President's Report

Aloha Brothers and Sisters,

With the biennial national and local elections, exciting and challenging times are before us!

Here are the 2015 Hawaii Local election results. All candidates ran unopposed and a balloted election was not required this year. Special thanks to members of the Elections Committee for their service.

I am extremely proud to be a part of this fine group of talented individuals. The new Local Board includes incumbents and new members committed to maintaining our national reputation for professional integrity and for promoting Hawaii’s diverse talent to create expanded employment opportunities in all media. The new board will be seated by Aug. 20. With your kokua, we will work to insure our continued unity, credibility and work opportunities.

The production of non-union commercials has grown not only locally, but nationally as well. The new board will be joining our members in an initiative supported by the Commercial Performers Committee to recapture this important work. We’ll take the lead in showing what we can do to help grow work opportunities on legitimate SAG-AFTRA commercials. The online toolkit offers solid resources to achieve the goal. 

The board will also build on its accomplishments to date: general membership meetings, new member orientations, conservatory workshops, ACM table reads and student films, golf days, Sundance Short Film Lab, HIFF Casting workshops, SAG Awards parties, and membership in national forums such as the national convention and Local Presidents Forum.

In the coming months, we are planning some exciting events. Stay tuned for details. I also want to acknowledge the fine work of Outreach Committee members Jean Simon, Brian Kasai and Gloria Woodruff.

Also on the home front, conservatory offerings continue to be well attended; the most recent audition workshop was conducted by Scott Rogers in April. Our second Golf Day in May was another success that promises to be an established fixture in the future. Special thanks to Leanne Teves and committee members Curtis Jackson, Eric Thrisk and Deborah Glazier for their excellent work.

Finally, we are currently blessed with hosting the shooting of 20th Century Fox’s Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates for two months here on Oahu. The project not only affords our members with substantial work opportunities, it also will have a major positive economic impact on our local economy.

The state of our national and local union is good and growing. It is an honor to be a part of this moment in our 82-year history and counting!

In solidarity,

David C. Farmer, President

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