2026 International Convention—Looking Back to See Forward

June 1, 2026

Ken Shirk  -  AFM International Secretary-Treasurer

Federation officers generally come into their positions after having served for a good while as officers of their locals, and in the old days—the really old days—Federation officers’ columns in this paper seemed to be speaking more to local officers than to the general membership. As the baby boomers started taking office in the 1990s, however, the officers’ columns shifted noticeably toward the rank and file membership as their intended audience, and
I have endeavored to maintain that perspective in my own columns.

This month’s column is different—I am speaking directly to local officers and delegates who will be attending the 103rd AFM Convention later this month and deciding the future direction of this union, now 130 years old. I invite rank and file members to read along and perhaps engage their local officers and delegates in a discussion about the choices to make at this June’s convention.

The Basis

Every decision made by the International Executive Board (IEB) has as its basis the following commitment, which affirms that if we are to have a union that effectively represents more than just symphonic and touring musicians, we must:

Organize to build power to enable members to attain fairness in the labor market and justice in the political realm by building membership in touring, freelance, recording, and local gig markets and developing power to achieve strong contracts.

When I joined this union, the AFM had 360,000 members. Today it’s around 60,000. It’s not because there are 300,000 fewer musicians in North America. They’re out there, just not with us. And why is that?

A smart member of my home Local 99 in Portland, Oregon, boiled it down to one simple, practical concept:

Musicians will join the union when they perceive that union membership will improve their economic bottom line.

Apparently, 300,000 musicians—most of them freelance/indie/general business players—concluded that union membership would not improve their income. Those of us who have spent time in this union know that’s an erroneous conclusion. But perception is everything. And perception must change if we’re to increase our strength. Refer back to the previously stated IEB’s guiding concept.

What’s in Front of the Convention

The International Executive Board has made two primary recommendations for the convention delegates’ vote, setting forth what we must do to find 300,000 musicians again. The first recommendation is to increase funding to the Federation via an increase in the per capita dues. Per capita dues are what each local pays the Federation each quarter based on a head count of each local’s membership. The IEB’s second recommendation is to set a realistic standard to which locals must adhere in order to approach effectively the job of representing musicians in their jurisdictions.

Recommendation No. 2

If we’re going to build power for better pay and a responsive government, we must engage in actual labor and community-based organizing, all across the Federation. For the last several decades, we’ve tried everything else besides organizing, and 300,000 musicians have shown us how well we did. It’s past time for us to do what every other successful union does: grow through organizing.

To that end, Recommendation No. 2 proposes that, as a baseline, every local must:

• Meet with the membership eight times a year
• Have an up-to-date website and an active social media presence
• Keep a list of venues, clubs, and lounges in its jurisdiction
• Keep a list of music education programs in its jurisdiction
• Do an annual workshop for musicians on indie and freelance musicians’ rights
• Participate in designing a Federation-
  coordinated multi-local regional organizing plan
• Utilize funding from the AFM and Music Performance Trust Fund to benefit the members
• Participate with their central labor council
• Budget 10% for organizing
• Send a newsletter or “e-zine” once a month to the membership
• Pay at least one officer at least the required minimum wage

None of the above is particularly radical nor out of reach for any local, but the list does set forth in writing what any local that wants to be a recognized voice for musicians in its area should do. That these basic things should even need to be set forth in bylaws at all is an indicator of the philosophical gap between us and those 300,000 musicians.

Recommendation No. 1

Raises dues—per capita dues specifically. For regular members, the IEB’s proposal would increase dues by $20 per year (or $5/quarter or $1.67/month).

Federation per capita hasn’t been raised since 2013. Judicious administration by the previous Federation officers made that possible by keeping expenses—particularly staff expense—down. The accumulated surpluses since 2013 may leave some wondering why an increase is even requested.

Those 300,000 absent musicians is why.

These two charts, covering the last 12 years, illustrate the relationship between economizing on staff and membership growth:

It’s a plain picture: investments in staff (the dotted line) remained relatively flat—which means staff was actually reduced after accounting for cost-of-living increases—and membership dropped by 20,000 in the same period (the solid line).

It takes people to make a union work.

The IEB’s commitment with Recommendation No. 1 is to:

• Build up the Organizing Department
• Deploy a unified Federation-wide master organizing plan, with emphasis on those 300,000 musicians
• Build the Freelance Services Department
• Develop the Communications Department
• Ramp up our lobbying in DC and Ottawa

There’s a piece in this recommendation for everyone, whether you’re a local officer or a local member.

Recommendations No. 1 and No. 2 Go Hand-in-Hand

Both these recommendations are about planning for the future, not reacting to the present. Reacting as we have for the last 130 years is a bad habit, particularly because it signifies not being in control of our destiny. Labor and community organizing is all about planning and taking action for the future, not doing damage control in the present.

Real organizing, however, requires people—organizers, supporting resources, lawyers, communications, and public relations—and all of that requires funding. Most AFM locals do not have the financial resources to deploy fully-functioning organizing programs in their areas. So, the IEB has determined to develop and deploy regionally-based multi-
local-coordinated organizing programs, initially in the five main regions of the US and Canada. They will work to the benefit of locals in each region—pooling and centralizing resources to achieve economies of scale.

That takes funding. At present, the Federation’s cash reserves are such that the IEB was able to initiate the program without new revenue. For 2026, the IEB plans to expend $1 million more than the projected income, all of it in support of organizing, and most of that for organizing staff salaries. That $1 million will repeat each year since it’s for ongoing salaries. But the staffing needs will increase as we get more active and engaged, so that $1 million deficit in 2026 will probably be $1.6 million in 2027 and over $2 million in 2028. That means by 2028, the Federation will have dipped into the reserves by almost $5 million without any new revenue. And make no mistake—organizing for any union is not an instant reward; it takes a lot of time and a lot of work.

The Federation can maintain that for a while, but not indefinitely—that’s where these two recommendations come into play. Ultimately, the 2026 Convention will be about choosing our future.

Delegates must be prepared to decide whether the status quo is satisfactory or whether together we take the first steps toward reimagining the AFM as something that 300,000 musicians will want to be a part of.

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