IATSE General Executive Board
In the last post, I briefly touched on the General Executive Board (GEB), but in this one I’d like to go a little more in-depth about them. The GEB is led by the International President and consists of the General Secretary-Treasurer and 13 Vice Presidents, along with three trustees. There are also a number of Assistant Department Directors and International Representatives as well as a CLC (Canadian Labour Congress) delegate.
As I mentioned before, of the 13 Vice Presidents two are designated as coming from Canadian locals, one from the West Coast Studio Production locals, and one from the Special Department locals. The remainder are undesignated and can come from anywhere within the IA. I want to point out here that literally any member has the potential to end up serving on the GEB if they wish. This isn’t like your parents telling you as a child you could be President someday, this is real.
Every single member of the GEB, past and present, started as a member of a Local, and all of them remain so. Obviously you have to want it, and you have to work to make it happen, but I can tell you of the GEB members and other folks I’ve met over the years, they are all at heart stagehands of some sort. When Thomas Short was the International President, Local 26 hosted the 8th District convention and he attended. I was one of the people collecting money for the IA’s PAC fund, and on the form is a line to state your profession. He wrote, “stagehand”. That’s it. I was very new at the time, I’m not even sure I was a member yet, and that impressed me. Then a few years later when I was elected to be the Local’s second delegate to the IA convention, I was waiting to vote for the GEB with then-Vice President Matthew Loeb in front of me in line. I was taking photos out the window and he asked me if I had any with me in them. I didn’t, so he grabbed my camera and made me pose facing two different directions because he didn’t want me to not have any.
I’ve got a few other stories, but those are the ones that stand out to me. They’re just people. Deserving of respect because of their positions, absolutely. But people just the same. Someday one of them could be you! I find that neat.
Anyway. The current leadership of the IATSE can be found here, with photos of each member so you can put a face to a name and their bio. Our current President is Matthew Loeb, General Secretary-Treasurer is James Woods. The Vice Presidents in order are: Michael Barnes, Thomas Davis, Damian Petti, Michael Miller, Jr., Daniel Di Tolla, John Ford, John Lewis, Craig Carlson, Phil LoCicero, C. Faye Harper, Colleen Glynn, James Claffey, Jr., and Joanne Sanders.
The three Trustees are: Patricia White, Carlos Cota, and Andrew Oyaas. CLC Delegate is Siobhan Vipond. International President Emeritus is Thomas Short, and Vice President Emeritus is Edward Powell. D. Joseph Hartnett is the Assistant Department Director of Stagecraft, Vanessa Holtgrew is the Assistant Department Director of Motion Picture & Television Production, Dan Mahoney is Assistant Department Director of Motion Picture & Television Production, and Robyn Cavanagh is Assistant Department Director of Education & Training.
Several of the Vice Presidents and/or Trustees oversee Departments of the IA, although that responsibility is not necessarily assigned to the particular position they are in, but to them as a person. Michael Miller, Jr. is the Director for the Motion Picture & TV Production department. Daniel Di Tolla is the Director of the Stagecraft department. John Lewis is the Department Director for Canadian Affairs. Joanne Sanders heads the Trade Show & Display Work department. Patricia White directs the Education & Training department. The three Trustees are also responsible for performing semi-annual audits of the International’s books and records of financial activities.
All GEB members are elected every four years at the IA Convention, among other business conducted. Every local in the IA can send one delegate to the convention by virtue of having a charter, and they gain additional delegates based on number of members. In Local 26, these delegates are assigned by Constitution to different offices, which is something to bear in mind when nomination time comes. Just like membership meetings, the convention is run by Roberts Rules of Order, and takes place over several days. At the convention I attended, a motion was made from the floor to accept the sitting GEB for another term in toto (as a whole, nothing to do with the dog in Wizard of Oz) that was passed so we didn’t vote for President, Secretary-Treasurer, or VPs, but there were more than three candidates for Trustee so we had to vote to decide who they were. If you’ve chosen your Local officers well, they will represent your interests when voting for the GEB.
The General Executive Board is the last stop in the appeals process should a member exhaust all other steps in the appeal process for disciplinary action by the Local. They also have the legislative authority to amend the International Constitution by unanimous vote; such changes are then sent to the Locals so they can ensure their Local Constitutions are in compliance.
Next time I’ll get into Local 26’s Executive Board and responsibilities, so members can make informed decisions when they choose to nominate or second a nomination for any given position at the September General Membership meeting. But until then…
Be safe. Be well. STAY HOME OR MASK UP. And as always… WASH YOUR HANDS!
