Hawaii Local President's Message

Aloha Brothers and Sisters,

Your union continues to flourish. We recently attended national meetings in Los Angeles in October and were encouraged by what we experienced through participation and observation. Besides myself, our participants included our Executive Director Brenda Ching and National Board member Scott Rogers.

The President’s Task Force on Education, Outreach and Engagement discovery session reported on the NextGen initiative activities such as school visits. We continue to pursue this goal of reaching out to the next generation of filmmakers, including speaking not only at elementary and high schools but also at our UH Academy for Creative Media. We are also planning to participate with the work of the Film Festival Work Group, including possible discounts for our members and participation on panels.

Lively discussion and sharing took place at the Local Presidents’ Forum, including a promising initiative by the Nashville Local about its continuing efforts to implement a Student Film Showcase. We are closely following it as a model to implement here. The local hire issue is a big issue, primarily in other mainland locals, which may result in the ongoing W&W deliberations as well as an enforcement issue subject to legal analysis and input.

I will leave to Scott to report more fully on the National Board meetings Brenda and I observed. Suffice it to say that, from my vantage point, besides the great news that National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator David White’s contract has been extended until 2020, the other good news is we authorized and obtained the video games strike authorization vote, and California’s anti-ageism AB 1687 has been enacted into law. 

Locally, we were pleased to have President Gabrielle Carteris attend our Hawaii Local annual membership meeting on Sept. 26. The turnout was super and the feedback extremely positive.

Thanks to the leadership of National Board member Scott Rogers, chair of the local’s Conservatory Committee, and committee members Mia Adams, Lynne Halevi, Blossom Lam Hoffman, Dennis Ihara and Joyce Maltby, the Conservatory continues to offer invaluable workshops that are well attended. More are planned for the future.

Before May 10, 2017, you will receive information about the next election cycle. The next convention is scheduled for Oct. 6–8, 2017, in Los Angeles. We hope you will engage and participate in this very important process.

This is your union. Indeed, the union is all of us. We welcome your ideas and support of whatever projects or areas of interest you may have. It continues to be an honor and joy to serve as your president.

In solidarity,

David C. Farmer