Secretary: Sarah McCourt Chairman: David Richey 7 Grosvenor Cottages Tregimbletts, Belgrave Lane Hallworthy, , , PL32 Mutley 9SH Plymouth PL4 7DB Tel: 01840 261488 Tel: 07915666276 [email protected] equitydevonandcornwallbranch@g . mail.com .

Vice Chair: Nigel Howells Treasurer: Michael Terry Devon and Cornwall East Barn , Little Bowd, Sidmouth, Branch 3 Symons Close Bovey Tracey TQ13 9GW EX10 0NF Mobile: 07971 220462 [email protected] 01395 742015 [email protected]

Minutes of the Equity Devon & Cornwall General Branch meeting held on Zoom on Sunday 14th March 2021 2pm

Present: Dave Richey, Sarah McCourt, Ozzy D The Magician, Jean Rogers, Enna Michaels, Anthony Blakesley, Olya Petrakova, Tara Casey, Mike Terry, Jill Lamede, Joan Beveridge, David John, Stefan Antoniuk, Wanda Blair, Tank Sherman, Katie Bottoms, Vivien Lesley, Barrie West, Lynda Rooke, Mark Cassidy, Mimi Cassidy, Jo Courtney, Jo Clark, Mary Lane. Apologies: Simon Curtis, Nigel Howells, Derek Whitfield, Derekk Ross. Minutes of the last Branch Meeting – No corrections. Matters Arising and Updates on Actions: ACTION: SMC to send link to minutes to DR each month so it can be included in the zoom meeting invites. Completed and ongoing. ACTION: DR to cancel website subscription. Completed. ACTION: SMC to get a clear email sent out to members about opting into branch emails. Sent out via facebook. ACTION: SMC to follow up dates and plans for young filmmakers workshop with Simon Curtis. Meeting scheduled (see Area Organisers Report below) ACTION: LR to introduce committee to Stephanie Greer so that she can be invited to talk to the branch about the Class Network. Completed – David John from Class Network invited as speaker to this meeting. ACTION: LR and Committee to arrange a meeting of local organizations to discuss possible local film studio. Committee has put this inaction. LR has sent out invites. Waiting for response. DR welcomed everyone and read the safe spaces statement. Chair’s Report (Dave Richey): Opportunity to coopt three members onto the committee. Wanda Blair: Proposed by Mike Terry, Seconded by Sarah McCourt Tank Sherman: Proposed by Jill Lamede, Seconded by Mike Terry. Vote outcome: Passed with a majortiy.

Shakespeare Workshops with Victoria Gartner (East 15): proposed date Sat 17th April 9-1pm cost £10 which will pay for her time. Details will be sent out shortly. Will be opened up to whole of the South West but with priority for D&C members. Idea is to get 12 together for the first workshop. Secretary’s Report (Sarah McCourt): National Campaign Network update and video call out National Campaign Network is arranging social media training for branch representatives in mid March. A represtentative raised the possibility of a campaign on online safety at virtual castings and auditions. Thames Variety branch will be discussing the issue at their upcoming meeting. SMc suggested campaigning work on education for creatives (in line with D&C branches previous ARC motion), as funding cuts look likely and a bad situation is made worse. Kate Jones will contact Rosie Archer (Equity’s Student Coordinator) for her opinion before setting up a meeting with her and any interested NCN members. Ongoing campaigns: Brexit, visa-free EU travel, Covid-19 financial support Upcoming campaigns: The Show Can’t Go On – campaign for guaranteed basic income for creative workers launches on 16th March. SMc has created a video which she has posted on facebook requesting branch members to contribute to the campaign by creating short videos. Please also support the campaign by sharing tweets and posts from our facebook page if you are able. The branch has a new Instagram account. Please follow at: https://www.instagram.com/equitydevonandcornwallbranch/ Please also follow the branch twitter account to keep up to date with news from our guest speakers, @EquityUK, branch members and SW opportunities. @EquityDandC Treasurers Report (Mike Terry): £167.12 in account. Only movement is last payment for website and £25 which was to join Torbay Trade Union Council. Area Organiser’s Report (emailed in by Simon Curtis): 1. If any member is struggling with their subs then please consider reaching out to the Ben Fund - subs- [email protected] 2. Short and Student Film Event - looking forward to our planning meeting tomorrow. We have Hannah Marie Williams on board who is a Casting Director - done some events with her before and she's great. For those interested http://www.hannahmariewilliams.com/ 3. The Equity Young Members Committee is holding a series of open meetings across the UK to encourage more involvement in the union, and to discuss priorities post Covid. The South West event is this Tuesday at 7pm for an hour. You need to register https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/southwest--young-members- meeting-tickets-145836923163 4. As I reported on for the last meeting the AGM's were cancelled this year because of Covid. We will, instead, be holding an Open Meeting on the 23rd June 2021 at 4pm on Zoom. This will have a form very similar to the AGM's with some motion function and reports as normal. More details about registration will follow, but save the date! 5. The Annual Conference has been cancelled because we can't gather in person, we will hold a physical Special Representative Conference on the 26th and 27th September in London. Motion deadline is now 12 noon on the 5th July, with Reps and Amendments to be notified by the 27th August. As an advance warning this may require you to hold a formal meeting in August where you would normally not do so, something to consider. If it is

still not possible to gather physically then the SRC will simply change to an online event like last year, probably across one day not two. 6. Office and Staffing - we still do not have a return date to the office in Cardiff, although I spent 10 minutes there this week which is the only time in the last 12 months I've been in the office. Continue to email if possible, or ring my mobile 07798 750254 rather than phoning the office as we don't have a fancy redirect facility. For those that are not aware Wayne Bebb has been redeployed to be an Assistant Organiser in our Recorded Media Department in London - he will not be based in the Cardiff office any longer. Elin Meredydd takes up her new role as and Organiser on the 1st April - she will take over the recruitment and retention work which Wayne did, as well as the administration for Wales and the South West Only. She will also be responsible for the South West Area Network going forward. All the changes will take some time to settle down whilst we work remotely, and the industry recovers, and there may have to be some small changes because she will be expected to be out of the office at least half of the week so we will not necessarily have anyone in the office throughout the week depending on the workload of us both. South West Councillor’s Report (Lynda Rooke) Recorded Media: Equity has agreed a new deal for Minor’s to put children working in the industry in a safer and more viable place. Self tape working party ongoing looking at the increasingly ridiculous and lengthy demandsbeing made on performers. Supporting Artists: concerns over ridiculous demands being made for vast sums of commission. Equity branches who had a list of SA’s but branches could put their members forward and claim a finders fee (PACT). John Barclay and Tim Gayle can tell use more. DR has written to one casting director on behalf of the branch. Theatre, Circus and Variety is almost dead. Great uncertainty around the roadmap. If you have issues and you’re really uncertain let Equity know so that they can put these questions to DCMS. Forthcoming Brexit webinar with large number of members and Deloit Specialists. If you work on cruise ships or work in Europe let Louise or Lottie know. Motion from Bristol about loss of V&A theatre exhibition going to council. Equality symposium on 24th March will look at how Equality has moved forward in our profession. Mental Health Commission is being set up. Needs to be assessed and looked at with academics to consider how to support mental health within our union. Looking for information from members around mental health. If you have an issue ring Live Performance or Recorded media or central number if it is urgent. LR wrote to Hannah Harris about meeting and hasn’t heard back. Will remind. Benevolent Fund Subs grants in 2021 £21,777.16. Total since 01.01.2020 £1,271,280.87 (welfare and subs grants ). Training: See Chair’s Report. Equality and Diversity/Health and Safety: SMc brought up Women’s Safety in the industry in the light of recent events and the murder of Sarah Everard. LR noted that TUC has made a statement about this which a number of trade unions including Equity have signed up to: https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/joint-union-statement-we-demand-safety-we-demand-justice-we- demand-equality SMC suggested that the branch could look at developing a motion around creating guidance for employers about things they can do to improve safety for women and those who idenitfy as women working in the industry. - If

we can get employers to think about even simple things like where auditions are held, sending details about the car number plate/driver that is picking you up, sending details about who you are meeting for an audition, or when there is flexibility of time offering earlier auditions etc it would help everyone to start to realise they can help to be part of the solution rather than putting all the onus on women. Wide ranging discussion covering examples of women being mugged, car jacked, lack of safety in inappropriate digs. LR noted that the model that exists for providing digs is not for purpose as it is expensive and unsafe. This will be part of negotiations in future agreements. Two pronged approach suggested to include information for employers and information for women. JL bought up the importance of education in tackling this. ACTION: Discussion to be continued at the April meeting with the aim of finding suitable wording for the motion. First Speaker: Olya Petrakova from Maketank/Performance in Exeter (PIE) Olya described her journey from Russia, through working in film in LA, to moving into theatre and coming to Exeter. Here she noticed a gap had been left in the local theatre ecology by the closure of the Bikeshead. She set up Maketank in 2019 as a creative hub for performance making. It has been expanded to add 5 more studios and is becoming a cultural hub for multidisciplinary arts, incubating emerging companies, as well as hosting performances and exhibtions. By setting up a creative lab we can come up with creative solutions, and nurture and support creative makers to advocate for their place in society as essential workers. The lockdown in response to COVID 19 led to a reassessment of performing arts provision in the area and realisation that there were no meetings being organisaed for creatives to stay in touch and share ideas. This led to setting up PIE: the aim is to create a meeting space and network for artists from across a range of discplines in the South West. Links: https://www.maketank.org.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/PIExeter Next PIE meeting 17th March 5pm https://pie2.eventbrite.co.uk/ event will inlcude information about grant making and guest speaker Rachel Dobbs from Contemporary Arts Network Plymouth. PIE will have an online platform to develop support that will give artists places to develop collaborations (scratch and progression), and advocate for the sector. Second Speaker: David John (Class Network) David described how he was only able to get into the industry because of the funding available for him to study at Arts Ed and noted that most of this support has now disappeared or been replaced by loans which creates a new barrier for working class actors. There needs to be a push to get this turned around. Discussion around how working class is defined and examples from many present of the range of barriers that they have experienced as working class performers entering and working in the profession. The network is about those barriers and how we support our members to get over them including looking at access barriers to education, training, access to auditions, and local casting. 4 main areas where change could create greater fairness: - education and training, drama schools - changes in the industry (audition notice etc., sots for headshots and showreels etc.) - supporting performers to remain in the industry during the pandemic - support perfomrers mental health Information about working class performers in the industry: 13% of people in film and tv come from w/c backgrounds Class paygap - £7,000 less a year if you come from a lower socio-economic background

Class Network is aiming to: Produce a support pack with information for working class performers Challenging how funding and investment is handed out – talk to Ace and funders, and challenge the gatekeepers to improve commissioning of the stories that reflect working class backgrounds so that they reflect reality of diversity rather than current stereotypes. Talk to casting people and producers on tv to encourage them to rethink how people are represented. What we can do: Send in issues and barriers that you come up against Set up a local network: contact Lousie Mcmullan, Charlotte Bence Follow Class Network on Twitter: @equity_class. ACTION: LR to liaise with David John about organising a larger South West meeting Walk On: KB bought up safety concerns around requests for nudity for SA’s within self tapes and possibilities of these being used for other purposes out of the performers control. Members should report concerns to Simon Curtis, John Barclay or Tim Gayle (commercials). LR stressed the importance of members not being bullied into nudity in self tapes AOB David Richey and Jean Rogers have been collaborating on a short video. This will be shared on the branch Facebook page. Also, here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5SeBBHUrnc Ratchet Theatre has been producing some fantastic 3 minute scripts. See branch Facebook page. Date and Time of Next Branch Meeting: Sunday 11th April 2021 at 2pm on Zoom. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81293513587?pwd=RzB6blMxQ1pwbUxOY2pHT1hyeUI0QT09

Meeting ID: 812 9351 3587 Passcode: DandCApril Summary of ACTIONS: ACTION: LR to liaise with David John about organising a larger South West meeting about Class Network ACTION: Branch to continue discussion around Women’s safety at the April meeting with the aim of finding suitable wording for the motion.