Legacy Colorado Branch President Turns Over the Reins

 
Colorado Local President Chaz Grundy, left, and Local Board member Linda Lee pay tribute to John Singer for his years of service as legacy SAG Colorado Branch president.

At this year’s Colorado Local SAG Awards Viewing party, held at the Sports Column in Denver, past President John Singer was honored for his 10 years of service as president. Singer has a 22-year history with legacy SAG, now SAG-AFTRA Colorado Local.

Singer recalls how he got the news about becoming the president. “I became president purely by accident. Our previous executive director, Susan Gurule, called me up one afternoon and said something to the effect, ‘Hi John. Our president, Dan Hugo moved away.’ I said something like, ‘Uh huh.’ Then she commented, ‘You are next in line. Congratulations, Mr. President. Oh by the way, you need to be in L.A. next week for the National Board meeting.’ The next thing out of my mouth was probably unintelligible, or at least not printable.”

Singer shared the article below with me when I asked him for some personal perceptions on becoming branch president at that time. “Below is an excerpt from a newsletter article I wrote shortly after becoming president. It may give you some insights into what I was thinking at the time.”

RAMBLINGS OF A NEW SAG BRANCH PRESIDENT

“As some of you may know, I became the president of the Colorado Branch of the Screen Actors Guild not long ago. It was not an office I was running for and was the last thing I was expecting on the day it happened. Our former president, Dan Hugo fell in love, got married and then moved to Arizona. I wish him well in his new venture. Fortunately, our union is strong and will survive in spite of me.

"I have had to learn a lot in the past couple of months about our union and its many facets. I have learned there are a total of 20 branches around the country and have had the pleasure of meeting most of the other branch presidents and National Board members. They seemed to graciously welcome me into the fold and have helped me learn my way around the union.

"I have learned there is a great divide between the National Board members who govern our union. They all seem to mean well and wish for the same things, they just want to accomplish their goals in different ways. The debate can become quite spirited at times and even contemptuous on occasion.

"I learned the many struggles 'right-to-work' states have to deal with — a huge bullet we dodged on Election Day. In the RTW states, the line between union and non-union is not quite so clear, and opportunities for union workers become scarce. In Colorado, it can safely be assumed we will not have to deal with right-to-work issues for at least a couple of more years.

"I have also met and talked to the many staff personnel that help SAG run smoothly on a day-to-day basis. They are a dedicated, hard-working group of individuals who only have our best interests at heart …”

Singer went on to explain that, “Because I was previously a member of the state Legislature, we (the legacy SAG Council) became very active in lobbying certain issues. Whenever right-to-work legislation, film incentives or anything else came up in the Legislature affecting us, we were over there giving testimony and lobbying for our positions. During the past 10 years, we have survived a strike, numerous attempts at RTW, and a second and third attempt at merger — the third time being the charm.

“Since we had no consistent work in Colorado, most of the time during my reign I felt I was mostly the caretaker of the branch; striving to keep it alive long enough to make it through the drought without doing any damage. The industry seems to be picking up some in Colorado now, and I envision good times ahead for union actors in this region. When merger actually passed and Colorado finally started offering film incentives, I decided it was time for a younger, more aggressive member to take over the reins of the union. I had done what I had promised, kept it alive and done no harm. I enjoyed every minute of it and felt blessed I was able to represent the union without becoming an embarrassment.”

We thank Singer for his long commitment to service, and know that our branch/local is better because of it.