Ken Shirk

I am a freelance mostly-commercial bass trombonist.

I work, however, as AFM International Secretary-Treasurer.

I joined the union as a baby boomer a long, long time ago. We Boomers were mentored into this union by the Silent Generation, and since I first joined, three more generations have come of age - Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. And in a few short years, the next generation, Gen Alpha, will join our professional ranks.

I've had my fingers on almost every aspect of this union, starting as a 27-year-old secretary-treasurer of our Seattle local, two tours of duty as an AFM staff member, 14-year member of the IEB, 12 years as secretary-treasurer of our Portland local, and these last three years as AFM Secretary-Treasurer.

All this is to say that while our profession has changed dramatically - by the advancement or intrusion of technology, seismic political shifts, evolving consumer demands, morphing intellectual property rights, the mystical transformation of professional musicians from actual employees to gig-workers, to name a few things - the one constant throughout is that, as musicians, banded together we can get a bunch of stuff done for ourselves as a profession that we cannot each do alone.

That is what has driven me through the years to stay in this union work: The potential of what we can achieve for ourselves right now, and what we can hand off to the Gen Alpha musicians to take over when they're ready to take charge.