Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/48976
ON LOCATION REGIONAL BRANCH DIVISION In My Opinion: David Hartley-Margolin 3rd National Vice President Soapbox: vanished husks, we make this new day one husk more. Reality check. We, the collective memberships of SAG and I AFTRA, are at war with ourselves. We have been at war with ourselves on and off for generations. When war is on, we reap collateral damage, and the employers smile because we make it easy for them. They win. When war is off, it isn't off. Not really. It's merely lurking in the background, patiently waiting for the next inevitable flare-up. It's been this way for more than 70 years. Seventy years. Well, if we're at war with ourselves, why don't we sit down and work it out with ourselves? Or ask a third party to work it out for us? Been there, tried that and guess what hasn't ended. Go ahead. Guess. You got it. The war. Why? Simply put, the institutional interests of SAG and AFTRA are smack dab in the middle of it. I recently attended a benefits conference where the keynote speaker talked about what he called organizational sclerosis: doing the same thing over and over and over again. Eschew the mindset, "Why can't we keep doing it the way we've done before?" he urged. Stop using excuses that result in being trapped by tradition, he chided. Seventy years. All of us are tired of being at war with ourselves, paying for it and suffering collateral damage. We are over organizational sclerosis. How do we stop this war with ourselves? The only way is to remove this nettle from underneath our collective saddle once and for all by merging SAG and AFTRA. End of soapbox. Leadership groups from both SAG and AFTRA have been meeting together to create a plan for ending the war with ourselves. It has been a careful and measured process, and will continue to be. There have been many questions about, and some frustration with, the lack of specific details of our progress in creating a merger plan, a constitution and a financial structure for a new union. Patience is the watchword. As always, the devil is in the details, the details are myriad, and it just isn't Jell-O yet. When it is, we will all get to see it, taste it, touch it, and if we get it right, embrace it. DHM 3rd National Vice President David Hartley-Margolin, third from left, and SAG National Executive Director David White, second from right, with Colorado Branch members from the Colorado Branch, along with 3rd National Vice President David Hartley-Margolin and Branch Executive Director Julie Crane, sat down with him for an informal aſternoon conversation. When asked how to put the power of recruitment in the D hands of the union and its members, he replied, "Make it a brand!" Through organizing, he continued, the Guild can grow job opportunities for members. He said Branches need to be treated as "true units of the national organization," doing what they can to strengthen SAG's identity as a professional actors union. It was a great day. White's visit helped focus and reinvigorate efforts to strengthen Denver and Colorado as a thriving market for union employment. From left, Mike Russo, Jill Whelan, Judy Corona and Dan Girdin avid White made his first visit to Denver as national executive director September 8. A group of 15 members n Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy, in essence, wrote that the world is made new each day, and by clinging to DAVID WHITE VISITS COLORADO BRANCH Conservatory. Jill Whelan (The Love Boat), Branch member and improv instructor, opened the Conservatory with a night of fun, improv games and exercises. Conservatory chair Mike Kraycik and his dedicated committee are already hard at work organizing future conservatory events to serve Branch members. 68 SCREEN ACTOR - Fall 2011 SAG.org Philly Kicks Off SAG Conservatory T he City of Brotherly Love got some help from The Love Boat, as the Branch introduced the Philadelphia SAG Larry Degala