Quarterly General Membership Meeting/December 12, 2016
The quarterly meeting of the general membership of the Cincinnati Musicians’ Association was called to order on December 12, 2016 at 7:13PM.
15 members were present.
The minutes of the September 26,2016 quarterly meeting were approved with an amendment. Member Dave Halderman suggested that the entire name of the auditing firm be included. M/S Joe Gaudio/Don Hurd
PRESIDNET’S REPORT:
I. Review of 2016
- All officers were sworn in by acclimation
- AFM Field Representative Barbara Owens did an audit and sat in on a Board meeting. President Frankenfeld was admonished for not doing a newsletter.
- The annual audit by Kelley, Galloway, Smith, Goolsby, PSC ended on March 31. The outcome of the audit was positive.
- In the CSO two principal players were not tenured. In one instance there was a grievance filed and later withdrawn.
- In his role as President of Local 1 Paul has attended extra 32-33 meetings with the CSO because of the Music Hall renovation. The transition to the Taft has been much smoother than anticipated. Major concerns were parking for patrons and musicians and there will be two foreign tours during the transition period. The tours will be to Asia and then Europe in August. Planning for the tours has been a challenge as concerts are still being confirmed.
- The season at the Aronoff has been very strong in relation to past seasons. Even though the number of jobs seems to shrink there are more shows being presented.
- In late May/early June the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO) contract was written and ratified. The CCO has gone through some growing pains but their new festival format seems to be very successful. They have also hired a new music director.
- The Blue Ash/Montgomery Symphony Orchestra has seen some small increases in their scale.
- The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra announced major departures in management. President Trey Devey is leaving for Interlochen and Director of Personnel, Walt Zeschin is taking a job with the Utah Symphony. Both will be leaving in April.
- There have been some major changes in the health benefits with the CSO musicians A task force has been created to examine alternatives.
- The contractor for the Josh Groban tour hired non-union musicians for the Cincinnati performance. This was apparently done up and down the east coast. The IEB is contemplating taking action.
- The 100th AFM Convention took place in Las Vegas. President Frankenfeld, Secretary Dunevant, and Vice President Lambert attended. There was a change to the IEB when during elections Sam Folio was voted out of office and Jay Blumenthal was voted in as Secretary. Finances for the AFM are in much better shape than 3 years ago. As membership continues to decline, a touchy subject is the desire of the national office to purchase property in New York and use some of the space for rental property.
- Another national shake-up has been with the AFM Regional Conferences. Local 1 has been a member of the Mid-America Conference (MAC). The IEB has unilaterally combine regions to create larger areas. MAC wants to remain in a smaller configuration. Hopefully a compromise can be arranged where the smaller regions can meet and then during the International Convention meet as larger regions. MAC is planning on meeting in Chicago in 2017.
- The majority of work dues now come from Symphonic Services and Nashville is now the recording capital of the U.S.
II. Open Floor Q&A
- Jose Mangual, referring to recent consolidations of some smaller Locals in the area, asked if there was going to be any further consolidation. President Frankenfeld responded that consolidations are being seen more in California at this point. For example, Local 353 may merge with 47 if needed. Some jurisdictions are very large and very busy. Any move to consolidate is being done on a case-by-case basis.
A motion to adjourn was given by David Haldeman. Meeting was adjourned at 7:51PM and was followed by refreshments.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol Dunevant, Secretary
