some of my best friends are full-time church musicians); I know they exist, and I value their place in our profession and our world. However, if the facts show that our organiza- tion is increasingly serving “musicians in part-time employment” (see March 2013 “AGO Demographics”), the question be- comes, Why do musicians in full-time em- ployment still hold such sway over how our professional institutions function and the as- sumptions we all hold, even about one an- other? If even we part-timers imagine our- selves to be second-class citizens as we increasingly become the majority, what does that say about the patterns in which we all are stuck? I hope and believe that—far from wishing
to segment ourselves—the key to our sur- vival lies with each other. That through col- legial and cooperative local AGO chapters, we can share, learn, and grow alongside one another, with and from each other, regard- less of the letters after our name or the posi- tion we hold. Returning to my original complaint, I
would hope that educational opportunities wouldn’t be designed with only the Clarences of the organ world in mind. I sus- pect that other part-timers are just as de- sirous, if not more so, of chances to learn and grow as our colleagues in full-time employ- ment, and all we ask is to please consider us (and perhaps the future of church music?) as you plan such events. RHONDA SIDER EDGINGTON Holland, Mich.
MUSICIANS IN PART-TIME
EMPLOYMENT As both a lawyer with a background in em- ployment law and an AGO member who is a part-time musician, I was very interested in James Yeager’s column in the June issue (p. 56).
Employment at will is based on the prem-
ise that, if the employee can terminate the contract for any reason or for no reason at all, the employer ought to have the same right. That doesn’t seem fundamentally unfair. However, readers should understand that, as Americans, we have the freedom to contract on such terms as we find acceptable. If a mu- sician chooses to enter into an employment- at-will relationship, law will not allow him to later complain about its terms. Several years ago, at the end of a copier
lease term, I was interested in purchasing the copier, provided that I could get a mainte- nance agreement for its upkeep. The long- form maintenance agreement submitted to me required me to obtain a million dollars’ worth of workers’ compensation insurance, something which I was not otherwise re- quired to do. I told the company that, if the insurance
requirement was not eliminated, I was not willing to sign the maintenance agreement and buy the copier. The salesperson asked for several days within which to “run this by the legal department” and thereafter told me that I could cross out the offensive provision. Recently, I interviewed for a full-time lo-
cal government job that would have required me to close the solo law practice that I spent 27 years building. I would have served at the pleasure of the county governing body. I told the board that, in return for giving up my practice, I wanted more than just serving at
12 THE AMERICAN ORGANIST
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