Preparing for the Next 20 Years

Getting ready for the next 20 years

I am sitting at Auckland Airport waiting for my flight to board and watching the chaos that is ensuing out the window in the Koru Club car park. Passengers drive up in their vehicles, unload their gear and hand over their keys. The space becomes smaller and smaller as vehicles get squeezed into every possible space, waiting to be moved to the ‘off the airport’ car park. But no one is taking them away. There seems to be a dispute between the collectors and the movers. There are fingers being pointed – harsh words – if only I could lip-read. Then they call my flight. I leave, and am none the wiser.

What I was pondering while I was watching this chaos, is this article. As the Techos’ Guild we have strived to create an organisation that represents the screen workers; strived to make sense of the sometime chaos that can be the screen industry. Created out of The Academy in 1988, it was two incorporated societies, based in Wellington and Auckland. In 1996 it became a national organisation with Wellington and Auckland merging, joined by Queenstown in 1999.

The day-to-day work of the Guild has developed over the years. There are questions from our membership, assistance with resolving issues with productions, and support for the productions that enter NZ with understanding our screen environment. We continue to have dialogue with other industry organisations to enhance better understanding and communication. We are slowly gaining a voice to articulate our members’ views.

Twenty years later it is still going, and growing. When I turned twenty I didn’t reflect – I left that till I was older. But it is time for the Guild to reflect.

In those twenty years the industry has changed. It has moved from film and video, to the screen industry. It has been internationally acclaimed. Technology has made it possible for anyone to make a movie. A generation of screen workers have joined the industry with different experiences and life skills.

So now we need to look at what the Techos’ Guild has become, where we want to go in the future and what we need to do to prepare it for the next twenty years. We have a plan, we have the will, and we are now in a financial position to be undertaking the changes.

That is why we have been discussing the change of name. No longer can we say film and video, it is now more appropriate to talk about the screen. We need to take that journey to find our new name for the future.

Of course it then becomes about branding: clarifying and articulating our mission and future goals.

ScreenSafe, the update of the Safety Code of Practice, is well underway to guiding the health and safety of the screen industry. The technical guidelines are being updated, and templates are written, and will be posted in the near future. It pays to visit the site at screensafe.co.nz and subscribe for website updates as they are made available.

The Blue Book review is almost completed and will be published online when released. Apart from updating the terms and conditions that crews work under, the review has looked to make it more user friendly and understandable.

There are elements of the Constitution that no longer make sense now, or in the future. A review of the Constitution is part of this plan, so we are able to run the organisation in the digital world.

We are looking at our administration systems to better allow Karla, our executive officer and Jane, our accounts officer to administer the Guild. The website is under review as it is at least ten years old, and the digital world has changed.

This is an ‘organisation-wide review’. You as a Techos’ Guild member have the right to have your say. You have the responsibility as a member to partake in the review, if only to attend the meetings and vote on the changes as they are brought forward.