AFM: New Answers for Old Questions

July 9, 2014

by Wiliam F. Thomas, AFM EMSD Director and Assistant to the President

Welcome to the July 2014 edition of International Musician! In addition to being my first article for this esteemed publication, the July IM also marks the return of more regular coverage of the Electronic Media Services Division (EMSD) in the publication. From our cover feature on Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member, bassist, and recording and touring musician extraordinaire Nathan East, to this series of articles about all things EMSD, we hope to give you a sense of what is happening in the world of recorded music here at the AFM. 

Since joining the EMSD staff in January 2014, I have spent a tremendous amount of time with AFM members, elected leaders, and the Federation’s professional staff in order to learn more about our work, our struggles, and the opportunities for future success. In addition to studying contracts and sitting in on numerous negotiations, I have taken the time to think strategically about how to create more opportunities for our members to work under AFM contracts. That is usually my first thought in the morning and the last one in my head as I go to bed at night.

In these first six months, I have had countless conversations with AFM musicians, union leaders and staff, contractors, composers, songwriters, agents, studio managers, other labor leaders, music execs, the AFM’s music industry partners, and most importantly, our customers—the employers who pay us to make great music. Most of those talks have included some variation of these five questions, and I ask people to be very direct:

• What are the AFM and EMSD doing right?
• What are we doing wrong?
• In those areas where EMSD is doing something badly, how can we work together to fix it?
• If you could change one thing about doing business with EMSD, what would it be?
• What do you think is AFM’s single greatest opportunity right now?

As you can imagine, setting up a conversation with open-ended questions like these has led to some interesting observations—although I might suggest wearing your Kevlar body armor at times. Still, as the “new guy” at AFM, with a tremendous amount to learn, I need to find out what people think, and most importantly, where we need to improve and create opportunity for members.

As the newest member of the EMSD team, I am very excited to be here, and to apply my focus to advancing the careers of AFM members. I am impressed by the dedication and hard work of my colleagues. We will work hard to maintain the standards that work well, while improving in those areas where we may have fallen short in the excellence our members deserve.

If we fall short in any area of contract administration or member/customer service I would appreciate it if you let me know how we can improve. You can contact me directly: bthomas@afm.org.  Please refer to the EMSD section of the AFM website (www.afm.org/departments/electronic-media-services-division) for a directory of personnel. 

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