Tag Archives: SAG-AFTRA

A Week Until Race Day (or Helping Out My Friend’s Place)

Posted on October 30, 2015 | 1 comment

The 3rd Hard Rock Cafe 5K is just over a week away. I’m excited for the race to see if I’ve made any improvement since my last 5K. And my best friend is coming to town to do the race with me! I’m also nervous because I know that my calf injury isn’t totally healed (it’s super close!) and I don’t want to hurt myself during the race.

There’s not much I can really do about how my calf (or my hip) will feel during the race. I know that I’m not going to push myself as much as I might have just to be careful. And I am going to time out my workouts leading up to the race to make sure I have rest days right before.

Since I can’t do much about dealing with injuries at the race, I’m trying to focus on something else. Last year, I got to tour My Friend’s Place, which is the official charity of the Hard Rock Cafe race. I’m so glad that I had that opportunity because I never really thought about homeless youth in Los Angeles. I’ve helped at shelters for homeless adults, but youth have very different needs. After touring My Friend’s Place, I knew that I wanted to help out with donations in the future.

I hadn’t really been able to donate in the past year, but My Friend’s Place was always on my mind. Whenever someone mentioned having things to donate, if they were things on the wish list, I’d recommend they donate there.

Then, at the SAG-AFTRA Convention, one of my fellow delegates mentioned how AFTRA used to do donations at their conventions (this was before the two unions merged). Many delegates come from out-of-town and stay at the host hotel, and we know that most people don’t use the toiletries that the hotel provides in the bathroom. So at the AFTRA conventions, they would collect these toiletries and donate them to a place that could use them.

I connected with the delegate who brought up the donation idea (and got it all started) and said that if she didn’t have a charity in mind that I’d love to donate them to My Friend’s Place. So all of our donations (about 5 bags full) went to My Friend’s Place recently and we know that they will be going to good use.

I’ve also told my parents to bring all of the dog supplies that were Dante’s or Tucker’s that Tucker is too big for because My Friend’s Place allows the youth to bring their pets there and they need collars, leashes, and other pet supplies. So I will be doing that donation after Thanksgiving when I get them.

And the other day, a box showed up at my house. Somehow, I am on a baby/pregnancy mailing list (I’m not pregnant) and lots of baby related coupons have been arriving at my door. But this day, there were two cans of powdered baby formula inside!

So I will be adding those to my post-Thanksgiving donation and several of my friends with kids will be giving me baby clothes that their kids have outgrown, the leftover diapers in a box that their baby has sized out of, and other baby supplies that are on the wish list. I’m really excited to have another nice size donation that I will be bringing to My Friend’s Place soon.

If any of you are in Los Angeles, I highly recommend donating to My Friend’s Place if you can. They are so happy for any donations they can get and I know that they are working on helping the homeless youth find jobs and homes so that they don’t have to sleep on the streets as adults. I know that I haven’t made a lot of donations in the past there, but I’m hoping to fix that now and to make donating there a somewhat regular thing.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, charity, donations, Hollywood, race, SAG-AFTRA

More Friends More Fun (or Still Building My Social Circle)

Posted on October 22, 2015 | Comments Off

I’ve talked before about how I’ve had to work hard as an adult to make friends. I lost a lot of my friends when my best friend from college and I ended our friendship and it was tough for me to start over. I was eventually able to reconnect with people I had lost track of in the past (social media was a huge help in doing that) and also went out of my way to make new friends. And after a while, I had a ton of amazing friends that I am incredibly grateful to have in my life and continue to push me to be the best person I can be.

Because I have so many amazing friends now, I do get lazy from time to time when it comes to making friends. I meet people at events and we friend each other on Facebook, but then we never really hang out. And my schedule is partially to blame for that because I’m still over booking myself a bit (I think life will calm down after Thanksgiving).

But lately I’ve been in opportunities to not only meet lots of amazing people, but to get to spend time with them and build real friendships. The SAG-AFTRA Convention is the perfect example of this.

I spent so many hours with my fellow delegates. A lot of the time, we were exhausted from long hours and lack of sleep which helps to put everyone’s guards down and make friendships much easier to start. I did know some of my fellow delegates going into the convention, but through the convention (and the fun of the gala), I got to know so many more people and I’m happy that I’m already finding time to hang out with some of them!

I had the chance to work with one of my fellow delegates when I did coaching for my audition I had recently. While I had an hour of coaching, I was really there for like 4 hours because we were having too much fun hanging out and getting to know each other.

I’ve seen delegates at the SAG-AFTRA Film Society screenings I’ve gone to lately. I’m sure we’ve seen each other at the screenings in the past (most of us go to as many screenings as we can), but since I didn’t really know them until the convention, I never really paid attention. Now, we are all running into each other at each screening and usually we also end up trying to sit together. It’s nice to have friends at the screenings with me since we usually have to wait in line to go into the screening (sometimes for a pretty long time) and there is always time to kill once we are in the theater. And while I’m always prepared with a book, I’d rather use that time to be social.

With it being the start of awards season, I’ve got a lot of screenings coming up. And I’m making a serious effort to try to reach out to my friends (old and new) to come and be my plus one for them. For the past few screenings, I’ve been able to bring a different friend to each one and that’s been pretty awesome. I get that one on one time with a friend while we are waiting for the movie to catch up on life and be silly. And that’s something that I know I don’t do often enough.

I know I always say this, but I have to make my social life a bit more of a priority in my life. These screenings are helping, but once screening season is done I don’t want to neglect my friendships. I don’t know what I’ll do to fix this problem. Maybe I should start going out after I do my late afternoon workouts, but usually by the time I get home all I want to do is shower, eat dinner, and be lazy on the couch for a bit before going to bed. My weekends are getting a bit packed with work obligations until Thanksgiving (seriously, I don’t have a free weekend until after then) but I’m going to start trying to schedule things with friends more in advance so it’s on my calendar and becomes a priority.

Even though I always have the concern about not spending enough time with my friends, I’m glad that right now it’s not a huge issue and that I’m aware of it enough that hopefully I can make sure that it’s not an issue in the future.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged busy, friends, SAG-AFTRA, scheduling, screening

Watching Some Inspiration (or A Weekend Of Screenings)

Posted on October 13, 2015 | Comments Off

I realize that I’m pretty lucky with the screenings I get invited to. Some of them are because I am current on my SAG-AFTRA dues and I get to vote for the SAG Awards. Some of them are through Women In Film. And some of them are because I pay to be a part of the SAG-AFTRA Film Society.

Most of the screenings I go to (with the exception of the voting season for SAG Awards) are through the SAG-AFTRA Film Society. Prior to this past weekend, I had been to lots of movies through them. Most of them are either in theaters right now or about to be in theaters. And on the rare occasion those screenings include a Q&A.

Late on Friday night, I went to go see “The Walk”. I knew the story pretty well because I had seen “Man On Wire”, but I think that this film was pretty awesome. The screening was in 3D and my palms were sweaty the entire time the walk was going on (the friend who joined me said that he was barely able to breathe that time because he was nervous). It was a fun movie to watch and even though I was really tired Saturday morning I’m glad I went out to see it.

And on Saturday I got to see “Steve Jobs”. I was looking forward to this movie because I love the actors who are in it. I picked a screening time to go to that worked out with my schedule and was ready to go. But then a few days before the screening I found out that the screening time I was going to was also going to have a Q&A with the writer, director, and 3 of the actors in the film.

I was excited to attend the Q&A (which fortunately was after the film because it’s always weird when it’s before the movie you are seeing), but I knew that that movie was going to be extra crowded because of that.

I got to the theater pretty early and was a decent way back in the line, but I managed to find a pretty close and centered seat.

The movie was amazing. I had read the biography of Steve Jobs that the film was based on, but the movie was so different from what I expected. It pretty much takes place in 3 distinct acts (each act is a somewhat real-time representation of a certain day). The pattern of the movie was fascinating to watch and it felt like the movie flew by.

And soon as the credits were done, the Q&A started.

It’s always fun to hear about the making of a movie, but what truly inspired me was hearing how they did the rehearsal process for each of the acts. The actors had over a week of real rehearsal time (not being distracted by wardrobe fittings or other things) where they were in a rehearsal room with the set being marked out by tape. This way, the actors had time to get used to the dialogue (and there was a lot of dialogue) and not have to worry about taking up time on the set while the crew was there.

They got to do this rehearsal process for each of the acts (rehearsing for the week or so prior to filming that section). This is not normal. Most movies don’t really give actors real rehearsal time to work on their characters, lines, and relationships. But hearing that some directors feel this passionate about making sure their actors had what they needed to do the best performance possible really made me happy. I can only dream that I get to have an experience like that on set one day.

Normally when I go to screenings, I have fun because it’s a day or night at the movies. This past weekend, going to the movies inspired me to keep going and keep pursing my dream. Just seeing the passion in the filmmakers’ and actors’ eyes proved to me that I’m on the right path.

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Tagged acting, movies, SAG-AFTRA, screening, union

The Convention Gala (or An Evening Under and With The Stars)

Posted on October 7, 2015 | 1 comment

With all the business surrounding the SAG-AFTRA Convention, I’m glad that there were a couple of fun events planned as well. Most of the fun things were free (like a screening I decided to skip because I needed to catch up on sleep), but there was one ticketed event as part of Convention.

The gala did cost money to attend, but I justified it by saying that I was saving money by not having to buy food during Convention (since they fed us) so I got a ticket before they sold out.

Part of the gala was the American Scene Awards, but mostly this was an event to have fun, dance, and get to know the other delegates there.

Since Convention was at Universal and the gala was at WB, I didn’t want to have to go home to change (I never would have made it in traffic). Fortunately, one of the SAG-AFTRA staff members let a couple of us use a meeting room to change in at the hotel. While there wasn’t privacy, none of us minded since it was better than having to change in the bathroom (I don’t want to have my bare feet on a public bathroom floor).

After we got ready, we carpooled over to WB were there was some on-site parking for us (most people bussed over, but I wanted to have my car there to get home quicker). The parking was pretty easy and we were on our way to the backlot right away so we could enjoy the party.

Of course, when there is a step and repeat, we have to take a photo.

The museum was open for us to enjoy, but I ended up not making it up to the second floor. I was having too much fun seeing my friends there and enjoying seeing everyone dressed up fancy.

We moved over to the buffet to get dinner and to the bar for drinks (just sparkling water for me) and then found a table to sit at for dinner and the awards.

Yes it was cool to see the awards, but I really just enjoyed having a fun night out. There are so many things to vote on and debate about at Convention, but this night was all about fun. I goofed off with people at my table and was just silly and giggly (it’s been a while since I felt like that).

After the awards and getting dessert, it was time to move over to the dance floor. There was a live band there and they were pretty awesome!

I’m not much of a dancer, but when there is a good band and lots of awesome people, I can’t turn it down. I was jumping around and pulling people into our group to dance. I’m not sure how long I was dancing, but by the time I was ready to go I was super sweaty and my feet had blisters. And I didn’t even care because I had such an amazing time!

I was worried about the timing of the gala, especially since I don’t live super close to everything. And yes, I was a bit tired the next morning, but it wasn’t unbearable and it was totally worth it. Bonding with my fellow delegates and getting to know people from all over the country was amazing and really helped me not feel like an outsider in the union anymore. I had gotten some haters during the election who didn’t believe that I should be a delegate due to what they perceive as a lack of credits. I questioned things a bit, but even beginner actors have the right to be active in the union government. I don’t regret things at all anymore and seeing everyone having fun all night made me realize that I totally fit in.

The next gala (and Convention) is 2 years away, but I’m already counting down the days. This entire 4 day process really was an eye-opening experience for me and reaffirmed all the choices that I’ve made in my career. And if I can feel that from my first Convention experience, I can’t image what will happen after my next one!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, party, SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA National Convention (or I Had No Idea It Would Be Like This)

Posted on October 6, 2015 | 4 comments

I’m going to split my recap of the SAG-AFTRA Convention into two posts. Today will be about a majority of the 4 days I spent at Convention and tomorrow I’ll write about the gala.

I’ve mentioned this on here before, but when I ran for my delegate seat I wasn’t 100% sure what I was in for. I knew that it would involve attending the National Convention, but that’s pretty much all I knew. I have been wanting to get more involved in the union for a while, so this was jumping in with both feet.

With National Convention coming closer, all the delegates got lots of emails with schedules and things that we would need to be aware of. The Convention website (and later the app they created) had all the amendments and resolutions that we would be voting on during Convention. Some of these things made sense to me, but many confused me. Fortunately, I have friends who know more about the union than I do that I can trust and they explained things to me and helped me understand which way I was wanting to vote on each thing.

The first day of Convention was Thursday evening for the delegate party. I don’t have any pictures of this because I had to run an unexpected errand right before the party and ended up arriving an hour late (the party was only 2 hours). I checked in and got my delegate badge and bag filled with information for the weekend.

I got to see a bunch of my delegate friends at the party. But since I knew the next morning would be a very early morning for me, I didn’t stay too long.

The next morning was the first day of “real” Convention activities. We voted on the Executive Vice President as an entire group and then we divided up to vote on Vice Presidents for our regions or categories. The voting took time, but I appreciated that because on Friday (and again on Saturday) I was working my box office day job from Convention. I got permission to do chats only and not phone calls, but I still had to focus on my customers. So while the voting was being done or counted, I sat at my table and worked (most of the other delegates used that time to talk to friends or meet new people from other parts of the country).

We also spent a lot of time at Convention voting on the amendments and resolutions that we had been sent prior to Convention. I really can’t say too much about what happened during that voting. But I do want to say that while during the elections over the summer there was very much an attitude of one side versus the other, at Convention everyone came together as one and we all worked to make sure that what we chose to do is in the best interest of all performers, recording artists, and broadcasters in the union.

We also got to hear from our National Executive Director, David White, about what is coming for the union and what he wants us to accomplish. I’ve met David White briefly before, but getting to hear his report was so inspiring and I’m so happy that he is our NED and helping us make the union the best that it can be. Again, I’m not able to share a ton of what was discussed, but there are some really great plans for the future that should be announced in the next few months.

At one point during Saturday, we got to split up and chose a workshop to attend. There were a couple of different options and it was tough to choose one, but some of my fellow delegates and I decided to all try to attend different ones so we could share what we learned. It was interesting hearing the issues that members of the union face and learn what we can do to fix things, whether or not we are personally affected.

While a lot of the business was work, the staff (who did an amazing job putting together and coordinating Convention) did try to make things fun for us too. Every morning there was a breakfast (I only took advantage of that on Sunday when they had some eggs, bacon, hash browns, and fruit) and on Friday and Saturday there was lunch provided. Friday lunch was good, but nothing too special. But Saturday lunch was provided by several food trucks!

I got to enjoy some tacos and ice cream before heading back into the Convention room to get back to work. The food truck lunch was a highlight for many of us and a much appreciated break from working so hard on getting things done.

We heard speeches from our President, Executive Vice President, and Secretary/Treasurer to hear what their plans and goals are for the next 2 years (when the next election and convention will be). There have been so many things done in the past 2 years and I know the next 2 will be just as productive, if not more so.

I know this sounds like a lot of information. It is. I’m still a bit overwhelmed on everything I experienced. A friend of mine asked me to explain why I thought that Convention was so beneficial for me as an actor. The best thing I came up with was that before it was like I was a tourist of my union. Now I’m a citizen or resident of the union. I had no idea about the issues that the broadcasters or recording artists deal with, but since we are one union it is important for all performers to help them with their fight. I learned so much about what I can do when I see things that aren’t on the up and up and how to properly report them to the union (I haven’t done that properly in the past). I learned about how there are so many things in the works for the union that can’t be announced publicly yet because that puts those things at risk for not being able for being done. But most importantly, I became more proud of being a SAG-AFTRA member than ever before and want all my fellow union members to feel that same pride.

I hope that this is just the beginning of my political career with SAG-AFTRA. I know 100% for sure that I will be running as a delegate again in 2 years. I don’t know if I’d want to be a board member yet, but I’ve got plenty of time to learn more about that position and to decide.

But for now, I’m taking the inspiration that I feel from Convention and making sure that I keep this feeling and momentum going and share it with you all.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, Los Angeles, SAG-AFTRA, union, vote

My First Official SAG-AFTRA Duty (or Learning What’s In Store)

Posted on September 24, 2015 | 1 comment

After winning my delegate seat in the SAG-AFTRA election, my first question was “what’s next?”. I knew that I would get to attend the convention this year, but so much of what I could do or get to do was a mystery to me.

Fortunately, not only do I have some amazing mentors through Unite For Strength but the union has been sending emails with lots of information for us! And with the convention coming up next week, the Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA local decided to have a sort of orientation for all elected delegates.

The orientation was this week with a dinner first, followed by an opportunity to observe the local board meeting, and then finishing with the orientation. I got there nice and early so I could check in and make sure there wasn’t anything else I had to do before the official things started for the evening.

The dinner was fun. It was very nice of them to have food for us and we all had a great time getting to chat with our friends. We had a minor snafu when the fire alarm went off, but we were back inside pretty quickly.

Next, all the board members took their seats for the board meeting and then all the delegates got to follow inside to find a seat. I found a seat pretty close to the front and was very excited to see what would happen at the board meeting.

This was my first time getting to see a local board meeting for SAG-AFTRA and while we didn’t get to have the agenda and other paperwork that the board members had, they put the agenda up on a screen for us to follow along with. There was some housekeeping stuff to take care of since this was the first board meeting since the election. But there was also some new business and discussion about committees and other things that the local board will be doing soon.

It was really fun to see the process that goes on in the room. There are rules to follow and ways that you can and cannot bring up information or concerns. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to observe more board meetings in the future because it really was cool to see how things that affect me and my fellow actors are decided and debated on. And maybe one day I’ll run for local board and I want to make sure I understand what it’s all about before running.

When we had our delegate orientation, there was a lot of information to cover. With convention being next week, they wanted to make sure that all of our questions were answered and we were ready to go. Since the convention is in LA, we are the host local and we want to be able to help any of the other locals who are traveling to LA with questions they might have.

The convention is going to be a couple of very full days. I’ll be working my day job from the convention (just the chat customer service work since I won’t be able to answer the phone) so I know that each day will be tiring. But there are some fun things involved too. There is a gala that you had to buy a ticket for (I did) that will be held on the backlot of Warner Bros. That should be pretty awesome. There will also be a food truck lunch one day, but if it’s on Friday I will have to miss out on it because I will be in the convention room working my day job during lunch. But maybe someone can bring me food.

No matter how full the days will be or how stressed out I might get trying to balance out my schedule, I know that this is going to be great. I’ve been wanting to get more involved in the union and now is my chance to start! I’m excited to represent my fellow Los Angeles SAG-AFTRA members with the voting that will be happening next week and I hope that what is decided continues to make us a stronger and more unified union.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, election, Los Angeles, meeting, SAG-AFTRA, union

The End Of The SAG-AFTRA Elections (or Being An Observer)

Posted on August 25, 2015 | 2 comments

This past Thursday, the ballots for the SAG-AFTRA election were counted. The ballot count was at the SAG-AFTRA offices starting at 9am and originally we were told that we would hear results around 5 or 6pm.

As much as I would have liked to be there in the morning, I had to work. So as soon as work was done at 3pm, I headed to the offices to wait for the results to be announced.

At first, I just waited outside the counting room. I knew I couldn’t use my phone inside the room and I was helping to update a lot of people who couldn’t be at the count. But some of my fellow candidates encouraged me to go inside, so I did.

I have to say, watching the counting was pretty cool. The main counting was done so I never got to watch the counting machines in action. But what I did get to observe was the counters hand counting questionable ballots. Those questionable ones were ones where people might have over voted (or over voted and then crossed some things out) or where the bubbles weren’t filled in in a method that the counting machines could recognize. It was pretty cool seeing these people analyzing what the intention of the voter was. It’s impressive to see how seriously they take their jobs and I feel very comfortable with the integrity of the count. If you ever have the opportunity to do something similar for a ballot count, I highly recommend it.

6pm came and they were saying we were still hours away from the results. So my slate went next door to Marie Callendars to eat and wait (too bad I already used my birthday coupon!). Ken Howard, who was running for National President, was going to get a phone call when the national results were in (we knew those would be first). Every time his phone rang, everyone got quiet and waited to see if it was “the call”. Finally, it was and Ken got the happy news that he was re-elected as president! But then we had a twist: his running mate for Secretary/Treasurer was not elected but instead the candidate from the other slate one that position. Everyone in the room was celebrating when we heard that Ken won, but then went into shock when we heard that Jenny O’Hara lost. I was really hoping for Jenny to win. I had gotten to know her really well while campaigning and I felt like she would be so amazing in that position. But now I must have faith in our new Secretary/Treasurer Jane Austin.

After Ken’s win, we heard that it might be another hour or two for the rest of the results. Many people decided to go home, but I figured I might as well stick it out as long as I could.

Since the restaurant closed, we all went back to the offices and hung out in the counting room. We kept watching for signs that the count was done. We had been told that if we were still in the room when it was done, they would let us go in and meet with the election committee one by one in private and they would tell us our results. If we weren’t there, we would get an email (actually, we’d get an email either way but finding out in person was going to be first).

I knew I couldn’t sleep until I knew so I waited it out. And finally around 11:30pm we were told to line up. There were a couple of people in front of me and some of them didn’t get elected for everything they ran for. I was so incredibly nervous and when it was my turn the nerves were even worse.

The room that we had to go into for the results felt like a judging. It was as conference room with about 10 people and you had your name and what you were running for announced so they could all check their information. It felt like forever before they could find my name. And when they did, I got the happy news that I won my convention delegate seat!

I went outside and waited for everyone else from my slate to get their results. There were some surprises on some losses, but in the end my slate has maintained the majority that we had before. And I think that maybe having the national positions split will help bring the two slates closer together and the next election won’t be as nasty.

I went to bed as soon as I got home and had this email waiting for me when I woke up in the morning.

It all feels real now! And I’m getting emails about joining committees and other things. I’m seriously so excited! While I haven’t been treating my career as a hobby, I think that maybe I have been treating my union membership as one. I’m so excited to be more involved from now on with the union and hopefully make a difference in our working conditions, pay, and other issues that I and all SAG-AFTRA actors deal with.

Thank you to all of you who voted for me! I’m so excited to serve you as a convention delegate for the next two years! And who knows, maybe in 2 years I’ll be running for a board position too!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, election, SAG-AFTRA, union, winner

The End Of The Election (or Actors Please Remember To Vote)

Posted on August 14, 2015 | Comments Off

I had mentioned before that I’m running as a convention delegate candidate for Unite For Strength in the SAG-AFTRA election. When I was asked first if I’d like to run, I wondered how involved I could really get because I’m not running for the board but for a convention delegate. But I’ve been able to be more involved than I thought and I’m so happy about that!

I’ve been pretty active on social media getting the word out that I’m running and who else is on the slate I’m running with. If you are SAG-AFTRA and haven’t voted yet, you can check out our handy voter guides and see who else is running with me!

I’ve gotten to know so many actors who have been very involved with the union for years, even before the unions had merged. Some of these actors are actors that I have watched on TV or in movies for years, and it’s makes me smile now that I can consider them my peers.

I’ve learned so much about the union that I was uninformed about in the past. I’m a bit embarrassed about how uninvolved I’ve been in the past, but I’m hoping to make up for that now. I have friends who have come to me with issues that they have encountered on sets or auditions in the past. I’ve been able to bring those up to current board members who are running for their seat again to find out what we can do to fix those problems. And I’ve learned that as actors, we do have more power than I thought before.

I have met people who are running on the other slate. Online, there are many nasty people. There are people online claiming that I (and my slate) are responsible for actors not making a living and that few actors are eligible for healthcare (the healthcare eligibility has gone up since the merger, but it’s still a small percentage of actors who make enough to qualify). But those running on the other slate who I’ve met in person have been for the most part very nice and friendly people. Although they have very different ideas about what is most important for us to focus on as a union, we have been able to have some polite and honest debates. I’ve brought to them some of the arguments or complaints that people have said online about why they won’t vote for me and the people from the other slate have pretty much said that all those reasons are either not the fault of the slate or something that no slate could fix anyway.

I’ve met lots of actors who either haven’t voted yet or didn’t realize that there was an election going on while I have been campaigning outside of union events. The elections typically have a turnout of about 20%, and that is just sad to me. More actors should care about their union and who is representing them. If you are a SAG-AFTRA actor and have not voted yet, do it now! You need to have you ballot received by the 20th, so we recommend mailing them today or tomorrow to get here in time!

Whether or not I win my seat, I’m so grateful that I’ve been a part of this election process. It has motivated me so much and has made me realize that even if I’m not elected there is so much more that I can do with the union to make sure that my voice is heard. I’ve learned so much about the union in general and have heard what other actors are concerned about regarding the union and the acting industry in general. And I’ve been able to hang out with old friends and make some new ones along the way.

Please remember to vote if you are a SAG-AFTRA actor and get your ballot in the mail today!

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, election, SAG-AFTRA

Unite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time)

Posted on July 22, 2015 | 2 comments

I’m so excited to announce that I am running for a Convention delegate seat with SAG-AFTRA (the actor union I’m a member of)! I was asked if I was interested to run by a friend of mine. I was a bit hesitant at first, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. So I decided to go for it! I’ve been wanting to be more involved in my union and this is the perfect opportunity to do so. I just needed someone to give me the push to get involved.

I’m running with the Unite For Strength slate. The UFS group was formed before the two unions merged. They were the SAG-AFTRA representatives that were pro-merger. I actually got to attend one of the pre-merger UFS meetings before I joined the union. The same friend who asked me if I wanted to run this year brought me as his guest. It was a bit overwhelming at that party at first since I really didn’t know anyone (and everyone seemed to be a really established actor who I had looked up to and I was a bit nervous). But I was immediately struck by how smart and friendly everyone was. And even though I was a non-union member attending the event, everyone was interesting in getting to know who I am and answer any questions I might have had (and I had a ton at the time).

I’m honored that I’m a part of UFS for this coming election. We actually have a ton of really amazing people running for various positions in the union.

(I’m #144 on the list!).

We had a meeting as a group the other night to discuss some election things including rules of what we can and can’t do while we campaign and so us newbies could meet some of the more experienced union members who can help us out. It’s a little intimidating being in that room and hearing what other members have had to deal with in past elections, but I tried to listen to what everyone said and take in as much as I could (thankfully, UFS also sends us emails so I have copies of all the super important stuff).

Again, I was so impressed by everyone else running with UFS. Everyone was so friendly and really was there to help everyone else. I got to talk to most of the people who were at the meeting and they helped me realize that everyone has the same nerves and fears when they ran for a position for the first time. But that’s why you join a group like UFS. They are almost like election mentors and they are there to help guide me through this. And hopefully I’ll be elected and then they will be there for me again to help make sure that I am able to be a successful Convention delegate.

I think the most important thing I learned at the meeting was that it’s ok for me not to know everything. I’m going to learn and there are plenty of people who are supporting me who can help me out if I can’t answer something. My job is really to listen, to learn, and to be a voice of the union. And that’s something that I can do.

If you are able to vote in the upcoming SAG-AFTRA election, I would love it if you would vote for me (#144) and the rest of the Unite For Strength slate. But even if you don’t want to vote for me or the slate, it is so important for you to vote no matter what. I know for the merger vote there was a pretty high turnout but for this election it’s not expected to be nearly as many. So every single vote counts. It is important to be an active member of the union and by doing so you may be inspired to get more involved one day like I’m hoping to do if I win my delegate seat.

If any of you have any questions about Unite For Strength, the upcoming election, or anything else regarding SAG-AFTRA; feel free to ask me. You can comment on here or you can use my contact form if you want it to be a bit more private. If I don’t know the answer, I will find someone who does and get you the answer. Even if I don’t get voted in as a Convention delegate, I really do want to help any of you find the answers you want regarding the union. I had people who did that for me and now it’s my turn to repay the favor.

Ballots should be getting to you in the next few days, so please take a look at the Unite For Strength slate and make sure you vote!

2 Comments

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, election, SAG-AFTRA, union, vote

A Summer Of Movies (or Grateful For Union Membership)

Posted on May 27, 2015 | 1 comment

While TV is the medium that I dream of working in, I love going to see movies. A couple of years ago when I was out of work (before I started this blog), I would try to watch at least one movie a week. Most of the time it was something I got from Netflix since I didn’t have money coming in. But seeing a movie at home is still better than no movies at all.

For a while, I wasn’t seeing movies that often. Money is part of the reason, but I’m not really sure why I stopped. Movies make me happy and they should be a part of my life when I can go.

Since becoming a member of SAG-AFTRA, I have more opportunities to see movies for free. Most of the free movies are around the holidays and into the new year because they are screenings for the SAG Awards (I have to see movies to be able to vote on them). I’m also getting more opportunities to see movies through Women in Film.

But for the past few years I’ve paid to be a part of the SAG-AFTRA Film Society. Between the membership into the society and the parking pass I pay for, it costs me about $200 a year to be a part of the film society. And in the past, I’ve tried to see as many movies as I can. The more movies I see, the better value the membership each year is.

This past weekend was the opening weekend for Film Society (the season runs May-March/April). And I decided to go and see both movies.

The movies that screened last weekend were “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Both movies screened in 3D and for both movies I brought a guest (all movies through Film Society allow me to bring a plus one). So with just this first weekend, I’ve already gotten about $60 value out of my membership (based on the idea that a 3D movie ticket costs $15).

I really enjoyed both movies. Neither are movies that I probably would have picked on my own. But both movies came highly recommended by friends so I decided to give them a chance.

I found it really interesting that while they were both action filled movies, Avengers was CGI based and Mad Max had practical effects (very few effects were done with CGI). It’s fun to see how the actors are able to react to effects that are really happening versus effects that get added in after the actors complete their part. Neither was better than the other, it was just different.

Now that I’ve got my Film Society membership started up again, I’m going to limit how many movies I will pay to see. I was happy to pay to see “Pitch Perfect 2” since I was going with a group. But I am spoiled because I have a tough time justifying paying for movies when I might get to see a screening for free or when they will eventually be on Netflix. But with this summer having a ton of movies I want to see, I might have to spent a bit on movies over the next few months. I usually don’t know what I get to see through Film Society until a week or two in advance, so I’m going to have to wait to see how many movies on my wish list will be included.

I’m really excited to see all the amazing movies this summer and making sure that I continue to keep myself happy by going as often as I can.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

Tagged fun, movies, SAG-AFTRA, summer, union

Tag Archives: SAG-AFTRA

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Unite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time)

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