A musician who is hired to work for an employer that has a collective bargaining agreement
with Local 40-543 is required to be a member in good standing with The Musicians'
Association of Metropolitan Baltimore as long as they work for that employer. Employers
who have contracts with Local 40-543 are the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore
Center Stage, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Everyman Theatre,
Hippodrome/Broadway Across America, and now the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
In order to be a member in good standing of Local 40-543, a musician's membership dues
must be current. A member is suspended when their dues are unpaid for three months and
expelled when their dues remain unpaid for six months. This year Local 40-543 has been
waiving late fees and penalties for musicians who are rejoining after being suspended or
expelled. This practice will continue during the fourth quarter of 2021, so if you are
suspended or expelled from Local 40-543, please consider rejoining before our late fees
and reinstatement fees go back into effect.
Annual dues are $170 for a Regular Member, $76 for a Life Member and $70 for an Inactive
Life Member. If a musician prefers to pay their dues quarterly, those amounts are $45 for
a Regular Member, $21 for a Life Member and $19 for an Inactive Life Member.
In order to qualify as a Life Member, a musician must be 65 years of age AND be a member
of Local 40-543 for 35 consecutive years.
Annual or quarterly dues can be paid by check or through the Local's website. If paying by
check, please make the check payable to "Local 40-543 AFM" and send it to Local 40-543
AFM, 1055 Taylor Avenue #218, Baltimore, MD 21286. Annual or quarterly dues can also be
paid through the Local's website with a credit card. Another option is to have automatic payment
of dues made through a bank account.
There is a service fee charged for paying dues online. The service fee is currently 4.5%.
We anticipate that it will be increased by the first of the new year, so members will save
some money if they pay their 2022 annual membership dues by the end of 2021.
If a musician works under one of the collective bargaining agreements listed above, with
the exception of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the employer deducts work dues of 2.5% from
wages and remits the work dues to Local 40-543. Most of this money stays in Baltimore to
help Local 40-543 provide services to its members; a percentage is passed on to the
Federation in New York.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO TEMPO
When paying annual or quarterly dues, please consider sending some additional money and
making a contribution to TEMPO, the legislative and political fund that helps support
members of Congress on all sides of the aisle who are friends of working musicians. TEMPO
helped get the legislation passed earlier this year that saved the AFM-Employers' Pension
Fund, and TEMPO is now working to support the American Music Fairness Act, which will, in
part, ensure that performers are compensated when their songs are played on terrestrial
radio. Contributions to TEMPO are not tax deductible.
If you are paying your dues by check, please consider sending an additional $10, $20, or
$30 for TEMPO along with your dues. If you are paying your dues online, please do so here:
https://www.afm.org/what-we-are-doing/tempo/.
And if you have any questions. . . .
Please call the office at 410-337-7277 or send an email to .