Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1534452
11 U N I O N ! I N H O N O R O F C A T H Y R E P O L A participate, who are feeling more empowered and less held back—and it just keeps growing." For her tireless advocacy work on behalf of women, Loeb awarded her the IA President's Award for Outstanding Woman Leader in 2017. ere were indeed challenging times during her tenure. e 2018 Basic Agreement Negotiations sparked a new sense of activism within the Local 700 membership. With that came a deeper call from the members for the union to do more and to be more. Repola embraced those challenges and sought new ways to be a leader of change. She was honored with the ACE Heritage Award in January 2020, drawing a standing ovation from the audience. "[is award] is reserved for an individual of special merit, a person who has had an enormous impact on our cra," ACE President Steve Rivkin, ACE, said that evening, adding that ACE chose her "in recognition of her courageous leadership and dedication to the editing profession." Soon aerward, though, the Covid pandemic shut everything down, and many if not all of the approximately 9,000 members of the Guild were experiencing the same things most of the world was: isolation at home, illness and fear, loss of loved ones, and important, a loss of connection to each other. Repola wanted to help the membership in staying hopeful and engaged, so she shied efforts toward providing a space for a sense of community. "We had done a lot of in-person Guild events for a long time, and then suddenly, those all stopped," Repola said. at's when she got the idea for what became known as "Coffee with Cathy," a series of Zoom meetings in which members were welcome to stop by and chat, connect, or listen to a guest speaker discuss important issues in a more intimate setting, including a DEI expert and training for the membership and Board of Directors as the Black Lives Matter movement took hold. a lasting legacy On the heels of the world slowly returning to the new normal post- COVID, the dual labor strikes of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA (something she's called "one big fight that all of us share") has le many members reeling to this day. e lingering impact of those strikes—including projects that have been held or scrapped, budgets that have been cut, or runaway production to Canada or elsewhere— has made the past couple of years feel especially concerning for hardworking post- production pros across many classifications. To help those facing hardships, the Guild has created a number of initiatives to help members with everything from healthcare to financial support. As concerns about how AI will impact post-production workflows, the Guild's "Emerging Technology Committee" was created in January 2023 at Repola's request of the Board of Directors. And she restarted Jewelry by Barbara Klar.