President's Report

SAG National President Ken Howard and SAG Hawaii Branch President Glenn Cannon and SAG staff met with Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Georja Skinner, chief officer, Creative Industries Division. 

President’s Report

By Glenn Cannon

In October at the Regional Branch/National Board meetings in L.A., I asked SAG National President Ken Howard to come to Honolulu to talk about the merger plans and the ongoing discussions of same taking place in L.A. He came in December, and on the 17th we had an excellent meeting with members of our Branch. Accompanying Ken was SAG's national counsel, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and the two men answered a number of questions from the membership and gave insight into the ongoing discussions. It was a very useful meeting, and my sense of the membership's reception was that they were glad they attended. It is clear that merger is necessary to keep SAG a strong and viable part of the entertainment industry and create a strong single union to represent actors.

As I suspect most of you know, there is now a full agreement on merger for both SAG and AFTRA, and the referendum was mailed on February 27. I urge you to read the documents available online and vote yes on the merger. It will be the best thing for all performers across the country.

Hawaii members Bonita Parsons, Christopher Simms, Jean Simon and Martin Kogan listen to SAG National President Ken Howard speak about the importance of merger.

SAG National President Ken Howard with local Branch Council members David Farmer, National Board member Scott Rogers, John Nordlum, Lynne Halevi, Branch president Glenn Cannon and Rebecca Maltby, with Branch executive director Brenda Ching and SAG General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland at the special membership meeting in December.

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