Safety Protocols and Emerging Policies Discussed at Local Membership Meeting

The SAG-AFTRA Hawaii Local hosted its annual membership meeting on Friday, March 19. The meeting took place via Zoom and had approximately 50 attendees, including National Board member Scott Rogers, Local Vice President Charles Uyehara, Local Secretary Leanne Teves, Local Board members Andrea Sikkink, Jean Simon, Lisa Romano and Theo Coumbis, and Local Executive Director Mericia Palma Elmore.

Local President David Farmer welcomed all who attended, gave a quick recap of the previous year’s events and noted emerging developments around the resumption of productions, including COVID-19 protocols and vaccinations.

In his report, Rogers shared how SAG-AFTRA worked quickly at the start of the pandemic by shifting many of the responsibilities of the National Board to the National Executive Committee. The committee dealt with crucial areas like residuals processing, emergency budget cuts and staff reductions. SAG-AFTRA, working with the DGA, IATSE and the Teamsters, created the return to work and The Safe Way Forward COVID-19 safety protocols, which have become an industry standard and allow members to return to set and benefit from some of the best workplace protections found anywhere in the world.

Following Rogers, Palma Elmore gave a presentation that informed members about current SAG-AFTRA initiatives, including the safer set protections, intimacy coordinators, deepfakes and anti-discrimination statements. She also shared a list of current productions working on all islands.

Committee reports included Communications by Andrea Sikkink, Conservatory by Scott Rogers and Legislative by Charles Uyehara. 

After the meeting adjourned, attendees took part in an informal Q&A session, where members’ questions were addressed by Local Board members, the National Board representative and staff. Topics included new media productions, low-budget films, and union rules and regulations.