both yes and no votes basically
meant the building would be sold. He said that was not true.

A “yes” vote is for selling the building and a “no” vote was for
not selling the building. He also danced around the wording, 
hemmed and hawed a little and then finally said that the
lawyers put the wording together.  Hmmm. 

Anyway, thought you guys would like to know.

———————————————

‎Well, certainly there is misconduct on the part of the local.
There may even be criminal misconduct. 
 
If the AFM were to investigate the matter, would members
be willing to provide testimony re: the local’s deceitful activities?

(more…)