Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/879767
8 SAG-AFTRA | Summer/Fall 2017 | SAGAFTRA.org D AV I D W H I T E A Letter from the National Executive Director "Those selected by their fellow members to help lead our union bring an inspiring level of diverse viewpoints and experience to their positions." Broadcasting System's two popular radio stations in Los Angeles, La Raza and MEGA. I am also very pleased to report that our members held rm to close a successful negotiation with National Public Radio that will cover our news and programming unit for the next three years. Finally, we continue to oversee the interactive strike. We have successfully signed new projects and companies to our promulgated deal while continuing to make a concerted effort to nd an acceptable resolution with the struck companies. Importantly, our affected members have held strong throughout this lengthy dispute and deserve our highest level of honor and respect for their endurance and communal support. As we move into the autumn season, SAG-AFTRA's third biennial national convention approaches. These gatherings are an opportunity for members working in different sectors and locations across the country to gather together, share ideas and best practices, and to learn from one another. There is also impassioned discussion concerning resolutions that speak to the governance and strategic direction of the union and an election to ll out the national ofcers' corps. look forward to engaging with our activists from around the nation and listening to the debates that will ensue. On a different note, we now have a better understanding of the devastation caused by the two recent, colossal environmental events, hurricanes Irma and Harvey. For our members in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and other areas affected by these storms, we send you a note of solidarity and strength. Know that your SAG-AFTRA family stands with you in support as you rebuild. We are working in partnership with our sister organizations in the industry, including the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the SAG-AFTRA Motion Picture Players Welfare Fund and The Actors Fund, which are offering emergency assistance to help in this time of need. It is important that members reach out for aid if you need it and, for those who can, we invite you to send donations to the Foundation and to The Actors Fund to be earmarked for this special assistance. I end this letter with a note of sadness and appreciation for our friend and colleague, New York President Mike Hodge, who passed away unexpectedly this month. Mike was a formidable leader with wide-ranging gifts that he deployed as a journalist and actor over the course of a long career. He was deeply committed to SAG-AFTRA and to the members he represented, and to our staff. Above all, Mike was a generous and beloved soul, and his presence will be truly missed. In unity and looking forward, David White Dear Member, W e have completed another successful election season. I would like to congratulate President Gabrielle Carteris and Secretary- Treasurer Jane Austin on their re-election, and all of our board members who were elected to serve. Those selected by their fellow members to help lead our union bring an inspiring level of diverse viewpoints and experience to their positions. The staff and I are excited to work together with them and with all of our union advocates in the coming term to help support and engage our members across the country. This summer we have been involved in an unusually broad range of activity related to our contract negotiations. Hearty congratulations are in order to our Television/Theatrical negotiating committee for the recently ratied TTheatrical deal. At million, the new agreement has nearly a 30 percent higher valuation than the deal negotiated in and, among other benets, lays a foundation to protect members working in the rapidly growing new media space dominated by emerging media giants such as etix. In addition, we have made steady progress in our negotiations with Telemundo and, as many of you have read in newspaper headlines, we continue to push aggressively to ght for the rights of Spanish-language talent at the Spanish