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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXII. No. 16 Polished Every Satarday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y., April 17, 1926 " " f c f f f t ?
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To Affiliate or Not to Affiliate—That
Is the Big Question Now
T
HE plan to affiliate State and local associations with the
National Association of Music Merchants has struck its first
obstacle in the recommendation adopted by the council of the
Music Merchants' Association of Ohio at its recent meeting in
Columbus, not to affiliate with the National body until the latter
makes certain changes and modifications in its by-laws.
Briefly summed up these modifications are as follows:
The right of affiliated associations to be represented on the
National Auxiliary Board by their presidents and any other two
members they may designate instead of by their presidents, vice-
presidents and treasurers, as required by the present by-laws.
The right for each affiliated member to have one vote, either
directly or by proxy, instead of one-twentieth of a vote as at present
stated.
The right for individual members to vote by proxy as well as
directly.
The right to nominate officers from the floor instead of nom-
inating exclusively through the Advisory Board, as at present re-
quired.
The repeal of that section of the by-laws which requires that
all recommendations and resolutions be submitted to the .National
Board of Control before going before the membership, that body
being vested with the power to return the resolution or recommenda-
tion 'to its proposers with an explanation of its refusal to act or
submit it to the membership.
The Music Merchants' Association of Ohio stands to-day as
probably the strongest local association in the industry. Such pro-
posals as it has made in the recommendation of its council should be
given careful consideration by those charged with the direction of
the affairs of the National Association of Music Merchants.
It is unquestionably a difficult condition. The National Associ-
ation, as constituted to-day with its dual plan of individual member-
ships and affiliated association memberships, is a hybrid organization.
There is evidently a fear among the national officers that the
affiliated associations may grasp the preponderance of power through
the greater number of votes the latter may bring into its meetings.
Yet such a fear would seem preposterous with the National
Association committed directly to a program of State and local
organization, which, if it means anything, means that eventually
the national meetings of that organization will be gatherings of
delegates from those bodies and that the control must eventually
rest with them.
On the other hand, there exists in the local and State organiza-
tions a certain jealousy of their independence and a dislike to be
bound by the decisions of the national body unless they are given a
part, proportionate to their membership and influence, in formulating
those decisions.
This is a natural enough attitude of mind, since the local and
State associations have developed and grown with but little co-
operation from the national body, and with but slight connections
with it.
If the National Association's program of affiliation, as outlined
at the last mid-Winter meeting in New York, is to take tangible
form, these two conflicting attitudes must be brought into harmony
and a ground of compromise must be reached.
The Music Merchants' Association of Ohio has come out into
the open and stated its objections. It is now a matter of examina-
tion and consideration of those objections by the National Associ-
ation of Music Merchants.
Ohio's first objection is to the local association representation
on the National Auxiliary Board. It would seem that local and
State associations are quite competent to designate their own mem-
bers to this board. There is no good reason why their vice-presi-
dents and treasurers should necessarily be members. Such a pro-
cedure seems an unwarranted interference with the internal affairs
of the local association.
There are any number of reasons why the local associations
would lose a good proportion of their representation on that board
if they are not given latitude in designating their members of it.
This is more serious than it appears on the surface since there seems
to be no provision for proxy representation in this commission,
and a member unable to attend means a direct loss in representation.
Probably a compromise might be reached. Why not allow the
National Association to designate the members of this board as it
does at present, but give the local organizations the right to send
proxies for those officers, executed in due form, if through some
reason they are unable to be present?
The second point of objection is that of voting power. Accord-
ing to the present national plan an individual member has one vote
and a member of an affiliated organization one-twentieth of a vote.
In other words, at a national meeting, the Music Merchants'
Association of Ohio, which states it has a membership of 440,
would be outvoted on the floor of the national convention by twenty-
three individual members.
This would seem to be an unwarranted preponderance of
power to be placed in the hands of the individual members, and
scarcely a representation worth while for the local association.
There has been no explanation on the part of the national
body for this arbitrary figure. Yet it would reduce the local and
State associations to a nonentity in consideration of matters which
affect each member of them vitally. They would be bound by the
procedure of the National Association with but very little part in
formulating it.
The objection to the nominating committee is not a serious one.
It is unlikely that the tradition of advancement in rotation among
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