One Latte a Week...

As AlBol mentioned on page 3, and those who attended the AGMs will know, there has recently been long and intense discussion amongst National Executive members about the idea of raising the Guild membership fee - a fee not increased in 11 years!

During those 11 years, the Guild has seen membership quadrupled; the Blue Book renegotiated twice; the Safety Code of Practice created; free legal advice sought and given to the Guild and to individual members; we were largely responsible for the creation of a desk solely for the screen industry within the IRD; we have taken on the immigration work permit process (an income source but sometimes extremely time-chewing); queries from members and negotiations with producers, both local and offshore, have vastly increased in both number and scale - just to begin the list! Since the Panavision building in Freemans Bay was sold, we’ve had to pay rent for our office… And the NZTECHO magazine has come into being (I won’t mention the hours involved in that! Ed.).

And throughout this period, the Executive Officer’s hours have remained the same.

Although much has been achieved, much still needs to be done. The SCOP upgrade is desperately overdue; it languishes for want of people available to do the hundreds of hours of work voluntarily, and want of money to instead pay for it to be done.

The office daily workload increases with every new member, every new production… There is a big demand from both producers and crew (Guild members and others!) for the office to be open more, particularly to expand into Fridays… I could fill another page with our Wish List!

From the Treasurer’s AGM Report, 2008:

Despite the small surplus and the healthy bank balance, there is no room for effective growth in the Guild’s activities, such as the engagement of a general Administrative Assistant and making the Executive Officer’s position full-time.

Given the very low amount of time given by the wider membership in assisting with the governance and operations of the organisation, expansion of activities will require additional funds. It is the Treasurer’s opinion that a rise in membership fees is now overdue.

The last rise in membership fees was from $120pa to $160pa (+GST) in 1997. While I do not think the Guild should attempt to manage a variable income-related membership fee system (as Equity and the SDG have), the Guild needs to increase both its membership fee and numbers to have a viable future.

Eventually, the Exec voted on three proposed levels of increase. After an extremely lively discussion over a month, they voted by a very narrow margin for the middle of the three options over the highest. Ratification was sought by the AGMs. Both Auckland and Wellington supported the proposed increase unanimously, while Queenstown approved it by a narrow margin.

The Treasurer again:

The National Executive decided that an increase in the membership subscription was appropriate, as it had been over 10 years since the last increase. The new rate will be $216-00 p.a. + GST = $243-00 p.a. The monthly rate for those on automatic bank payments is $20-25.

The increased membership fees will be primarily spent on engaging an Administrative Assistant in the office, so that the Executive Officer can devote more time to the Guild’s issues and events.

The increase will be effective immediately for all new members. For those paying on an annual basis, the increase will apply from your next renewal date. For those paying by bank auto payment, the increase will apply from 1 April 2009, although we will be sending out notices for you to change your bank A.P.’s from early in the New Year.

It’s worth noting that even if we’d gone for the highest suggested option, the increase would still leave our fees at a lower average level than either Actors Equity or the Directors Guild…

And the cost for Recent Graduates from recognized Film Schools will remain at 50% for their first year.

For those of you on monthly automatic payments (“The painless way to pay”!), the cost of Guild membership will be up from the equivalent of one cappuccino per week to one large latte a week!

Tony F and Treasurer David Madigan

(Auckland prices, admittedly!)