Good-bye to Past Colleagues and Welcome to New Ones

August 1, 2026

Ken Shirk  -  AFM International Secretary-Treasurer

The 103rd Convention has spoken and set the Federation stage for the next three years. I’m looking forward to working with the 2026 iteration of the International Executive Board.

As of August 1, Karen Suarez Flint, secretary-treasurer of Local 10-208 (Chicago, IL), will be joining as the Federation’s next international vice president, replacing Dave Pomeroy, president of Local 257 (Nashville, TN). Pomeroy held the position since 2023, following his service as an Executive Committee member for the preceding 13 years.

Vice President Suarez Flint follows a succession of women in leadership roles at the international level: Tammy Kirk, from Local 94 (Tulsa, OK) in 1999, was the first woman ever elected to the IEB. Florence Nelson, former treasurer of Local 802 (New York City) and AFM Symphonic Services director, was elected AFM secretary-treasurer in 2001, becoming the first woman elected to a full-time leadership position in the AFM. Tina Morrison, from Local 105 (Spokane, WA), was elected to the IEB in 2010 and served for 16 years. Local 149 (Toronto, ON) Executive Director Dusty Kelly was first elected to the IEB in 2023 and was re-elected at this past convention.

In addition to President Tino Gagliardi, Vice President from Canada Allistair Elliott, Executive Committee member Kelly and myself, Vice President Suarez Flint will be joined by the new incoming board members Marta Bradley, currently secretary-treasurer of Local 40-543 (Baltimore, MD) and past secretary-treasurer of Local 161-710 (Washington, DC); Kale Cumings, president of Local 6 (San Francisco, CA); Leonard DiCosimo, president of Local 4 (Cleveland, OH); and Edmund Velasco, president of Local 7 (Orange County/Long Beach, CA). Most of these talented individuals I have known for a number of years, and together with those who I have known for a shorter time, I look forward to an energetic and collaborative three years ahead.

Fresh faces are always good for an organization, but I would be remiss for failing to acknowledge those officers who will not be returning to the IEB table. Outgoing International Vice President Pomeroy was an unrestrainable bundle of energy on the IEB, available for any assignment for which his talents were requested, and was the most energetically consistent in reminding each board member of our roots—those of gigging musicians.

Morrison, as the executive secretary of the Spokane Regional Labor Council (in addition to her service as an officer of Local 105), brought a unique perspective to IEB deliberations, drawing on her extensive work with the other trade unions and the AFL-CIO. IEB member Ed Malaga, from Washington, DC, lent a philosophical passion to every debate on the board, elevating him—in my view, anyway—to the level of “the conscience of the IEB.”

John Acosta, who chose not to run for re-election, drew on his experience as an officer of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) to ensure that every action of the IEB was firmly based on the facts of a matter and not on the political winds. Finally, Luc Fortin, former president of Local 406 (Montreal, PQ), contributed a valuable and unique perspective to the IEB as the first voice on the IEB from the AFM’s sole French-speaking local in Quebec, with Quebec’s labor laws and industry, which are unique and distinct from the rest of the US and Canada. I will miss all their voices and contributions.

The incoming IEB will have some serious choices to make. The previous board had devoted the better part of two years considering the future of our union, devising a roadmap to execute an organizing plan to move the AFM and its locals squarely into the 21st century and more effectively cover the vast gig-worker sector of the industry, and had requested funding from the convention to put that plan into full effect.

The convention delegates approved a portion of the requested funding, to be metered out over a three-year period, while attaching some additional expense obligations that were over and above those proposed by the IEB. In the first year, the revised new funding is projected to produce approximately $230,000. The delegates, however, also mandated new expenditure initiatives that will potentially reach a total of approximately $375,000 in the first year.

That deficit calculation will necessarily require the new IEB to consider how best to utilize the unobligated finite reserve funds if the plan for building power and growth is to go forward.

---