A Message from Twin Cities Local President Bob Davis

Greetings and salutations from the Executive Suite here at the Presidential Compound and Smoking Lounge.

As our National Board member, Randal Berger, remarks in his brief note below, the feature event of the year so far in our plan to revitalize the working environment here was the March rollout and outreach event for both the rates calculator and our new Co/Ed waiver. The turnout and interest generated exceeded our expectations and revitalized those of us involved to double down on our work so far and continue with the much-needed follow-up effort.

Sue Scott, Peter Moore, Cathy Fuller, Jim Miller, Elena Giannetti, Laurie Hegge and Tammara Melloy have set the stage for the rest of us, and now we have to follow their lead. Specifically, we need to reach out to local commercials and Co/Ed producers and directors and educate them about these new tools that make it easier to hire us.

We launched a local campaign to reach out to those who attended the rollout event and continue to connect, through them, to as many others as possible. We will move forward — meeting by meeting, one-on-one — to redefine how producers think of us as professionals. We need to put a human face on the union; hopefully yours.

Sue Scott has already organized several meetings and now we need your knowledge and input. Who do you know that we should contact? Will you volunteer to join another actor and deliver donuts and goodwill to someone that might start hiring union actors? As I have said before, it’s a new world out there and we can’t get work the way we used to. But if we do this together, we can #getbacktowork!

Contact me by email with comments, concerns or praise.

Peace

Bob Davis
President, SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local

This item was originally featured in the September 2015 local newsletter.