|
More Buzz
Go Home
The Buzz, 1-12: Miller
Time
Unembracing APAP's "New Era"
By Paul Ben-Itzak
Copyright 2004 The Dance Insider
New!
Sponsor the Buzz!
As the Association of
Performing Arts Presenters convenes its 47th annual members' conference
today in New York City, I believe it's appropriate for APAP's members
and its keynote speakers -- Tony Kushner and Tim Miller -- to call
APAP president and chief executive Sandra Gibson to task for the
callous manner in which at least seven valuable and dedicated APAP
employees, more than 25 percent of its staff, were fired
last Spring.
This year's conference,
in which artists hoping to get hired will place their best before
the presenters they want to hire them, is titled "Embracing a New
Era: Creativity, Courage, Choices." The new era embraced by Ms.
Gibson has been marked by termination proceedings in which at least
one employee says she or he was prevented by APAP security guards
from even phoning his or her mother, on the premise that the employee
no longer worked there. If the fired employees wanted a decent severance
package, their only choice was to sign a draconian "Letter
Agreement." Here are some highlights, as set forth in
a copy of one such letter made available to the Dance Insider by
one of the fired employees: (The letter, on blank stationary, bears
Gibson's signature.)
"You agree not to discuss
(orally or in writing) this Letter Agreement and/or the circumstances
of your termination from Arts Presenters with any person who Arts
Presenters considers a business contact, including any current or
former employees of Arts Presenters, any Arts Presenters members,
vendors, prospective members, or prospective vendors. You also
agree to maintain as confidential the terms of this Letter Agreement
as well as information known to you regarding the operations, finances,
membership, and membership programs (both current and planned) of
Arts Presenters ("Arts Presenters' Confidential Information").
You may discuss with any potential employer only the nature and
scope of your job responsibilities while at Arts Presenters. In
that regard, to explain why you are seeking new employment, you
agree to use the following statement when speaking to potential
employers or persons from whom you intend to request a reference:
"Arts Presenters has restructured itself and my position was eliminated
in the process." You understand and agree that your agreement with
respect to the confidentiality of this Letter Agreement and Arts
Presenters' Confidential Information is a material inducement for
Arts Presenters to enter into this Letter Agreement.
".... You agree not
to disparage Arts Presenters or any of its officers, directors,
shareholders, agents, representatives, partners, employees, consultants,
attorneys, and successors in any manner whatsoever whether orally
or in writing, to any person, including current and former employees
of Arts Presenters. You further agree not to encourage anyone else
to disparage or criticize Arts Presenters, or put them in a bad
light. You agree to direct all requests for references or employment
verification to me (Sandra Gibson) or a person specifically designed
by me to respond to such inquiries."
"If you choose to reject
the offer as set forth below," the "Letter Agreement" to this employee
noted, "you will receive your pay and unused leave payout only through
your last day at Arts Presenters."
When an employee had
the courage to notify the Dance Insider about the way the employee
had been treated, and to share his or her "Letter Agreement" with
the DI, APAP -- whose web site also champions artists playing "a
leading role in civic affairs and global dialogue" and a world in
which "art and ideas circulate vigorously and freely" responded
to the DI's request for comment by trying to muzzle us, threatening
to use its precious member resources to sue us out of, an APAP executive
claimed, respect for the confidentiality of the employees.
I ask you, APAP Members:
Is this the manner in which you want your executive to represent
you? And I ask you, Tim Miller, you who have made an art of speaking
so eloquently about your own personal situation: Will you use the
bully pulpit of your closing "plenary speech" Tuesday to address
the gross treatment of these arts infrastructure workers whose work
enables you and other artists to do what you do? I have a note from
you, Tim, in which you say you are "buzzed" (hey!) "to be opining/ranting/shouting-out
as the closing plenary speaker." Will you just rant the big picture
and the politicians in Washington, or will you dare to rant the
demagogues who hired you? I dare you, Tim! (If you want to dare
Tim, you can, er, "buzz" him at MillerTale@aol.com.)
More Buzz
Go Home
|
