TO THE RMA GENERAL CONFERENCE FROM DAVE POMEROY

To All of the Attendees of the RMA General Conference:

I wish that I could be there with you today, but I simply have too many irons in the fire in Nashville this week to get away for this important meeting.

I want all of you to know that my time as RMA Nashville President was truly a life changing experience for me. If you have told me in 2005, that I would become Local 257 President in 2008 and an IEB member in 2009, I would have said you were crazy. Of course, since then I have questioned my own sanity a time or two, but in all seriousness, I can look back and know that together we have really made a difference in our Union.

Congratulations to all of you on the progress made in the past few years in reclaiming the RMA’s rightful place in the AFM. We should feel good about the hard won battles that have taken place, but now the real work is ahead of us. It is absolutely essential that we widen our focus and look at the big picture once again. The AFM is in trouble financially and it will be a challenge to fix what has been left to rot for so long. We must work together to heal the wounds of the past decade, move on, and find real world solutions to the multitude of issues that face us.

The good news is that AFM leadership and its members are communicating again. The RMA can finally move from survival mode back to being a positive force for its members and all AFM recording musicians. As you look towards the future, I urge you to think about the AFM as a whole and understand that the RMA must reach out to all recording musicians who need to have their voices heard, whether they have been RMA supporters in the past or not. This is no time to hold a grudge, and it is time to build bridges.

In Nashville, we have made great strides in reaching out to disaffected musicians at the local level, but now AFM members everywhere must do the same. New members who create work for themselves, and others, are the future of the AFM. We must now rebuild our Union’s credibility, leave the grievances and disputes of the past behind, and move forward towards creating an AFM that we can all be proud of. Thanks to all of you for the incredible effort and sacrifices you have made on behalf of the OUR Union. Have a great conference!