A Recap of the Utah Membership Meeting

Our Jan. 31 membership meeting in Salt Lake City began with comments read from Arizona-Utah Local President Joe Corcoran and a welcome by Vice President from Utah Betty Ann Carr.

The meeting was dedicated to the late John Darin, the Arizona-Utah Local Board member from Utah who served from September 2013 through March 2014. John had an extensive background in national radio and television broadcast, as well as acting, in Utah. He belonged to the union for nearly 45 years. He also held numerous positions on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. He has been painfully missed.

Next, we recapped Utah work in 2014, when Utah actors proudly worked on approximately 30 productions, both inside and outside Utah. In addition, Utah members participated in more than 15 commercials, corporate/educational projects and promotional videos. To our Utah actors, to the production companies who came to Utah or resided here, and to our own local casting guru Jeff Johnson, a big thank you to everyone for 2014.

The following are highlights from the membership meeting agenda:

1. Discussion on the need to communicate with local membership is necessary. We would like to explore ways in which we can better communicate with our members. Our local is actively pursuing ideas to offer a solution with this challenge.
2. Utah Incentives: Members in Utah can join the Motion Picture Association of Utah to help with such efforts to grow more jobs in Utah through an improved state incentive package.
3. Utah Organizing: Utah will invite someone from the national organizing or contracts departments for a future workshop on contracts and how jobs can be flipped into union contracts. Members and pre-members need to know the advantages of membership in SAG-AFTRA.
4. Budget: Marcia Fishman explained the budget process, i.e., how it is on a May 1 fiscal year and how budget is determined by comparing needs with actuals of the previous year.
5. Committees were announced: 
6. The Workshop Committee is chaired by Yolanda Wood. Jeff Johnson will work on preliminary ideas of self-taping for auditions. We plan to offer contracts workshops as well.
7. The Communication Committee is chaired by Pietro d’Alessio. Preliminary ideas for social networking and future meet-and-greets will be explored.
8. Old Business: We discussed the 2014 Utah Caucus and how to move forward in 2015. It was decided to keep the same members: Johnson, Anne Sward, Wood, d’Alessio and Carr.
9. New business:

• A. d’Alessio reported that the Park City Studio is nearing completion.
• B. Carr gave a special thank you to the members who attended the membership meeting.

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