Tag Archives: election

Trying To Help My Fellow Members (or 2 Weeks And 2 Roundtables)

Posted on November 29, 2023 | Comments Off on Trying To Help My Fellow Members (or 2 Weeks And 2 Roundtables)

I’ve written a lot about my union service lately for a lot of reasons. One is that there hasn’t been any work since we have been on strike. But the bigger one is that I have been passionate about union service since I got involved. It’s really easy to not pay that much attention to what is going on and not worry about voting or anything else like that. But it’s so important to know what is happening because if we are lucky, these contracts and elected officials will be the ones who can make a big difference in our working conditions and pay.

As soon as the strike was suspended, there was a lot of discussion about the contract ratification vote. These usually happen during the summer when the new contract is decided (since we don’t normally go on strike and take 118 days to get a new contract). But the process is the same as it normally is. We received the summary of what changes will be coming in the new contract. There are informational sessions held so we can learn more and get our questions answered. And then we vote. For every contract I’ve voted on for SAG-AFTRA, the vote passes and the contract is ratified.

But this time, things don’t feel as simple as they usually are. I don’t know if members are more involved now that we’ve had a long strike if the idea of AI is worrying them, or what else might be triggering. But this contract ratification vote has been a lot more contentious than the others. The union has been trying to alleviate fears as much as they can. They have been doing more informational sessions than I remember from the past. The lawyers rushed to complete the full memorandum of agreement, which typically isn’t done until after the vote is completed. They have been putting out as much information as possible to make sure the misinformation is corrected. For example, I’ve heard some members worry that there will be no more background jobs because of AI. But not only does the new contract prohibit productions from using AI instead of the minimum number of covered background, we got the minimum number increased!

After seeing the misinformation going around online, I knew I had to do something. So I teamed up with another delegate, David Blue, and we decided to create some livestreams to get the correct information out to members. These were going to be similar to the You Are The Union livestreams I did a few years ago, but we were just going to focus on the new contract. We invited members of the Negotiating Committee to answer questions that members had about the new contract. Because of some of the conversations we had seen on social media, we were very cautious about making sure things would stay respectful and calm. And the first livestream we did was magical! It went better than we could have expected or hoped for and we knew that we got a lot of information out that needed to be there. And the comments we were getting after it was done showed us that other members felt the same way.

Because that went so well and people were asking for us to do another, we hosted another livestream this week. And that was just as successful as the first!

From the time that David and I decided to do these livestreams to the time that we hosted the second was just under 2 weeks. It was a crazy whirlwind time, but it was worth it. I know we don’t have as big of a reach as some other people might have, but we’ve had over 1,000 views on the first livestream replay already and it’s still being shared online!

If you are a SAG-AFTRA member and you have some questions about the contract, please check out the replays of the livestreams that we did. We created a YouTube channel just to host them.

Votes are due by December 5th, so you’ve got just under a week to get your vote in. And it’s a much easier ballot than officer elections because it’s online and you are only voting for one thing. I’m not going to try to convince anyone how to vote because that’s not my right. If you want to know my opinions about certain issues, I’m happy to share those. But everyone has to vote the way they believe and make sure they are being an informed voter.

And in less than a week, I guess we will see what happens. But no matter what, I’m so proud of what we were able to accomplish with these livestreams and how many members we were able to help.

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Default ThumbnailYou Are The Union (or Finding More Ways To Educate Other Union Members) Default ThumbnailCelebrating A New Contract (or Feeling Good About This Accomplishment) Default ThumbnailAuthorizing A Strike (or I Got My Vote In) Default ThumbnailThe Strike Is Over! (or It’s Now Time To Vote And Pass The Contract) Default ThumbnailGiving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer) Default ThumbnailAnother Amazing You Are The Union Livestream (or Learning So Much About Being A Better Ally)

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Finishing Up Election Season (or This Was Very Different From The Norm)

Posted on September 13, 2023 | Comments Off on Finishing Up Election Season (or This Was Very Different From The Norm)

The SAG-AFTRA elections ended last week. I’ve been a part of 5 election seasons now, and this one was so different from what I’m used to. It was so different that it doesn’t feel right that it’s over now. But I am glad it’s done so the union can move on to the next thing. I tried to enjoy every moment of the election season because I feel it might not be like this again.

The first 3 election seasons I was a part of were pretty similar. There were 2 major parties running for the various positions, so it felt similar to what national politics are like. The slate I’m a part of, Unite For Strength, would help to organize things so we could campaign as a group. There were different events that we would go to and pass out flyers. And things could get very intense from time to time, but I didn’t mind that too much since I was passionate about what I believe in and I wanted to help the cause. Our election in 2021 was different because nothing was happening in person. The events we would pass out flyers at weren’t happening. So much was happening on social media, which made my volunteer position with the slate a little extra stressful. But again, my passion helped me to continue working on things, and I was proud to be a part of something I really believed in.

This year, things changed even more. Some things stayed the same, such as not having a lot of in-person campaigning opportunities. Most of the work we did this election season was done either online or by us as individuals reaching out to people we knew personally. I think a lot of us got to meet more members than normal because of the strike, but because of election guidelines, you could not discuss the elections while picketing.

But the biggest change we had this year was having a unified slate between the 2 major parties. Having a unified slate was so important for a lot of reasons. Our focus should be on the strike and not the election, so not having the usual back-and-forth between candidates wouldn’t be the most productive use of our time. I also think having a lot of leadership changes in the middle of a strike would weaken our position, so keeping as many people as possible in their previously election positions was important. And I think many of us were starting to feel like the way elections had been going and how divisive they have been was wearing us down and not benefitting us or the union as a whole. I know that we can’t always agree on everything, but to have as many disagreements as we have had the last few election seasons was not something that needed to continue.

We did still have other candidates running against the unified slate. They called themselves independent, but they worked as a slate together so they weren’t exactly independent. But even with them running against us, it didn’t feel like it did in the past with 2 major slates running against each other. They did put out some press and articles that weren’t kind about us, but it wasn’t getting a lot of traction so there weren’t arguments that I heard coming from other members who were deciding on who to vote for. Everything seemed so much more calm and simple.

And when the ballots were counted this past Friday, almost all the seats that our Unity slate ran for won! There were a few spots that we didn’t win, but it was only a handful. We didn’t get one of the National Board seats and 4 of the Local Board seats. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get the Local Board seat I ran for. I am sad about this because I really did want this, but I know that we couldn’t win everything. The 4 independents who won those Local Board seats are all very well-known actors, and many members vote for people they know. But I did win my delegate seat again so I will be a part of the National Convention! I’m so happy that I get to be a part of Convention again and I hope that I will also get a chance to be on some more committees.

I’m so glad that things turned out as well as they did for this election season. It wasn’t everything I wanted, but it was so close to that. And I really am grateful for how calm things were. It did feel weird and it almost doesn’t feel like we just had an election, but it was so nice to have things this way compared to how they have been in the past. And who knows, maybe in 2 years we will have a calm election again!

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Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer) Default ThumbnailHaving Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off) Default ThumbnailKicking Off Election Season (or Time To Be Busy With Campaigning) Default ThumbnailAlmost The End Of Election Season (or Only A Few More Days To Go) Default ThumbnailThe Official Start To Election Season (or I Can Finally Share Some Things I’ve Been Working On)

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Getting Myself Set For The Summer (or Union Things And Celebrating)

Posted on July 5, 2023 | 1 comment

As I wrote last month, I seem to pick monthly challenges at the perfect time. I pick things that end up being exactly what I need at that time and it really has benefitted me. And sometimes, those benefits have been just to focus on something that I know will be taking up a lot of my time. And that was the case for June.

I set my monthly challenge to be as involved in union service as I could be. There were some limitations that didn’t allow me to do everything I wanted to do, but I was getting a lot done last month. I was continuing to support the strike against the AMPTP as much as I could. I didn’t get out to any picket lines, but that’s just because of my job and not really having the chance to take time off while things are a bit crazy at work. But I was still supporting things as much virtually and sharing information so others could make it to the picket lines.

But the bigger thing I was working on was mainly behind the scenes because it wasn’t announced until the end of the month. Normally during union elections, there are 2 major slates that both have candidates running for various positions. This year, there has been a big sense of unity among union members and that has also changed what will be happening in the elections this summer. Instead of the 2 major slates running their own candidates, we will be having a unity slate with some candidates from each of the major slates. This is a big deal and it took a lot of work to make it happen, but I think this is something that will really benefit the union and could be a refresh for elections that we all need. There are still other candidates that will be running outside of the unity slate and there might be another slate created since there have been talks about some independents doing that in the past, but having the 2 main slates combined is going to make things very different this year. And I’m so grateful I have been a part of the work behind this (although a small part compared to others) and that I will be running on the unity slate.

I will still be doing a lot with union service this month, and likely more than normal since it is still election season. But I have picked another monthly challenge for July that I think will be perfect for me.

July is the last full month of my 30s. I turn 40 at the beginning of August and I’m pretty excited about that. I haven’t really been scared of aging, but I think that I was a bit more fearful of turning 30 than I am now about turning 40. I think my 30s have been the best decade of my life so far and significantly better than my 20s. And I want to celebrate how great my 30s were before I celebrate turning 40. So my challenge for this month is just that simple. I want to spend July celebrating and enjoying the last full month of my 30s. I know that aging is something that some people don’t look forward to, but I think more people now are enjoying aging. And age really is just a number and I believe that there is no guideline of where you need to be in life at certain ages. When I was younger, I believed in that idea more. But now, I am just enjoying my life and I don’t really care about the number attached to my age.

I don’t have anything in particular that I want to do to celebrate the end of my 30s, but I will be making sure that I appreciate what I accomplished in the last 10 years and how I have been setting things up to be even better in my 40s. And I’m thinking I should be doing something bigger for my birthday this year since it is a milestone, so planning my birthday will also be a way to celebrate what my 30s meant to me. I’m excited about this birthday and about being in a new decade of life soon, but I also don’t want to forget everything I was able to do in my 30s and remembering how that time turned me into the person that I have become and will be going into my 40s.

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Default ThumbnailGiving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer) Default ThumbnailHalf-Birthday Time (or Only 6 Months Left In My 30s) Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailYou Are The Union (or Finding More Ways To Educate Other Union Members) Default ThumbnailA Fun Union Hangout (or Hopefully This Is The Start Of A New Regular Thing) Default ThumbnailUnion Committee Work (or Continuing To Be More and More Involved In My Union)

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Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)

Posted on June 7, 2023 | Comments Off on Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)

I feel like I’m picking the right monthly challenges at the right time. I seem to know that I will need to do something in the coming month and focusing on it really allows me to make sure I do what I need to do. Sometimes I don’t know why I need to do something until the month is over, but it’s always a great lesson for me. And this past month was no exception.

The overall challenge I set for myself was to be ok with not being perfect. I wanted to let myself use that idea for different things throughout the month, but it mainly concentrated on one part of my life. And that was how I plan out my blog posts. I’m almost 11 years into writing and until May I wrote a post every weekday. Coming up with 5 posts a week is not easy. Sometimes I have ideas for each day and I can be excited about what I want to write about. But more often, I struggle to come up with ideas and I know that my posts can become repetitive. So my challenge with not being perfect was about being ok with not writing every single day.

As you can tell from the posts I posted last month, I did go down to 2 posts a week. My Monday post was my workout recap and then my Wednesday post was about something else. I debated if I wanted to also do a Friday post because I did have things that I wanted to write about, but I knew that it would be a better challenge if I did limit myself to just 2 posts a week. Sometimes I didn’t write about things as quickly as I normally would. For example, this post would have been on Thursday or Friday last week if I had my old writing schedule. I had to be more selective about what I was going to share, but that also allowed me to not focus on turning things I do into posts. I liked not having that stress and I know that this was the exact thing I needed to do for myself.

Giving myself permission to not feel perfect really did release something from me that I didn’t know I seriously needed. And my plan is to continue to not worry about posting every day. Right now, I think keeping it to twice a week is a good option. Later, I might want to add in a third day, but I want to do another few weeks with just 2 posts a week to see how I feel about it. And maybe it’s something I keep flexible and I write 3 posts if I have things I want to share but only do 2 posts if I don’t feel like I need that third post.

Releasing the stress of having to always think of posts has been great for my mental health. And I think I will need as little stress as possible as I get prepared for a potentially stressful summer. This summer is election season for my union, and that’s what inspired my challenge for June. This month, I challenge myself to stay involved in union things as much as I can and try to help others be involved as well.

I’ve already been working on this with the strike authorization vote. I worked on making sure all the people I knew voted and understood what the vote meant. Most people understood that the authorization vote didn’t mean we were going to strike, but we were giving the negotiating committee the ability to call a strike if necessary. And I’m so proud of the union because we had a really good voter turnout (at least for us) and almost 98% of the members who voted approved the strike authorization!

Union elections are always stressful, but adding in contract negotiations adds to that. We will have our regular elections plus we could be voting on a new contract if one is presented to the members. And if we don’t get a contract, there is a chance that we will strike. This is a lot of information for members to take in, especially if they haven’t been involved in the past. Even for me, things can get overwhelming with staying on top of all the things we should know to be informed voters.

But with all the craziness and potential stress, there are so many ways for me to stay involved and connected with my acting career. I know that I will be stressed (and not having to write as many blog posts will help to not add more stress), but it will be worth it. I know I feel better when I’m involved and active with the union. I look forward to the different opportunities that will be coming during this election season and contract negotiations. I might feel like it’s too much in the moment, but once I get through this summer I know I will be grateful that I did whatever I have the ability to do.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Virtual Union Meeting (or Getting Ready For What Is To Come) Default ThumbnailThe Importance Of The Writers Strike (or I Support The WGA) Default ThumbnailLearning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations) Default ThumbnailAuthorizing A Strike (or I Got My Vote In) Default ThumbnailRecapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

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Preparing For A Virtual Convention (or My First Task For This Delegate Term)

Posted on September 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Preparing For A Virtual Convention (or My First Task For This Delegate Term)

The time between the union election and Convention is not very long. This is the way it is set in our union constitution, so it’s something we know to expect each time. But even though we know it will be a very condensed time frame, it always seems to be a bit of a surprise too. And in that short time, there is a lot to get done before the start of the Convention and I always try to participate however I can.

One of the big things that happens at the Convention is voting on resolutions that delegates propose. These resolutions can be about so many different things. Some are about changes we want to see in different policies. Some are about having recognition for different things that have happened in the past year or two. There can be hundreds of resolutions and each one that is able to be discussed at Convention is debated (some of them have issues such as not being able to be done by the union for legal reasons or not having enough endorsements to be voted on). And part of the prep for Convention usually involves an event for the LA delegates to discuss resolutions and try to get support from others.

This is something that is normally done at the union and in-person, but like so much over the past year and a half, this was being done virtually. And it was a good way to get ready for Convention because that will be done virtually too! I am a little sad that we won’t be in person because I love getting to meet delegates from all over the country, but at least we will be able to meet virtually. But that will be a much bigger meeting than the resolutions meeting I had earlier this week. So this was a good way to ease into what it will possibly be like next month when delegates from all over the country come together for a virtual convention.

We will have a Convention orientation coming up, so this meeting was completely focused on the resolutions. Each person had a chance to speak about their resolution and why they felt like it was important. Because there were so many resolutions, each time you were limited to a short amount of time to discuss things. And if you submitted multiple resolutions, you could only talk about them one at a time.

I’ve never written a resolution myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about them. I just haven’t had something I felt passionately enough to want to present to everyone. But I love hearing what other people come up with. And this year, I was given a chance to be listed as a co-author on a resolution that I think is a great one! The resolution I’m listed on is about having a way to designate another address you might want your union ballot to be mailed to because some people miss out on voting because their ballots were mailed to a business manager or someone else who gets their union mail. But because ballots are different than things like union dues bills, some people might want to have a ballot mailed to their home even though they normally mail everything to someone else. I think it’s a great idea and a way to help make sure more members vote. So I was very happy to be listed as a co-author.

And because I was a co-author, I also had the chance to present it at the meeting.  The person who wrote the resolution had others that they wrote, so I offered to discuss this one so they didn’t have to do all of theirs. I hate speaking in front of a group, but this was easier since I was just speaking to my screen and I couldn’t tell how many people were watching me. And it seemed that a lot of people who were watching agreed that this was a good resolution and hopefully they will be endorsing it. There is still a bit of time before the cutoff for endorsements, so I’m just going to stay hopeful.

Over the 2 hour meeting, we got to hear about a lot of the resolutions that LA delegates have proposed. It was good to hear more about them than just what we can read online so we understand why someone felt passionate about it. After the meeting was done, I went back to make sure I endorsed the resolutions I liked so they could hopefully get enough support to be brought up at Convention in a month. I do feel like it is important for me to take this process seriously since it’s one of the few responsibilities I have as a delegate. And I think I feel even more strongly about that as things are being done virtually and not in person. I want this Convention to feel just as important and productive as the past ones I’ve been a part of.

I only have a few more things to do before Convention is here. It’s crazy that it’s almost here, but I’m so excited about it coming up!

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Default ThumbnailStarting My Delegate Term (or The First Of Several Meetings) Default ThumbnailObserving The Local Board Meeting (or The Beginning Of My Second Term As A Delegate) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA Local Meeting (or Coming To The End Of My Delegate Term) Default ThumbnailTime For Convention (or I’m Ready To Get To Work) Default ThumbnailA Full Convention Weekend (or Preparation Pays Off) Default ThumbnailMore Virtual Union Meetings (or Hopefully We Will Be Back To In-Person Meetings Soon)

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Having Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off)

Posted on September 7, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off)

There is so much I stress about during union election season, but sometimes the most stressful thing is waiting while ballots are being counted to see the results. I usually end up having a very late night to see the end of the ballot counting and sometimes I’m so exhausted that things don’t click with me until the next morning. And this year, I knew watching the ballots being counted would be a different thing than normal since it was being done over Zoom.

There were pros and cons to the counting being done online. I didn’t like that I was at home alone watching everything and I didn’t have my friends there to reassure me or to joke with while we wait for everything to be done. But the biggest advantage was that I got to watch while I was working because I could keep the Zoom screen small on my screen while I’m working. I actually was able to watch from almost the start when the ballots were picked up from the post office and brought over to the union. I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but it was cool to see since it’s something I’ve never been an observer for in the past.

I wasn’t able to watch all of the counting process because I was working from 9-5. When I could check the screen, I did. And when people were asking questions on Zoom about the process, I listened. But for those 8 hours, I mainly worked with the occasional check-in on the process. I was also texting and messaging with friends who were watching the entire time.

For all the times in the past that I was an observer for the ballot counting, I was only in the local count room. I was automatically allowed in there because I was on the local ballot (which includes National Board, Local Board, and Delegates). The national count room was for the national president and secretary-treasurer, and to be allowed in that room you had to either be a candidate or listed as a proxy for a candidate. This year, I knew I’d be watching in the local room since that’s the standard for me. But I was selected to be a proxy for one of our candidates in the national room so I was able to be in both (not at the same time, but I switched back and forth).

When I was able to watch, I did try to pay attention to how the ballots were looking to me. The local ballots were harder since there are so many candidates, so I could never tell if someone was voting for me. But on the national ballots, it was easy to see what was happening. And things were looking very close to me. I started to think it might be a split ballot with one slate getting president and the other getting secretary-treasurer. I wasn’t sure if we’d have a very late night or not, but we ended up getting the national results pretty early compared to past years. And I was right, we had a split ballot with Fran Drescher and Joely Fisher winning.

After we knew the results for the national count, we had to wait until the union announced it before we shared the news, but that was easier to do since I wasn’t seeing anyone in person. I switched back to the local count room to see how things were going and to watch the end of those results. When I was back watching the local count, the election committee was working on the questionable ballots and trying to figure out the voter’s intent. Some of these were clear and some were really odd. It’s frustrating when you think that they are voting for the people you are supporting and the election committee can’t agree on what the intent was. I did see the committee debate a few times about votes that they had to decide if the intent was to vote for me or someone else. That was a bit weird.

And in the end, sadly my slate didn’t do as well as we hoped. We didn’t win the local officers and we didn’t get as many board seats as we would have liked. I didn’t get elected to Local Board, which was tough. I knew that it was not going to be easy for me to be elected to the board, but I really had hoped that somehow I would win a seat. But I did win my delegate seat again, so that was good news.

It’s always tough when you don’t do as well in an election as you hoped. And this time, it hit me harder than ever before. Maybe it’s because I did more work for the campaign than in past years. Maybe feelings from the pandemic added to my emotions. Maybe I was affected by watching the count alone at home more than I thought. It doesn’t really matter why, but I honestly was heartbroken when seeing the results. I know that we can’t win everything and having balance is important, but the other side has a significant majority now and it will be harder for us to make an impact in the way we had hoped.

I think I’m still dealing with feeling sad about the results. I know that now it’s time to get back to work and we have to start preparing for the National Convention, but I also need to sit with my feelings and process what happened. The one thing that does help me feel better is that I don’t have any regrets about what I did during this election season. There is nothing I didn’t do that I wanted to do. There is nothing I did that I questioned. I did everything I wanted to do and knowing that I did that made me happy.

And in 2 years when it’s the next election season, I know I’ll be fully in it again and ready to go. And hopefully we will do better then, but now we are just focused on our union service and working hard for all members.

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Default ThumbnailLate Night Election Results (or All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go) Default ThumbnailThe Votes Are In (or An Uneventful End To The Election) Default ThumbnailAlmost Election Day (or I’m Asking You All To Please Vote) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The SAG-AFTRA Elections (or Being An Observer) Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

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Almost The End Of Election Season (or Only A Few More Days To Go)

Posted on August 31, 2021 | Comments Off on Almost The End Of Election Season (or Only A Few More Days To Go)

I’ve written about election season quite a few times on here. In the past, I don’t think I had as much to say as I did this year. And part of that is because my responsibilities and leadership role grows each election season. But the other part is that this time things were so different from what we are used to.

So often in the past, we talk about how social media isn’t everything and how important it is to be face to face or one on one with someone when discussing union politics. It’s better to have a real conversation with a friend than to blast out an impersonal message. And it’s better to have a conversation that is more than the character limit of a tweet.

But this year, in a way social media was almost everything. We were all still messaging our friends one on one and some of us had phone calls or small gatherings to talk with others about why we are running or why we are a part of Unite For Strength. But so much of campaigning this election season was on social media (mainly Twitter from what I could see). And that also meant that we had a lot more attacks on social media as well.

I know I see more than what most would see since I run the social media accounts for UFS, but I know a lot of people saw similar things to what I was seeing. And so much of it was misinformation (such as not understanding what our dues went to versus when people paid premiums for the union healthcare). Part of my job with running our social media is seeing when people have questions or they have misinformation and making sure they get the correct information. I might not always be the person who can answer it, but I can find the person who is. And it is so rewarding when I can help someone get the information they need or when something they were concerned about is either already fixed or being addressed and a fix is in the works.

And I will say, a majority of what I was seeing on social media during election season was positive, especially from the people I know. So many people were listening to each other, helping people that needed help, and just being good and kind. For all the times I was overwhelmed with seeing attacks that may have had a lot of misleading information, I’d see multiple things that made my heart happy.

And now, election season is almost done. Ballots are counted starting on Thursday morning and the results should be known by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Then we can move to getting ready for the National Convention, which will be virtual this year. And I’ll still keep working on the UFS social media since that is something I do all year. But it’s very different during election season and I’m looking forward to when it’s a bit more calm.  And before I know it, it will be time for another election season or vote of some sort and things will ramp up and be crazy again.

But for now, I’m just proud of the campaign we did for this election. I’m so proud of the work others did on social media that helped to make my work easier or better. And no matter what happens, I’m happy with the work we did as a slate and how we represented ourselves.

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Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer) Default ThumbnailNow It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things) Default ThumbnailKicking Off Election Season (or Time To Be Busy With Campaigning) Default ThumbnailThe Official Start To Election Season (or I Can Finally Share Some Things I’ve Been Working On) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The Election (or Actors Please Remember To Vote) Default ThumbnailElection Campaigning (or Being A Captain And Getting Out There)

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Now It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things)

Posted on August 5, 2021 | Comments Off on Now It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things)

For me, election season for my union starts a lot sooner than it really begins. Not only do I do social media work year-round, there are different phases to election season. There is time before the candidates are announced where we see who is interested in running and making sure that we have things in order. Between the time of candidates being finalized and ballots going out, there is a lot of preparation and announcing some candidates and what our platform is. And when ballots are mailed, everything ramps up and there is a lot more going on with making sure people know who is running and sharing who else is running with Unite For Strength.

And since ballots have been mailed and people should be getting them any day, we are fully into election season which means I’m doing a lot of work. And while I will admit that it can be overwhelming and I’m not sleeping enough, it’s also so rewarding. I have learned a lot of new skills in order to make our social media look the way it does. I am not a graphic designer (another volunteer does a lot of that), but I know how to do some basics and then send it to someone else to edit and correct. And I do get to be creative with what we make and how we present different information.

There have been 2 big projects I’ve been doing for our social media recently. First, we wanted to make images for our candidates to have that show their support for Unite For Strength. We did have a template to make these (which made my life a lot easier), but they did all have to be created one by one. But I’m so proud of how they look and I’m so happy to have this on my personal social media accounts.

And I loved seeing how others loved these too! Seeing so many of them come across my social media feed made me happy and I know people appreciated my work.

And then over the past few days, I worked on our social media voter guides. We do have flyers that announce everyone running with us, but I wanted to create something for social media too. It was easiest to make it on Instagram because of how the restrictions are on other services. But I love how it turned out with the different photo groups for different types of candidates.

I know there is a lot of work I can do on my personal Instagram to make it look beautiful, but I have been able to do so much with the Unite For Strength Instagram account that I really could use for my own. I probably wouldn’t use the same types of grids that I use since I personally would post more photos, but I would like to take a moment when things calm down to see what I can do to make my account look more professional and polished.

And now, it’s all about making sure all members who can vote do so. Just like with national politics, not everyone votes and getting the voter turnout up is something I personally am passionate about. I work on reaching out to all of my friends who I know are members and making sure they vote. And while I do hope they will vote for me and the rest of Unite For Strength, I understand that not everyone feels as passionately about the same issues as I do so they might not vote the same way I would. But getting people involved and voting is so important.

If you are a member of SAG-AFTRA, please vote. I know I ask this every time there is an election, but I will keep saying it every time. I know there are so many people who don’t vote because they forget or they don’t think it matters. But it really does matter. And if you have questions about why I’m running or why I’m a part of Unite For Strength, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to talk to anyone even if you don’t agree with me or decide you don’t want to vote for me.

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Kicking Off Election Season (or Time To Be Busy With Campaigning)

Posted on July 14, 2021 | Comments Off on Kicking Off Election Season (or Time To Be Busy With Campaigning)

I’ve gone through SAG-AFTRA election season 3 times in the past. And my involvement during election season has changed and increased over each election. It’s a stressful time for so many of us, but it’s also very worth it. I am passionate about the direction my union is going and making sure that we have the best union possible for all members. And while I hope that I will be elected to the position or positions I’m running for, I also know the importance of getting others who have similar mindsets elected too. And that’s why I’m so happy to be with the Unite For Strength slate.

Things are only getting started with this election season. We have not announced our full slate just yet, but we will be doing so soon. And that’s when I’ll share more about what I’m running for. But we have announced our candidates for National President and National Secretary-Treasurer. And I’m so excited about those candidates as well as the ones we haven’t announced just yet. I love when I discover other members who have a similar passion for union service as I do and I also love to see people move into more and more leadership positions. I know that one day, my group of members will be the leaders of the union and it’s amazing to see that growth happen in front of my eyes. I don’t know how far in union leadership I personally want to go into, but I don’t think there will be a time that I’m a member of SAG-AFTRA and not wanting to be a part of union service in one way or another. Before my first election, I never imagined doing this. Now, I can’t imagine my life without it.

I am doing the social media work for my slate again, just like I have before. I can’t share a ton of information just yet, but I can’t wait until we announce more and I start posting more. Of course, this can be a bit stressful too, but it’s worth it just like election season is. And even though I know there can be a lot of negativity on social media, especially when it comes to politics and elections, I usually see more positive things online than negative which helps a lot.

Normally during election season, both my slate as well as the other slate campaign in similar ways and they are typically done in person. We pass out information as people are walking into different in-person union events. This year, things will be different. Most of the events that we would be campaigning at are not happening. The main one that I used to campaign at, the Film Society screenings, have not returned yet and I don’t think anyone knows when the next Film Society season would be. I know that everyone is trying to find new ways to campaign and I’m sure I will be doing a lot of it just as I do with campaigning before. And this isn’t the first time we’ve had to do some sort of campaigning without in-person events. We did this for the last contract. And while I will miss these opportunities to campaign in person and meet new people, I know that future election seasons will have that chance when things are safer for us all.

I know the next few months, my life will be a bit crazy and busy with election season, but I’m also very excited about that. I will still try to find ways to be social outside of union stuff because I want to get more of my life back. But having election season here is another thing that feels like the old normal to me, so I’m embracing that feeling. And hopefully I will have some exciting news once all the votes are counted!

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It’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

Posted on May 20, 2021 | Comments Off on It’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

Every other summer for the past 6 years, I’ve spent a lot of my time campaigning for the SAG-AFTRA election. I’ve done this 3 times so far and each time has been a little different.

The first year I was running, I was running as a delegate and didn’t have much of a leadership position within Unite For Strength. I did end up having a little bit of leadership with some of the in-person campaign events, but it was just because I was going often and could help make sure people had the information they needed. The second year, I had a bit more of a leadership position within the slate with social media work. I was much more comfortable campaigning and felt like I really knew what to do. And the last time I was campaigning, I was even more involved. I was running for both a delegate and local board position. I was fully running the Unite For Strength social media. I didn’t attend that many in-person campaign events, but I worked hard in other ways to make sure members voted and encouraging others to support my slate.

And it’s starting to be time to campaign again now! And this year will be even more different than before.

First, I’m not sure yet if I’m running for both delegate and local board or just delegate yet. That’s still being decided and there is time before that has to be figured out. Either way, I’m excited to be a part of union service again and I hope I’m elected.

But the biggest difference is how to have election season during a pandemic. I am glad that we weren’t doing this last summer when things were much worse, but things still aren’t back to normal again. It’s already been announced that the National Convention will be held virtually this year. I’m not sure how it will be compared to the past 3 conventions I attended, but I know it will be different. I’m going to miss the time I had to meet members from other locals and the social aspect of Convention. But we will still be able to work hard for our members just like we have in the past.

And I don’t know how much campaigning will be able to happen in person either. Last time, we didn’t get to campaign at the DGA since the Film Society didn’t happen the same way it did before. And I’m pretty sure the Film Society won’t be back by this summer, so that will be out. So there will be a lot of virtual campaigning this time, which is something I am used to.

I’m still in prep mode for election season. There is a lot to still work out for both the social media work and all the rest of campaigning. And while I do have time, I know the real election season will be here before we know it. Even though this year seems to be moving slower than normal, I know that the end of the election and Convention will be here quickly. And I hope that I’m just as successful, if not more, this election season as I have been for the past election seasons.

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