A Message from the National Board Member

Since my last missive, I have been very busy. I attended our biennial national convention in L.A., along with local board members Mark Bradley and Barry ZeVan, as well as locals admin staff member Colleen Aho. I remained three days after convention to attend the National Board meeting. Then in November, there was a wonderful turnout for our local membership meeting, which included an honest, no-nonsense Q&A with local Casting Director Lynn Blumenthal.

2015 Convention & State of the Union:

At the convention, we fulfilled tasks of electing national positions, as well as addressing constitutional amendments and resolutions. We attended events aimed at educating delegates and enhancing our understanding other locals’ circumstances and needs. We heard reports from our elected officials, including a particularly engaging one from Executive Director David White. 

David’s energy and honest communication was infectious as he touched upon the following:

• Commercials Recapture (hashtag #Bestinthebiz). The Commercials Organizing and Recapture Initiative launched in April 2015, followed by the commercials wages and working (W&W) conditions process in preparation for negotiations in early 2016. Be sure to check out the online commercials recapture toolkit with details and education materials here. Particularly note the differences between union and pre-union work in the commercials area, as they are very stark. Obviously, the commercials contact is extremely important, being a large portion of our work. Recapturing this work would greatly assist our ability to make a living here in the Twin Cities.

• White reported that internal member outreach is being addressed through the President’s Task Force on Education, Outreach and Engagement. Please keep an eye out for invitations to educational webinars that help to clarify your relationship to the union’s workings.

• A Call to Arts is the union’s partnership with the American Film Institute, an answer to President Barack Obama’s call to service through a national arts mentoring program. SAG-AFTRA intends to help fulfill President Obama’s goal of 1 million mentor hours. Read about it and get involved here.

• Industry fluidity is a vital area in which we need to succeed. We have to strongly debate the future among ourselves. As we all know, the industry is entirely different than it was even a few years ago. In White’s words, the old world was “Go big” (i.e., movies, network TV, etc.), while the world today is “Small is beautiful,” aimed at niche audiences but with “big data” thrown into the mix. In accomplishing this, he commented on the membership’s inherent creativity, passion and professionalism. 

It really was an encouraging talk; I wish all members could have seen it. Spending two hours listening to someone talk of hardships we face as a union doesn’t sound fun, but it was inspiring. White truly believes we can acquire a place in this fluid industry, and I do as well!

Quarterly National Board Meeting Summary:

Committee of Locals

Before the National Board meeting, I attended the Committee of Locals meeting (National Board members representing locals outside of L.A. and N.Y.). During this meeting, Colleen Aho and I gave a well-received presentation on our local initiatives: the Twin Cities Co/Ed waiver and the calculator project — including the successes we have enjoyed in those areas.

National Board Meeting

At this meeting, we worked through many of our usual tasks: reviewing financials, discussing objectives, receiving various committee reports (including contract, organizing, etc.), discussing national committee recommendations to send to the president for approval, and reviewing the amendments and resolutions passed at convention.

Twin Cities Local Activities:

SAG-AFTRA Foundation

As noted elsewhere in this newsletter, in October we had a day of SAG-AFTRA Foundation-sponsored workshops, which included casting directors and voiceover workshops covering animation and audiobooks. Be sure to keep an eye out for future events and sign up quickly as they fill up.

Member Involvement

New members have begun participating locally, coming to monthly mixers and connecting with other members. Please consider doing the same yourself — we need you! Being involved is entirely reasonable in terms of energy and time commitment. In fact, look at it from a personal perspective: It feeds the “work begets work” mindset. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

As usual, please feel free to contact me at twincities@sagaftra.org.

Until next time, cheers,

Randal

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