A Letter From Your New England President

Wow! Wow! Wow! I have a lot of great news to share with you about our thriving local.

Congratulations to Jessica Maher, who has been promoted to New England Local executive director. Jessica has been doing a superb job for all of our members and for our industry through ridiculously difficult times. She’s been pressing forward through shutdown, working without an office, fighting for our film tax incentives in all of the New England states, through the many complications that come along with a boom in film work and new stations joining our unions. She has been helping staff and board members navigate virtual meetings and supporting us all as we try to connect with each other. I am thrilled to welcome Jessica into her new position.

Last weekend, New England Local delegates joined others from across the country for the SAG-AFTRA national convention. Our delegates worked diligently, voting on resolutions, attending events and electing national vice presidents. The convention was held virtually for the first time, so delegates spent many hours navigating Zoom. Thank you (in alphabetical order) Dale Appel, Ellen Colton, Marisa DeFranco, Liz Eng, Christopher James, Tom Kemp, Peter McSwiggin, Bill Mootos, Michele Proude, Vic Ramos, Chuck Slavin, Don Warnock and Freddie Wong. I also enjoyed serving as a convention delegate. Thank you all for volunteering many hours to serve our members.

During the second night of convention, our own National Board member Bill Mootos won the coveted George Heller Memorial Award: the gold card of recognition for extraordinary service to SAG-AFTRA. Bill has been volunteering his time and talents for nearly 20 years and continues to serve our members. Bill’s award came as a surprise to him and all of us, but it couldn’t have gone to anyone more deserving of this recognition. Congratulations, Bill!

New England continued to rise, when Michele Proude was reelected as the vice president of mid-size locals. Michele helped successfully steer all of our mid-sized locals through this pandemic and into our present situation of returning to work. She will serve the union in this role for the next two years.

Be on the lookout for an email with a local committee signup link. I know that many people volunteered for committee service before the COVID-19 shutdown, and we would love to know whether you are still interested and available. We will be sending out blasts and letting all members know when committees are starting up, so get ready to bring your ideas. There are many ways that you can volunteer your time and talents to serve the New England Local: local committees, special events, wages and working conditions meetings, and other opportunities. As of now, meetings remain virtual. At some point, we will return to in-person meetings.

We support our brothers and sisters in IATSE and are pleased that the AMPTP came to an agreement that avoided a strike. The filming boom in New England continues! We welcome all of our new members as well as newly unionized broadcast stations. We hope to be arranging a new member orientation for all of our new members in the near future. 

Please take advantage of all of the SAG-AFTRA resources such as discounts and deals, webinars, conversations on YouTube and more through sagaftra.org.

Sincerely,

Andrea Lyman
New England Local President