DGA Monthly

4 I D G A M O N T H L Y In his welcome to the online audience of more than 2,700 members, DGA President Thomas Schlamme said, "I am hopeful that with the progress being made here in the U.S., this will be our last all-virtual meeting and that next year we can celebrate in person." After congratulating the newly elected members of the Western and Eastern Directors Councils and extending a special welcome to all the new members joining the meeting for the first time, Schlamme gave his thoughts during his final State-of-the-Guild address. "As I wind down my second and final term in this extraordinary journey as president, and during these unimaginable times, I've been doing a lot of thinking about leadership, our Guild and our members, and how we have met this moment," said Schlamme. "I have seen directors who dream and aspire to entertain, inform, and move people through their art. I have seen ADs and UPMs, Associate Directors and Stage Managers who fearlessly take an idea that seems impossible and make it possible. I have seen a National Board who takes the trust placed in them by our members seriously and sees to it that this Guild continues to move toward the future. I have seen Council and Committee chairs who know how to make hard decisions, always seeking the facts and putting every issue through our rigorous processes. I have seen a Negotiating Committee who refuses to let difficult employers take away our rights and agency, dictate our fate, or minimize our worth. I have seen a membership who, in pursuit of their 2021 DGA Annual Membership Meeting L-R: DGA National Vice President Mary Rae Thewlis, Secretary-Treasurer Betty Thomas, President Thomas Schlamme, National Executive craft embraces new, unfamiliar frontiers. And mostly, I have seen so many of you speak up and believe in your Guild and recognize there is a greater purpose beyond just your personal aspirations, to make our Guild, our industry and even our world a better place." Detailing how the Guild and its members have taken a leading role during the turbulent issues of the past year and transformed adversity into hope, unity and strength, Schlamme reiterated some of the immediate actions taken by the Guild during the early days of the Pandemic including: access to premium-free COBRA, COVID testing and telemedicine care for Health Plan participants; loans from the Pension Plan to those in need; the quick delivery of important streams of income via foreign levies and residuals; protection and enforcement of contractual rights; and, perhaps most importantly, the formation and work of the Return to Work Committee to develop visionary testing and safety protocols to address the many challenges of members' unique work environments, and the building of coalition with sister Guilds and unions – SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and the Teamsters – to fight for these protocols. Thanking the many members who worked as part of that committee, especially chairs Steven Soderbergh and Paris Barclay and DGA National Executive Director Russell Hollander, Schlamme announced that nine months later these protocols are working so effectively that they're recognized as the gold standard and the singular reason production has rebounded so successfully. The DGA held its 2021 Annual Membership Meeting virtually on Saturday, May 22.

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