A Day in the Life...

What is a day in the Guild office like? Here’s a taste from a Wednesday in September...

9 am: Our Office Assistant (OA) arrives and breaks it to me that she cannot juggle two jobs plus a baby any longer and will have to step down from the role. I am not surprised by this; we’ve only been working together for a short time with this brand-new Guild role, so the unexpected is par for the course. My own feeling is that any primary caregiver with a child under two years—particularly if they are parenting solo—should not have to work any more than a few hours a week. My heroic OA has been working many hours every week, plus trying to do work for me from home. I often think of her and wonder how on earth she’s managing it; hence my lack of surprise at her admission. She is very regretful and offers to help find a replacement.

I am grateful, but truly hope I can sort this without taking more precious time away from her wee boy who, after all, will only be a baby once.

As we are talking things through, the Accounts Officer (AO) Allison Peirse arrives—she does from five to ten hours per week, and this is a five-hour (i.e., one-day) week. As she heads up the stairs to her office, we discuss various issues related to creditors. We get to the bottom of a payment error, which turns out to have been triggered by an incomplete invoice from a supplier. Next on the list is contacting the EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association) to discuss our subs for membership. We have joined EMA to access skilled consultancy around the SCOP (Safety Code of Practice) review. The review preparation is building really well, by the way—so look out for communication about this in the next while.

Our OA heads home to tidy up notes about the role (which has never existed before) for use when training the next OA.

Distracted by the above, I’ve temporarily forgotten that our Developers are to meet with us this morning. Anyway, roll with the punches—we begin the meeting: Allison, two computer-program developers, and myself. These meetings are pretty full-on, as we discuss our CRM (customer relationship manager) SUGAR. SUGAR is essentially the database of members and other contacts—except on steroids. It’s able to:

• store documents against contacts (people, that is) or accounts (organisations),
• associate people with organisations,
• send and automatically record emails against contacts.

It also offers a raft of other snazzy functions with not-self-explanatory names like ‘projects’ and ‘campaigns’... The strength of SUGAR is that it comes free in its ‘out of the box’ form, so we can spend our money on the development.

Our discussions go a bit like this:

EO & AO: We need to be able to store membership numbers against people’s contact records, and we want membership numbers to be automatically generated for new members.

Developers: Are you sure you need them to be auto-generated? Why not just add 1 to the last number?

EO & AO: Well, that seems a bit dodgy to us. We have to integrate SUGAR with our Moneyworks accounting system, and it will be a real pain if people’s numbers double up...

The AO and I listen to every word; but things slip into ‘binary–land’ occasionally and then we sometimes struggle to follow the thread. While we listen, I am writing cheques to creditors, popping the completed paperwork into the AO’s tray and addressing the envelopes for posting.

Actually, this meeting is a few steps ahead of the example given above. We are at the ‘tidying up and assessing where we’ve got to’ stage. I marvel at the fact that we have almost 1,000 contacts in addition to our members, as they’ve all been added since we introduced SUGAR in January. There have been teething issues, but I can find all the—for example—Film NZ, Screen Directors’ Guild, Department of Labour contacts (people) in there, associated with their organisations (accounts). There are many SUGAR functions being tidied up at this stage; plus issues of migration to ‘permanent host servers,’ backing up protocols, and integration of email to consider along the way.

Sometimes I wonder: How did I get here?

One developer leaves, the other hooks up his computer to our wireless—we have a bit of technical issue for a minute, and I learn a new set of things about our office technology. He wants to show me some new features in the ‘lab’ version. I take calls while he pulls things up, as it’s getting on in the day now (1 pm).

A screen worker in a craft group not well represented in the current Guild membership phones me up with a problem. He and his colleagues see some inequitable treatment going on in the industry, but feel too nervous to address it as individuals. I express understanding for their predicament. I also explain that the Guild is aware it covers and serves some crafts better than others. I explain that we are working on strategies to address this, the first specific one being a concerted effort to give coverage to all crafts in future issues of NZTECHO. It doesn’t take long to establish that advocating on behalf of individuals is exactly why the Guild exists. We agree on a proposal whereby we attempt to get a majority of workers in this craft to sign up to the Guild—though we’ll advocate for any number, of course. Once they are members, the National Executive can discuss the best way to approach the required negotiation within the industry. He and I agree on a plan of action, which will be initiated by the craft group members in the first instance. This is a fantastic situation—a member-initiated issue with a plan of action. I am really hopeful about it.

Back to a few developer issues, until the phone goes again. A producer from Singapore is in Queenstown and flying out of the country ex-Auckland the following day. Can he come and visit me to discuss his project and find out about our immigration process? Sure, why not—I am working late today anyway; see you at 3 pm.

Our IT support guy calls, following up on a request regarding how the computers are networked in the office, so we can share files and be more efficient. We make a time for him to visit and teach me some more esoteric stuff about computers.

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Here is the corrected text from the NZTECHO magazine:

Next call is from a retailer in Ponsonby who is getting calls for the Guild, due to an incorrect listing on the Department of Labour site. I track down the site, which references the SCOP, and contact DoL with a request to update the details. I feel slightly nervous about how much else is out there that I can’t possibly know about. I have a list I’m creating of such things...

The developer (finally) leaves with his list of stuff to do!

The AO and I sit down to revise the ‘Why Join’ form for NZTECHO in light of changes to our processes and to create a workflow chart for the entire joining process. The latter is to give to the developers who—somewhat obviously—think a bit more like computers than they do like people! The thing is, we need to have such processes documented anyway (‘contingency’ for our eventual personal demise, or whatever); plus, we get a chance to review processes that we’ve developed from scratch over the last few months.

We draw boxes and arrows, scribble and cross out; and I learn a lot about the language of flowcharts (it’s pretty cool if you like that kind of linear organisation!). We marvel at how many steps are involved, from first contact to a functioning member. Much of it involves getting payment and invoicing happening, and marrying up the accounting system with SUGAR. In a way, it’s a small part of the role, but keeping renewals processing and getting new members into the system is often a big part of my day—along with applications for immigration approval.

It’s only today (the next day) that I realise we have yet to add all the things that can happen after a member has been ‘active.’ At the risk of boring you to tears: members can resign when they are short of work, or sick, or out of the country; then they can rejoin after a few months or years... All of this has to be accounted for in our workflow, so that the developers can make us little drop-down menus to keep track of it all; and we can ensure we give our stalwart long-term members as good a service as new and re-joining members. While we are making the workflow chart, we also revise our ‘new member checklist’ to reflect how it’s done now. Our accounting program is relatively new, our AO has been around a bit longer, I’m a bit newer than the accounting program, and SUGAR is a bit newer than me! Needless to say, we are quite satisfied—sometimes even excited—when we see our systems (‘how stuff is done around here’) going smoothly and picking up inevitable human error.

We have to drop the workflow when the producer from Singapore arrives.

He’s full of excitement about his project. I try to talk it through with him, checking both for opportunities for NZ crew and that the operation will run according to NZ legislation and policy.

He hasn’t got a line producer or a fixer, and is certain he won’t need one. Tourism NZ have given him a letter of invitation, but I explain that it’s not all that relevant to me. What is relevant is the Guild’s relationship with NZ Immigration as a part of the Department of Labour (DoL). DoL deal with Health and Safety as well as Immigration, I tell him; this means I have to be reasonably sure he is adequately considering H&S before the Guild can support his immigration applications.

I also try to explain that a small crew shooting reality TV in public places does not an uncomplicated shoot make... I point out that if they are not aware of local rules, they could be shut down mid-shoot by the local council or other body; and, equally importantly, that anything they do reflects on our entire industry.

No one is going to differentiate between his crew and a NZ crew if something goes wrong—a crew with cameras is a crew with cameras. I call Film NZ about his production while he listens; they recognise the pattern and agree to facilitate. I agree to furnish him with the contacts he needs and give him all the information about applying online for his ‘Letters of Non-Objection,’ which will be needed for all crew (yes, all crew!). As his TV show is entirely in the Tamil language, to be aired exclusively in Singapore, there are few, if any, real job opportunities for NZ crew. However, he loves NZ and is keen to talk about bigger jobs ex-India. Despite his assertion that he doesn’t need a line producer or fixer, he tells me his company does many of these jobs for Indian productions.

I explain that the relationship with such productions needs some attention in NZ, both to ensure visiting crews comply and the local industry benefits. I summarise his situation in an email to Film NZ, Guild board members, and the Directors’ Guild.

The editor has a mystery problem with his email that I don’t recognise. We do a screen grab and send the problem through to our IT support.

What’s on the ‘fallen off the list’ note today?

The Mark of the Lion email, summarising the legal opinion as it stands, has to wait until tomorrow; this week’s mass email to members is going to become next week’s at this rate; I am a bit behind with renewal letters and new cards; the new National Executive contact list needs to be compiled, along with the new branch committee list, for publication in this issue of NZTECHO; also, the advertisement notes need to be checked and updated.

We are still having some—impenetrably technical—problems with automated emails from the website to alert us to orders for Blue Books, SCOPs, Travel Zone Maps, and new member applications.

We have a ‘workaround’ in the meantime and an ongoing investigation to sort it out. Other really important aims in the area of Governance and Guild activity are evolving slowly. However, I envisage something similar to biological ‘punctuated equilibrium’ with this: slow phases where little evolution occurs are punctuated by sudden leaps and great change.

I remain optimistic and dedicated to you lot out there; I hope you do too!

Exec. Officer Fritha Stalker