A Message from Local President Tom Murray

One of our biggest challenges as a local is the issue of communication and unity. The Missouri Valley Local comprises the cities of Kansas City, Omaha and St. Louis and many points in between. Although we can hold board meetings by telephone (and even that’s not ideal), trying to come together in our cities is very difficult. One of our solutions is to hold “socials” in our towns. So far, we have hosted gatherings in Kansas City and one in St. Louis, and we will try to add Omaha to the list for this next round. Basically, these are a chance for our members to socialize and informally chat with staff, both local and national, and the elected leadership team about issues that affect us. 

In addition, we sponsored SAG Awards parties in our areas, with each local council taking the lead in planning and implementing those parties. We certainly hope that these galas can expand and be a recurring part of the awards season now and in the future. With support from the Missouri Valley office, we hope that our local councils can grow this tradition.

We also plan on tweaking our membership meetings this year. Our goal is to have a membership meeting in each of the three cities this year, and keep the focus on the host city’s issues and concerns.

We also want to upgrade the system we use for our telephone meetings so that we can better hear and respond to each other. We will also explore having at least one board meeting at a neutral site, perhaps in Columbia, Missouri.

Another initiative we will launch in the near future will be a workshop and talk session aimed at college and university students. The future of our union depends on an educated group of young performers and broadcasters. What better way to spread the news of the benefits of union membership than by catching the apple while it’s still on the tree? Our staff and elected leadership will be available to serve as SAG-AFTRA ambassadors to our young people. Anyone who might be interested in sharing their experiences as a member of our union is welcome to contact the office and volunteer to help us with this outreach.

This item was originally featured in the September 2016 local newsletter.