Read the Candidates' Election Statements
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Make the difference in your union by voting in the 2018 elections for Council INTRODUCTION BY THE GENERAL SECRETARY w CANDIDATES’ ELECTION STATEMENTS w CONTENTS page PRESIDENT . 2 COUNCIL General List . 4 Audio Artists . 16 Creative Team (Theatre Directors) . 17 Creative Team (Choreographers) . 18 Dancers . .19 Members with Disabilities . .19 Minority Ethnic Members . 20 Singers . 22 Stage Management . 22 Variety, Circus and Entertainers . .23 Young Members . 25 Midlands Area . 26 Northern Area . 26 Northern Ireland . 27 Scotland . .28 South East Area (excluding London) . 29 South West Area . 30 Wales . 31 APPEALS COMMITTEE . 32 STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE . 35 INTRODUCTION Dear Equity member, Every two years members elect the Equity Council, the governing body of the union, and the Equity President . The members of the Council and the President are your voice in the union . Together they make crucial decisions about what the union does — for example, the contracts we agree with employers and the campaigns we run on behalf of members . The President, who is a full member of the Equity Council, presides over meetings of the Council, the annual conference and other union meetings . Two other key Equity committees are also being elected . The Appeals Committee hears appeals from members against disciplinary penalties imposed by the Council or against a decision not to call a Special Representative Conference requisitioned by members . The Standing Orders Committee arranges the business for the Equity Annual Representative Conference, which brings together representatives from across the union to make policy . Just like you, candidates in these elections are members of Equity . No member gets a salary for this — they give their time freely to improve the working lives of all Equity members . Show your support for your union — vote! — and make sure that you have your say in how your union is run over the next two years . Please read the candidates’ election statements, view the election videos at www equity. org. .uk/election-videos and make sure you get your vote in by noon on 4 July . And for those of you who are standing for election — thank you and good luck! Yours sincerely Christine Payne General Secretary 1 EQUITY PRESIDENT Maureen Beattie “Our core belief is in the power of the community to liberate and enhance the life of the individual ”. - that sums up Equity for me . I’ve been working as an actress and director for 44 years, I’ve been on Council for four years and am currently one of your two Vice-Presidents . I instigated and chaired Equity’s recent Sexual Harassment Working Group and saw at first hand just what we can achieve when we all come together for a common cause . We need to work much harder at communicating with our members, and we need to be much more public facing about our campaigns and achievements . The work that goes on behind the scenes at Equity is remarkable but we’ve been very slow to get our message out there . The Stage’s annual 100 List, which cites the one hundred most influential people/organisations in the © Caroline Webster © Caroline world of theatre, has never included Equity - an organisation that represents over 43,000 members! There is a great deal to be done but for me the dream is for every single one of Equity’s members to have as good a chance as any other to land that job - whatever it may be . Nominated by more than 40 members in benefit including: Jude Akuwudike Bryn Evans Polly Kemp Ann-Louise Ross Cindy-Jane Armbruster Daniel Evans Mary Lane Sophie Rubenstein Simon Russell Beale Peter Forbes Michael Mackenzie Lesley Sharp Giovanni Bienne Tamsin Greig Sandra Marvin Malcolm Sinclair Jonathan Broadbent Nicola Hawkins Stephen McGuire Maggie Steed Jo Cameron Brown Julie Hesmondhalgh Sheila Mitchell Summer Strallen Stephanie Cole Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Cyril Nri Thalissa Teixeira Charlotte Cornwell Isabella Jarrett Abiola Ogunbiyi Harriet Walter Alan Cumming Alex Jennings Siobhan Redmond Richard Wilson Lindsay Duncan Nicholas Keegan Lynda Rooke Nicholas Woodeson PLEASE NOTE: as there is only one candidate for President the candidate above is elected unopposed and her name does not appear on the ballot paper for a seat on the Council. 2 THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY BLANK 3 EQUITY COUNCIL — GENERAL LIST Gary Arthurs Joan Beveridge Proposed by Pete Ford, seconded by Sarah Lochlan Proposed by Jean Rogers, seconded by James Hamilton Welsh I have been a member of Equity since 1995, when I first started out as a variety My first job out of drama school, I co-founded SNAP TIE Theatre Company and artist . I was also training for the Equity Stunt Register, (as it was known at the became Secretary of the N W. London Branch . Frustrated at the roles offered to time), and joined the register in late 1995 . women, especially on TV, I then went to Bournemouth Film School as a writer/ Since then I have progressed through the system working as a professional director, took the plunge and got elected to the Women’s Committee! stunt performer, and became a full member of the then JISC Stunt Register back Moving to Brighton to establish an educational charity in media and per- in 2006 . I now work as a stunt coordinator, mainly within Film and TV . formance arts, I became the founding Chair of the Brighton & Sussex General I have also sat on the Equity Stunt Committee, and the JISC Stunt committee, Branch . I sat on the Board of Women in Film & Television for 6 years and was until these were disbanded, late 2017, after some 40 years of association with the founding Chair of the LGBT Committee and helped launch the I Can Act But I © Chris Baker Equity . Wilson © Claire Won’t Pretend Campaign . We now find our membership has been left without a voice at Equity, which seems hard to believe, but My experience is of grass roots activism; a belief in the importance of branches, the equality commit- with your vote I hope to change this . So please consider voting for me in this coming election . tees and the pressing need to challenge the invisibility of older women in the Industry . Ian Barritt Henrietta Branwell Proposed by Hugh Ross, seconded by Maureen Beattie Proposed by Michael Branwell, seconded by Claire Rees Currently Vice-President . A jobbing actor, working in all fields but mainly in I was first elected to the Equity Council in 1979 and I have worked for the Union theatre outside London . Deputy many times, Vice-Chair of the International in many capacities . As well as all my other work, I have been the Chairman of the Committee for Artists’ Freedom, on the Board of the Equity Charitable Trust and Equity Staff Pension Scheme for sixteen years, making sure the staff who serve past Board member of BECS . This has been a busy year for Equity . I was involved you so well can look forward to a secure retirement . It was only when I was with both the Casting Manifesto and the report on sexual harassment . The addressing the World Pensions’ Council in Paris in March that I realised how results were very good but the work goes on – ensuring that producers and forward looking Equity is both as an employer and as a Union . We all recognise casting directors deliver on the undertakings they have given . We must also the huge importance of Equity’s ongoing fight for equality (www equity. org. .uk/ continue to defend arts funding – particularly at a local level – and campaign for campaigns/play-fair/) . If I am elected, I promise to work with the Equalities and © Pete Bartlett © Pete greater diversity and gender equality . Our core work continues to be fighting for Diversity Organisers, to develop and expand the huge steps that are being made better terms and conditions – including new technology – and giving our members legal advice . I support in the field . Please vote for me . Maureen Beattie’s candidacy for President and hope to have the opportunity to continue working alongside her . Maureen Beattie Linda Broughton Proposed by Simon Russell Beale, seconded by Richard Wilson Proposed by Deborah Findlay, seconded by Malcolm Sinclair I have served on Council for the last 4 years and am currently one of your two As an actor, I have been deputy many times and, in my early career, served on Vice-Presidents . My father was a variety artiste and I have watched the loss of various Equity committees . I am now ready to be active as an older working work opportunities for our members in that world with dismay . In our industry actor and fully support the progress of the last few years . We need to build on where the majority of us find it hard enough to find work of any kind, never mind the Manifesto for Casting and the more recent Agenda for Change . work with proper terms and conditions and, dare I say, a modicum of respect The Arts are crucial to our society and we must not undervalue ourselves . I attached to it, I think of those whose opportunities for work are so often further believe Equity should look at the way actors perpetually and increasingly are hampered by their individual characteristics - race, gender, disability, sexuality, expected to cough up for things like travel, taping, printing and even tipping un- etc . - or those struggling to reconcile their availability for work with caring derpaid fellow theatre workers: i e. we subsidise the business from often meagre © Caroline Webster © Caroline responsibilities . My dream is for every single one of our members to have as wages . Together we must address this . good a chance as any other to land that job - whatever it may be .