This is a post that I put on Facebook that I thought would live well on this Blog. It’s about how we can all get better sandwiches together

Big thanks to Madison Area Musicians' Association - AFM Local 166 - Madison, WI for providing lunch for the Musicians of the Madison Symphony during our Fall Youth Concerts today

This lunch was funded by dues that each member of our Local has been paying as part of their commitment to mutual success. So, thank your fellow Association members for investing in your sustenance today. I found the cookies to be particularly nice this year.

I was thinking to myself during our lunch, that the ability to organize sandwiches during break is a symbol of the various things that union membership offers. Before I joined the players committee, I really had no clue how an orchestra works, much less how our Union functions.

The Union to me represents "support." Some of the support is purely within the orchestra in the form of the Players' Committee. Did you know that the players committee is in the contract? Much more of the support we have is through the Local, ROPA and the AFM.

The support we receive is paid for by membership dues, as were the sandwiches. So for those who might not be association members yet, you might be asking yourself what it might mean to become a member of Local 166.

Being a member of Local 166 means:

-Investing in the outcome of all contract negotiations by paying for the help of our highly experienced professional AFM negotiator. ( I literally cannot express just how important Jane Owen's help has been. This in and of itself is a reason to join)

-Access to a network of Local 166 expertise (Local Officers) and experience as well as the support of the American Federation of Musicians Symphonic Services Division who have been extremely helpful to us during my time on the committee.

-Education for Orchestra Committee members through the Regional Orchestra Players Association (ROPA) and the AFM through various training modules. (Check the AFM website for these if you want to learn more about it)

-Having a personal and collective say in the direction of your organization by having the ability to vote on contracts and other AFM agreements with the management such as the IMA (Which our management agreed to sign on to this year)

-It means having a committee to act as a liaison between you and your management so that when you have an issue that can't be resolved, you have the committeee, the Local, the AFM and your fellow Union members standing behind you.

-It means understanding that our collective power gets all of us farther than we could get on our own and choosing to participate in that idea; Choosing to buy into that idea, quite literally. Remember, the money we pay in dues is money we pay to ourselves.

Being a Union member is a commitment to your colleagues and your ensemble. It's a commitment that works best when everyone buys in, because then the sandwiches are cheaper

Let us never take for granted the ability to buy metaphorical sandwiches for ourselves