Did you know? - Withdrawal

Most professional associations and unions offer some form of honorable withdrawal from membership, and Equity is no different.

A member may choose to go on hiatus from active membership in the Association by applying in writing to the Executive Director. Full details can be found here. Really, it's pretty much as simple as dropping us a note.

Withdrawal allows you to place your membership on temporary hold, when you know that you will not be working in Equity's jurisdiction for a while. Common reasons are a return to school, new parenthood, absence from the country, etc. Withdrawal does not end your membership.

When you go on withdrawal, you are no longer charged basic dues, saving you $90 per half year. If you come back off withdrawal within one year – to accept a contract, for instance – you will be back-billed for the missed basic dues and any penalties that would have been charged had you not withdrawn. (In other words, withdrawal cannot be used to simply avoid paying your current dues.) However, if withdrawal extends beyond a year, you are not back-billed for those dues, and will owe only basic dues for the current billing period, plus a $25 reinstatement fee, regardless of the length of the withdrawal.

There are a few key restrictions to going on withdrawal.

• You can't go on withdrawal if you are not in good standing, which means that you can't use withdrawal to avoid paying back dues, or avoid any other penalty or disciplinary action.
• When you are on withdrawal, the rules of membership continue to apply, which means that withdrawal doesn't give you the option of working off-contract.
• As a member on withdrawal, you are not eligible to vote on any matter, or attend membership meetings. Your RRSP remains active, but you are not eligible for insurance coverage.

Oh, one other thing. You are not officially on withdrawal until you hear back from the office, accepting your application. It's generally handled within a day or two.

Withdrawal is an honorable approach to placing your membership temporarily into an inactive status, and we strongly encourage members to use it where needed. It can save you a lot of money if you know you're going to be "out of the business" for a bit, and is much less expensive than resigning and rejoining.

If you need to know more about withdrawal, please call either office, and staff will be glad to assist.

Did you know? - Equity's Bylaws

Every so often, Council sends out notice of changes to the Association bylaws. We realise that these updates may be generally yawn-inducing, but bylaws govern the structure of our entire organisation, and it's important that you are aware of them, and any changes to them.

So, for those of you for whom Equity's bylaws are not riveting reading – and that would include pretty much everyone, methinks – here is the Reader's Digest version.

If any topic in this list is of importance to you – and that would include pretty much everyone, methinks – then you can find the whole document right here.

Happy reading!

Definitions

Membership

Membership Classes

Regular Members

Non-Resident Members

Unit Company

Honorary Members

Life Members

Associate Members

Withdrawn Members

Suspended Members

Joining Program

Engagement Permits

Limits on Engagement Permits

Apprenticeships

Stage Management Apprenticeships - Additional
Limits on Apprenticeships

Joining as a Regular Member for Performers in Theatre

Joining as a Regular Member for Stage Managers

Joining Program Fees

Withdrawal

Resignation

Expulsion

Duties Of Membership

Membership Card

Contracts

Address and Discipline

Standards Of Conduct And The Disciplinary Process

Complaints

Filing and Filing Deadlines

Verifiable Communication

Preliminary Review and Resolution Process

Privacy

Timeline for Completion

Review by Council

Hearing Committee

Hearing and Mediation Timelines

Hearing Process

Mediation Process

Appeals Process

Reasonable Accommodation in Process

Notice to Membership

Administrative Penalties

Finances And Dues

Fiscal Year

Initiation Fee

Basic Dues for Regular Members

Basic Dues Remission for Senior Members

Dues and Initiation Fee Reduction

Working Dues for Regular and Non-Resident Members

Arrears

Suspension

Meetings Of Members

National Meetings

Regional Meetings

Special Meetings

Rules of Order

Scale Agreements

Retirement And Insurance Benefits

Registered Retirement Savings Plan

Special Accident and Sickness Insurance

Council

Composition

Officers

Authority

Council Advisory Committees

Regions And Elections

Regions

Elections for Council

Eligibility for Voting and Election

Nominations and Candidacy

Voting

Referendums

Executive Director

Indemnity Of Council Members And Employees

Membership And Organizing Activities

Bylaw Amendments

Reciprocal Agreement With AEA

Council statement regarding "Helen Lawrence"

At its April meeting, Council reviewed the recent events surrounding the cancellation of Canadian Stage's presentation of Helen Lawrence at the Festival TransAmériques (FTA).

One of Equity’s chief responsibilities is to act on behalf of its members when the going gets tough. In almost all cases, that means taking the personal concerns and decisions of individual members and putting them forward as the concerns and decisions of Equity. This approach provides important anonymity and protection for member deliberation on the topic at hand.

Council supports our Executive Director’s careful handling of the review process on this production, and her decision not to go into greater public detail on the matter.

Members should also be aware that Council, not staff, sets the rules governing review of all concession requests.* Perhaps the most important among them is this: where members have already been contracted, a request cannot be approved without their majority approval.

Whether on this production, or any other, our members need to have confidence that their decisions are respected by their association and their colleagues. Council wishes to express its unequivocal support of the artists involved in Helen Lawrence, and calls upon all members to do likewise.

*For a more complete explanation of the concession process, and how requests are decided, see here.

Equity's Health and Insurance Plan

Interesting timing. I had just finished doing up a list of extraordinary risk riders for my current show a couple of weeks ago, when a friend forwarded the following link from The Stage to me:

www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/02/performer-injured-falling-set-fears-future

Long story short: actor, in the business 20 years; never joined Equity (UK); injured on the job; no disability (income replacement) coverage; off work for at least a year; young family to help support; and worrying about being branded a "troublemaker" for seeking insurance assistance from the engager.

Contrast that with how CAEA's coverage for members works:

- no tenure requirement for coverage
- automatic coverage while on contract, from day one
- disability coverage for up to 104 weeks

I'm not certain what the insurance situation is with our sister organisation in the UK, but I'm betting it's better than "none". It's a shame the artist never saw the value of becoming an Equity member, and I wish him the best in his recovery.

Take the time to review your CAEA insurance coverage. A lot has changed in the past year. So, if the last time you read that brochure on the callboard was when you joined, it's time for a refresher! You can find all the details here. 

Learn about your insurance coverage. We hope you never have a critical need for it; but if you should, it's there.

Talk to Council! We're listening.

Council is your board, and for us to do our work well, we need to hear from you. We've recently upgraded the website to make that even easier.

Take a moment, and stop by EQUITYONLINE. (Go ahead: click it!) On the front page, top right, are a few new links. Talk to Council will take you to a page where all the Councillors are listed. Clicking on the photo of any of them will open a new email window, so you can drop your Councillor a note. The Council Committees link will take you to a page with mandate and contact info for each of Council's several regional and issues committees. The final link, Request for Council Action (login required), will open up a form you can use to suggest an agenda topic for Council to tackle. And, of course, if clicking and typing is not your thing, a letter or phone call to Equity Council, via our national office, will connect you up as well.

We'd also like you to know what we are up to…

A couple of days before each meeting, Council's agenda will be posted online. Within a few days after each meeting, a summary of all motions passed will be posted. Following adoption at the subsequent meeting, full minutes will be added. You can find these under the Council Reports heading of the members-only section of the website (login required), along with a full year's worth of monitoring reports on all aspects of Equity's operations. Copies of any of these documents, as well as recent archived copies, can also be requested by contacting the office.

And while we're on the topic of Council meetings, did you know you are allowed to attend them? You can - both in-person and teleconferences. A list of upcoming meeting dates can be found here. If you would like to attend, please let us know at least a few days in advance, by contacting the Council President at president@caea.com.

New rules for CTA ratification votes

During the 2012 ratification vote for the CTA, there was considerable member discussion on the eligibility criteria for voting. A bit of background: the voting pool for all agreements has historically been defined as members who have been engaged under the expiring agreement (typically the previous three years).

As mentioned at the time, the rationale for this approach was threefold: equal voting rights across all negotiated agreements; a ratification processes within our financial resources; and a decision made by members with the most current knowledge and whose input shaped the negotiations. Still, members made it clear that they thought it was time for a change, and Council has recently completed bylaw amendments to bring that about.

Going forward, the CTA will have a separate set of ratification rules. All members in good standing who have worked under any theatre agreement providing for minimum scale fees*, during the six year period ending with the expiry date of the agreement, will now be automatically eligible to vote. This change will increase the voting pool considerably. 

In addition, any member in good standing who is not automatically included in that six-year pool may also register to vote in the ratification. Registration will begin six months before the expiry date of the agreement, and extend until the anticipated date for close of negotiations. Advance notice regarding registration will be provided in plenty of time for members to get on the list.

Note that these changes do not affect the voting pool for the Stratford Addendum, nor any other agreement.

Council chose this dual approach as a way to balance greater automatic access with the increased costs of having a larger voting pool. We hope, through these changes, to provide voting access to our largest agreement to all members in good standing who may wish to vote. This change will be first applied to the ratification vote expected in 2015.


* This includes all current theatre agreements, except for the Festival Waiver and the Artists' Collective Policy.

2014 Honours Evening

After a year of hiatus, while we moved to a biennial schedule to reduce expenses, it was truly wonderful to attend the honours evening once again. This year's awards ceremony was held Monday, February 24 at the Daniels Spectrum in downtown Toronto, immediately following the National AGM. Councillors, past honorees and members from the area all came together to celebrate the 2014 slate of honours recipients.

Members Philip Akin (Toronto), Janet Irwin (Ottawa) and Kenneth Welsh (Toronto) were granted Life Membership in Equity, in recognition of their lengthy careers and manifold contributions to live performance. We also welcomed arts supporter Gail Asper (Manitoba) as an Honorary Member, acknowledging many years of support of the performing arts, in Winnipeg and across the country.

Former five-term Councillor Don Wright (Vancouver) received the Larry McCance Award in appreciation for his many years of dedicated service to the wester opera membership. And finally, the CAEA Award of Distinction was presented to Stage Managing the Arts (S.M.Arts), which, for the past 18 years has provided top-notch professional development to the stage management community. S.M.Arts Director Janelle Rainville and S.M.Arts Founder Winston Morgan were present to accept the award.

What a lovely way to wrap up the AGM this year. We spend so much time pursuing our own individual careers; it is a delight to get together and celebrate some truly special ones.

See more details, plus photos of the event, here.