Highlights of Annual Membership Meeting

Our annual membership meeting was held Monday evening, May 4, at the IATSE Ballroom in South Philadelphia. After a member happy hour, we heard from Ray Caballada, CEO of Alkemy X (formerly Shooters) and Pennsylvania Film Industry Association (PAFIA) vice chair, who spoke about the state of production in Southeast Pennsylvania and around the region. The goal of PAFIA is to encourage film and TV broadcast projects to come to Southeastern Pennsylvania, but the less-than-adequate state tax incentive funds currently allotted are probably our biggest obstacle. Ray said that several states have no caps on these incentive funds, which would be wonderful but unlikely in Pennsylvania, so what we need to do is step up involvement to encourage local representatives in Harrisburg to raise the cap on these funds. One strategy is to try to get a multi-year commitment for incentive funds rather than fight for it year by year.

Also speaking to our members was Abby Dylan, National Board member from Seattle and member of the President's Task Force on Education, Outreach and Engagement. Abby is currently involved in the task force’s national engagement initiative for SAG-AFTRA. She reminded us that we are the spokespeople for SAG-AFTRA in Philadelphia, and this initiative will supply us with tools to get the message out and help us put together more union activities in Philadelphia. The best way to get started is to sign up for task force emails at SAGAFTRA.org.

Closing out the evening, we were happy to present the annual SAG-AFTRA Philadelphia Hall Of Fame award to longtime broadcaster and former Local and National Board member, Bill Shusta. Now retired, Bill had a distinguished career in Philadelphia on KYW Newsradio. Friend and fellow broadcaster and present KYW newsman Paul Kurtz made the introduction and presentation of the award.