Key staff members included Gelsa Paladino, Doug Thiele, Billy James, Bruce Kaplan, Pat and Pete Luboff, Kevin Odegard, Mark Spier, Gordon Pagoda, Paul Zollo, Steve Schalchlin, Dan Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Smith, Sunny Hilden, Dan Kimple, Rik Lawrence and Kevin McCarley.
The organization also lobbied for better copyright protection, and published the magazine SongTalk, a newsprint publication with original interviews of hit songwriters.
[1] In December 1985, the National Academy of Songwriters began their annual "Salute To The American Songwriter" concerts which over the years featured performances by artists such as Carole King, Jackson Browne, Stevie Wonder, Los Lobos, Willie Dixon, Atlantic Starr, Stephen Stills, Michael Bolton, Melissa Manchester, Stephen Bishop, Brian Wilson, Linda Ronstadt, Kim Carnes, Michael McDonald, and many others.
Also performing over the years at the "Salute To The American Songwriter" concerts were songwriting legends such as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Barry Mann, Jimmy Webb, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, Robert B. Sherman, Richard Sherman, John Bettis, Diane Warren, and many others.
[3][4] Another organization that was inspired by the goals of the LASS and came into existence in late 1998 in the vacuum that was created when LASS disappeared was the Los Angeles Songwriters Network (SongNet).