The Name Change Report

Steve King reports from the front lines of the great name change debate of 2016/2017. When it happened. How it happened. And why it happened.

The NZFVTG evolved from the New Zealand Motion Picture Academy (NZMPA) established in 1977, but with the rapid growth of the Film Industry throughout the 80s, a group of Auckland crew, sorry, technicians, decided they needed to do the same. That core group were almost entirely camera, sound, gaffers and grips. In 1988 they established NZ Film and Video Technicians’ Guild to focus on the interests of upholding and creating a framework for good, safe and fair practices for all within the NZ film industry.

It was in March 2003 that the idea of a name change was first raised. Then, as now, a common response on set was that the word Technicians (“Techos”) didn’t truly embody what the Guild stood for today and was rather a holdover from earlier broadcasting terminology. It was also based on the experience of visiting film schools to promote the Guild and finding the widespread misconception amongst both tutors and students that the Guild was only for camera and sound people, since that was their understanding of the phrase “film technicians.”

As a result of this, the issue was raised and votes were held at two Auckland Branch AGMs – both almost unanimously in favour of a change. In October 2005, President Albol completed his annual report with ‘A new name – are we ready for it?’. In October 2009 Tony Forster concluded his monthly NZTECHO editor’s blurb by asking people whether they agreed with the idea of changing the name or not, and the following issue reported that the results of this ‘survey’ across the country were that 65% were in favour of a change and 35% against.

Ten years on and the arguments for change still stand, and the impediments are fewer. Stationery printing – and in particular printing of The Blue Book – are now either much cheaper or irrelevant with digital dissemination. A name that was more inclusive of all technicians in the screen industry (art department, gaming developers, editors, production) as well as the behind-the-camera teams was felt to be imperative for the growth of the Guild. It was also felt that the more inclusive the membership was, the larger and more powerful it would be as a lobby group both locally and internationally.

In the middle of 2016, the National Executive resurrected the discussion on a Guild name change. 89 members cast their vote either by email or at referendum meetings during August, and 81% of these members voted in favour of changing the name. So a Name Change Committee was established consisting of 2 members nominated by each branch – Steve King and Jen Butcher representing Auckland, Richard Lander and Belindalee Hope representing Wellington, and Nic Macallan and John Allan representing Queenstown – with the committee being chaired by Steve.

The committee members decided on a fair and democratic member consultation process, as well as agreeing on some guidelines, such as accurate representation of all members, awkward acronyms, length of the name and inclusiveness. In November an announcement was emailed to all members introducing the committee and inviting members to submit their name suggestions online by 9 December.

Despite not being solicited, the committee also received some email feedback, such as:

“To have the word ‘Technicians’ in our name would perpetuate the disaster that the vast majority of art department, production and post-production people do not believe they are qualified to join the Guild because they are not technicians.”

“When you consider the shortlisted names could you please consider the fact the Techos Guild membership is not only comprised of technicians but also administrative, creative and support crew as well eg. production, locations, art department, makeup, wardrobe, unit, safety, caterers, etc.”

In the final wash, 38 names were submitted – including Guildy McGuildyface Guild, Film Crew Association of New Zealand (FILMCANZ), and this…

‘Screen Production Aotearoa Technicians Association.’

In December the committee met virtually to select an agreed shortlist of the six most appropriate suggestions. As a starting point, some of the criteria used to filter the suggestions included: removing all names with ‘technicians’ along with names referencing ‘film’, ‘TV’ or ‘video’; also ‘society’, ‘group’, ‘alliance’ or ‘association’, etc., as the committee was unanimous that Guild was the preferred collective noun for the organisation; any names that were longer or more complicated than the current one were also rejected, along with alternative terms such as ‘practitioners’, ‘workers’, ‘contractors’, or ‘craft’, which didn’t meet the criteria of being suitably inclusive or representative enough of the current or potential membership.

The final shortlist was Moving Image Crew Association, Moving Image Guild, Screen Crew Guild, Screen Guild, Screen Industry Crew, and Screen Industry Guild. It was also agreed – and noted on all subsequent correspondence and voting forms that all the names in the shortlist would be assumed to eventually have “...New Zealand Aotearoa Inc.” as a suffix.

In January the shortlist poll went out to the membership – with accompanying te reo translation by Mere Black from Maori Television – for their vote for the most favoured name, where 58.5% of members who voted preferred Screen Industry Guild (Kahui Ahumahi Mata Ahua), with nearly 90% of voters preferring the options featuring combinations of “Screen” and “Guild”.

207, or 57% of the total membership, voted for one of the six options, which, while not ideal, is still pretty good compared to most Guild votes.

In February the final vote between favoured new option and existing name went out to the membership. Voter fatigue may have resulted in a lower (41% of members) turnout for this stage but the resulting 89% vote in favour of the Screen Industry Guild was pretty emphatic.

So the new name goes to a designer for logo and branding options and the appropriate updates to the Guild constitution will be submitted for member approval later in the year.

Finally, it’s worth observing that “Techos’ Guild” may indeed remain the nickname of the Guild. By the same token there’s not necessarily any reason to change the name of the Guild magazine from NZTECHO (...the magazine of the Screen Industry Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand).

Steve King, Chairman – Name Change Committee

Thanks to Tony Forster for help with the background to the name change history.