If you were the CEO or Executive Director for an ICSOM orchestra in the 2007/08 season, odds are you enjoyed the largest single increase in compensation in recent history. Taken in context, the 2007/08 season was the height of the economic bubble and clearly, most orchestra executives didn’t miss out on the benefits associated with the rise of the executive class…
AFM Poll Results
Last Wednesday’s poll asking readers if they thought orchestra musicians should leave the AFM produced an enormous response rate; at the time this was written, it had over 500 unique reader responses. The results were fascinating on several levels and since this poll allowed users to select multiple responses, it provided some equally fascinating opportunities for cross tabulation. Read on to find out the recommend fate of orchestra musicians and representation…
Context, Urtext, Or Just Plain Perplexed?
Ron Spigelman managed to churn up the cultural blogging waters a bit in a recent post entitled It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!! wherein he pushes some tried and true artistic hot buttons. Nothing inspires passionate debate (A.K.A raises the hackles) quite like discussions of artistic nature and the comment thread has taken a life of its own (and includes input from several well known cultural bloggers). Give the …
Should Orchestra Musicians Leave The AFM?
Yesterday’s post on the recommendation by the American Federation of Musicians’ (AFM) International Executive Board (IEB) to give officers an unaudited $10,000 discretionary spending account has generated a considerable amount of feedback throughout social network sites and private email messages. One item that repeatedly pops up is whether or not orchestra musicians would be better served by staying within or leaving the AFM. Consequently, let’s find out what readers thin Sorry, …
Things That Make You Go Buh?!? AFM Leadership
What do you call a $10,000 discretionary spending account over and above existing annual compensation, travel expenses, and departmental budgets? Oh, and did I mention that each executive with the mad money privileges will not be required to make an accounting of what or how they spend those funds. If you’re the current leadership of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), you call it Recommendation #24 for changes to the Federation bylaws…