Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531371
10 SPRING 2025 The Local 705 CAT structured its communication model to reflect how 705 Costumers share information during their jobs: close-knit groups that tend to work as teams moving from job to job. "When you can get one communicator into that group, you can talk to all of those people," says Gardner. Keeping the CAT social has also been a goal, with events ranging from a swag customization craft event, interlocal car-painting rallies and movie-screening events, to organizing mixers for the various PHOTO: (TOP LEFT) TRAVIS GARDNER for future development. Growing their ranks, reaching more members, and cementing their feedback system are all on the docket. Interlocal cooperation is also high on the list for the future. Gardner states, "We do a lot of things as individual locals, and then invite the other locals to come join in, whereas I think we could be more strategic in organizing our efforts interlocally from the beginning." Gardner and Napier want to see seamless integration for the CAT with future negotiation committees—a Basic Agreement Negotiations Prep Committee is already forming, and Gardner is co-chairing it. "I have made myself a through line by design, being part of the CNC, being part of the CAT, and now being part of the Basic Prep Committee to make sure that we are carrying through the efforts that we started," says Gardner. Napier, bringing her in-depth knowledge of the contract, is serving on the Prep Committee as well. The 705 CAT has been an overwhelming success their first cycle out, securing buy- in from both membership and leadership. Members expressed their appreciation for increased communication, transparency, and accountability. Gardner says, "Our leadership is virtually hands-off our CAT, except for the vigorous amount of facilitation that is offered by our leadership whenever we want to take on an effort. I also appreciate our view on open discussion and dissenting opinions. Our feedback system holds leadership directly accountable to membership to answer their concerns." The impact of the CAT is ongoing. "The thing that the CAT is bringing back is the idea that a union is a giant family that has to work together and volunteer their time and their efforts to make change," says Napier. "And if we care about one another, then we'll fight for one another. As long as there's a contract, there's a CAT." contract employees. Social media participation opportunities helped the members stay engaged during the long negotiations process, with rallying graphics and dress-up photo days, including "Rosie the Riveter" and "On Monday We Wear Pink." And then there's in-person visibility: The 705 CAT called on their skills as Costumers to create hi-vis tees with their logo splashed on the front, so everyone from members to producers would know when they were on the scene. Member empowerment and engagement remain the core values LISA GARDNER Lisa Gardner is a Women's Finished Key Costumer with 10-plus years of experience, primarily on set. A child of theater majors, she spent her early years playing in the theater costume shop, which instilled in her a passion for visual storytelling and playing dress up. Influenced by the fashion show scenes of '40s movies, Tex Avery girls and Baz Luhrmann, she started collecting vintage clothing in her teens. She moved on to modeling in her 20s for photographer friends and has even dabbled in the Las Vegas burlesque scene. She found her formal entry into the entertainment industry as a commercial production manager and stylist in Las Vegas, finally moving to Los Angeles to enter the field of professional costuming, where she used her ability to adapt to any situation while working on such productions as Agatha All Along, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, and Hocus Pocus 2. ANDREA NAPIER Andrea Napier is a Women's Finished Key Costumer with 35-plus years of experience in costuming. After deciding early on that art in general was preferable to calculus, she studied fashion design at the American College for the Applied Arts in London, where she discovered a love of costuming. She eventually earned a bachelor's degree (Cal State Los Angeles) and then a master's (University of Arizona, Tucson) in costume design. A series of nonunion costume jobs, where she had the opportunity to work on every aspect of the costume department (and beyond), from designing to pattern making to stitching to squibs and pyrotechnics, finally led Andrea to embrace finished costuming as her career path, where her memory for costume details and trust in the skills of her team serves her well. When working, she can usually be found on set, where she is never without her trusty foldable scissors and velveteen rag. She has worked on such productions as Marriage Story (2019), The Benchwarmers (2006), Spanglish (2004), Home Economics, Transparent, Rizzoli & Isles, Frasier, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.