Do You Do the SAG Foundation?

Your feedback is sought.

Do you use the services of the SAG Foundation? If not, why not? What services are you familiar with? The SAG Foundation needs to find out what is working for you as members, what you feel is not working and why. They are also interested in your ideas on how to do more for Nevada union membership.

Your responses to surveys, contact with the Foundation and level of interest and volunteerism determines the level of local services, and the nature of services, you will support with your attendance.

Conversations provide career and cast live Q&A sessions online. The SAG Foundation provides archived sessions, including those that were mastered on DVD prior to the launch of Internet services. This includes free casting director workshops, agent panels, producers and directors panels, panels of actors and panels of other industry professionals.

LifeRaft, which is similar to Conversations, focuses on the business side of acting: what it takes to become and survive as an actor in today’s world, including both coasts and across the country.

Actors, including students, have access to thousands of dollars worth of seminars and services for free online live or in person if you are a union member and RSVP. There is also great programming in the Foundation’s archived material on their website.

The SAG Foundation also provides scholarships, emergency assistance, tax assistance and other services for SAG-AFTRA members and their families.

There are programs open to all members in the area of catastrophic health and other insurance options, separate from the union’s retirement and health programs.

The most successful SAG Foundation program, one close to its mission and heart, is children’s reading programs. These include BookPALS, where union members volunteer to go out to schools and communities and read to children. Storybook Online features recognizable talent reading children’s books online.

All services are free for union members and their families, and many are open to the public without charge as well.

Decisions on distribution of live local programs are determined by the amount of interest shown in online participation and online contact with the Foundation. The Foundation works on donations and is not funded by your dues or initiation fees.

For additional information, to provide feedback or to take part in SAG Foundation programs, click here.

This item was originally featured in the August 2014 local newsletter.