Thursday, January 16, 2014

Dues Referendum 2014 - guest post

Why a dues increase?

We need one. Has Equity cut costs? Yes it has. Will we continue to find ways to cut costs? I assure you that I, and others on Council are pushing for them. Yes, we will. Are you satisfied with the service you receive from Equity? I’d be surprised to hear you are, considering the earful of frustration I’ve listened to over the years.

I’m here to tell you there have been major changes to the mindset running Equity. If you haven’t already noticed, there are some new rules and genuine flexibility going on as we contemplate all this. There is also a commitment to greater transparency and less paternalism; the challenge we now face is to service our almost 6,000 strong membership with enough staff to deal with daily business as well as the never ending renegotiating of the various agreements staggered strategically to ideally allow one agreement’s attention at a time.

After looking at various scenarios, we as a Council have decided to ask for an increase of $45 a year in basic dues (so, $90 every six months, instead of the current $67.50), and a 0.25 percent increase in working dues. There will be no other increases for the next six years at the very least, and if any may be needed then, or even at a later date, we will go to you the members first for another vote before we can implement anything at all. Like we are doing here.

At the core of all of this is this: do you want a strong association representing and serving you? We need a two-thirds majority in this vote to move ahead. A simple majority like we received in the last dues referendum is not sufficient. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you not only vote yes, but that you also help convince others to do the same.

Please take the time to look at the issues and make an informed decision. I am confident you will reach the same conclusion I have and vote yes. Otherwise, trust me and vote yes anyway.

Thanking you for your attention.


In Solidarity,

Howard Rosenstein
National Councilor for Quebec

2 comments:

  1. I want to assert before these questions that I have the utmost respect for Equity and all the work you all do.

    Money is always a hard topic - especially when we as theatre actors do not have a lot of it.

    Here are my questions: considering that the working dues Equity takes are percentage based and therefore as our wages go up with inflation, so does the money that Equity takes from us, why do you need to increase the percentage you take?

    My second question is perhaps touchier as it has to do with expenses. The last time the dues referendum came around, I looked over Equity's budget. Some of the particularly large expenses were due to renting in one of Toronto's most expensive neighbourhood's, renting furniture (which I was surprised was a thing that office's do - wouldn't buying it be more affordable?), and the ever controversial EQ Magazine. Are these not places that we could save money so that perhaps the working dues would not have to go up?

    Thank you for your time and hard work.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your expression of support! Sorry for the delay in posting - I’ve been on the road for member meetings, and just got back today.

      In 2011, Council originally proposed an increase that was only for basic dues. As you correctly note, that is where the inflation problem really lies. However, members did not approve that proposal, many because they felt Equity should revisit the balance between working and basic dues. In response to lots of similar member comments, Council chose to split the new proposal between working and basic dues, and we have tried to do it in a way that is as equitable as possible.

      Regarding furniture: I think you may be referring to the “equipment rental and maintenance” line item. It is far more common for offices to lease major pieces of equipment, such as large photocopiers, servers and phone systems, than it is to purchase them outright. Leases come with repair, upgrade and service agreements, which not only keeps things running in good order, but also provides a certain amount of future-proofing. While many offices also lease furniture, all the furniture items in our budget appear as capital purchase expenses.

      Regarding location: Equity has long considered it to be important that our office is in the general vicinity of where our members live and work, and easily accessible - members do come into the national office on a regular basis. In a Toronto context, that means having the office somewhere on a subway line, and within the greater downtown area.

      While we actually have a very good lease rate for comparable space, we review the available options every time the lease comes up for renewal. Thus far, neither we, nor our real estate consultant, have been able to come up with a space of similar size within the greater downtown area, which would offer sufficient savings to make the considerable cost of the move worthwhile.

      That said, real estate prices are entirely dependent on the market conditions at any given point in time, and we will review the location and cost again in 2016. If there is a workable space out there, available at a savings that would make the cost of the move worthwhile, we'll certainly consider it. That's exactly how we ended up on Victoria St. in the first place.

      Regarding EQ: We have had an electronic version of EQ available since 2007, and we regularly insert blurbs into the mag letting members know they can elect to have it delivered that way. Over the course of those seven years, only one in six members has chosen to go electronic, which tells us that a lot of members still like the hard copy. Many also let us know that they are already snowed under with electronic material.

      There are also a couple of other reasons that make retaining a hard copy useful. The first is that we can piggyback other enclosures, such as Council Link, with the magazine at negligible additional cost. We also have a number of obligatory notices that need to go out to the membership each year. Sent as part of the magazine, they go at publication mail rates, at a substantial discount. If we had to send mandatory bulletins separately, we’d have pay full first class postage. There go any savings. Currently, since most of our members seem to prefer hard copy, sending national AGM notices, and similar, in that format is the best way to reliably fulfill the obligation to inform all members.

      But, things are (slowly) changing. One of the things our communications committee is looking at is how members want us to communicate with them. I’m not certain that they’ll say they are ready for all-electronic just yet, but we’re getting closer all the time.

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