A Message from the Nevada Local President

This year is going by incredibly fast with the merger finally succeeding and the increase in work here in Nevada, and I could not have done my job as your Local president without the help of our board and other Nevada members who’ve stepped up to do a great job: Board members such as Arttours Weeden, who works almost every set that comes to town and is fantastic at telling people about SAG-AFTRA and why they should join. It should also be mentioned that as our Local vice president, Arttours always has my back in our service to you and heads up our diversity efforts. Kim Renee, one of our longest-serving board members, personifies Nevada membership by her work in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and is our board’s historian. Add in her work for the Stunt Committee and Young Performers, and you get an idea of her value. My friend, Mary Ann Hebinck, and our Local recording secretary, has brought her skills from other organizations and is now doing a superlative job of keeping our Local’s minutes and helping at all of our events. Along with Scott Mirne, Mary Ann also co-chairs our Local Legislative Committee with the help of our executive, and Scott and Mary Ann have high hopes that, like our SAG-AFTRA merger, we Nevadans will finally succeed in getting a useful incentive bill through our legislature. You will also find Scott adding his intelligence to the upcoming Commercials W&W process. I always seem to speak about the next three together — Rick, Bobbie and Chris. Rick Rockne and Bobbie Wolff, our local organizing/events chairs, who work tirelessly to help in many ways, such as securing locations for our events and planning organizing activities along with new board member Chris Rogers, SAG Awards chair. Chris, who also brings technological skills to our activities, voluntarily went to the summer SAG-AFTRA Conservatory providing me names and reviews of quite a few good people that we will approach about presenting in Las Vegas. Bobbie Wolf has also been a godsend keeping our production hotline up to date — many members have sent her thanks for her efforts. Heart Shapré has been with us on the board for a couple of years now, and brings integrity, kindness and a graciousness to her involvement in issues before the board and her participation at our events. Heart has also taken on the tasks of co-chairing the Diversity Committee with Arttours, and reinvigorating the Seniors Committee. And last, but not least, my acknowledgement and thanks to National Board Member Art Lynch. Art serves the Nevada Local by bringing our voice to the National Board. Like the rest of us, he does this voluntarily and, at post-merger times like these, with a great deal of stress. Everyone from all over the country has questions and comments, without much information coming forthwith. The big word that Art has told me, over and over, which he shared with the rest of the Local Board, is “Patience!!” I am honored to be the leader of this group of wonderful people who give so freely of their time with no pay or benefits.

Regarding the Nevada Conservatory, we have a terrific round of presenters lined up, including the great Lee Garlington. That will be an event not to be missed, but I want to continue in the vein of acknowledgement I am engaged in. No article thanking Nevada volunteers would be complete without talking about our conservatory volunteers. If you have come to a conservatory, or even one of our mixers or awards shows, you have met Stephen Joseph Lizotte. With one call asking for help, Steve is always there giving of himself for our Local. He is our conservatory co-chair, but that does not even begin to describe everything he does for all of us. Lastly, I need to thank my friend, J.R. Thompson, who works with Steve at the check-in table. J.R. exemplifies what the Conservatory seeks to do — provide education for our members and organize the non-union. She is a hard-working performer who wanted to join SAG-AFTRA for a long time, but was not eligible yet. J.R. finally became eligible and wasted no time joining her brothers and sisters in our great union. When people ask why do I run our conservatory or serve as our Local president, I can simply point at J.R. and others like her and say organizing and protecting quality people like this gives us more power as human beings and makes life worth living. It is why I am union and proud of it!

This item was originally featured in the October 2012 local newsletter.