IATSE_1stQrtr_2018_web

They recapped the extremely successful
event, Celebrating the Unlimited
Potential of IATSE Women, which took
place on the Sunday prior to the start of
the International Convention. Well in
excess of 600 people were in attendance.
The Committee observed that throughout
the Convention delegates remarked
on how inspirational the event was and
how proud they were to see women of the
IATSE be profiled in such a way. Chair
Repola expressed sincere gratitude to the
Committee for their tireless work and
to the delegates who attended. She also
thanked the panelists, guest speakers, and
volunteers who contributed to the success
of the program.
Because of the event, the Women’s
Committee booth in the tradeshow
section of the Convention was a big hit.
By Wednesday morning of the Convention,
the Committee had sold out all 500
scarves that had been ordered and the
demand continues for additional ones.
President Loeb has agreed to permanently
add a women’s scarf to the IATSE online
store. A design contest to create an IATSE
Women’s Committee scarf is in the offing.
In addition to the Convention-edition,
inaugural scarves, the Committee sold
a couple hundred of our special-edition
pins. The remainder of the special-edition
pins are available for sale now through the
General Office.
The Committee has nearly 700
women on its private Facebook group
and there are now 3,400 people signed up
for the electronic newsletter.
This past fall, the executive committee
of the IATSE WC met in Manhattan
to develop a long-term plan to move the
Committee forward. They presented
their proposals to President Loeb who
expressed his approval and support. The
Committee met prior to the Los Angeles
Board meeting to review the plan the executive
committee came up with and to
assign tasks to certain members and subcommittees.
In addition to Chair Repola,
Cecilia Friederichs, and Dusty Kelly, six
more women including Representative
Joanne Sanders now sit on the executive
committee.
The Committee will continue to hold
and expand women’s networking opportunities
during and surrounding the
district conventions. It will also release
periodically select segments of the video
of the pre-2017 Convention women’s
event last summer. The Committee has
begun to compile and circulate information
on starting women’s committee in
local unions. It will also be contacting
Locals to determine which already have
women’s committees and to identify
the leaders of those committees, with
the goal of creating a database. Thus,
these committees can connect regionally.
Members of the International’s WC will
be assigned to be regional contacts/point
persons. This will lay the groundwork
for a first-ever IATSE Women’s Institute
to take place in 2020, details for which
are still pending.
The guest speaker in Los Angeles was
Gabrielle Carteris, president of SAG-AF-
TRA and as of Wednesday morning more
than 110 women had indicated they
would attend. As customary, the IATSE
WC designated that a nonprofit organization,
Camp Reel Stories, would receive
any donations it collected from women
who attended the networking dinner.
Camp Reel Stories provides a filmmaking
camp for girls and young women
empowering women to create their own
media, to view current media critically
and thoughtfully and to aspire to leadership
in their field. A representative of
the organization attended the reception.
Because the attendance was expanded
to include IATSE women across Los
Angeles, the cost excess was underwritten
in part by the following Locals and their
leadership for making contributions: 44,
600, 700, 706, 769, 800, 839, 871 and 892,
who were thanked especially for their
support. Chair Repola reserved special
appreciation to the Events & Networking
subcommittee, Dusty Kelly Local 891,
Ellen Popiel Local 487, Shirley Berling
Local 769 and Rachael Stanley CDG
Local 892 for all of their work in putting
the event together and working during
the event and an extra thanks to Ellen
Popiel who does a great job of handling
all of the logistics with the restaurant and
all of the invitations and RSVPs. Chair
Repola ended her remarks with video of
clips from last year’s Unlimited Potential
event.
President Loeb observed that there
is no IATSE without the women of the
IATSE, specifically noting that the women
bring the International strength, honor
and distinction. He commended the
Committee for a fantastic event at the
Convention kickoff. He was pleased that
the Los Angeles event was open to rankand-file
members. He sent his regards
to President Carteris. He personally
thanked Chair Repola for her vision and
indefatigable work on the Committee. He
concluded by reiterating the Board’s full
support of the Committee and its programs.
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