Back row, from left: Angela Urbina, Paul Zepp, Kent Butler, Genevieve Stephens and Sheletta Seaborne. Front row, from left: Carmen Lois, Dorothea Love, Sheryl Lebedev, Eleanor Gomez and Omar Greene. (Photo: Darrell Hope) click photo for larger view

"That's one of the many bright spots about this department," Zepp explained. "We're constantly told by new members how excited they are when they first join. It's like a validation of their filmmaking aspirations. They've become a member of an organization of professional filmmakers, the icons of the industry."

Membership is the first DGA department that new members encounter. But the department is not limited to new membership. It also covers Dues, Agency and the Qualification Lists (QL).

With the DGA's more than 12,000 members, approximately 96,000 pieces of mail are handled by the department regarding dues alone.

Each quarter, the Guild sends out a gross earnings statement to the membership. It is a member's responsibility to let the Guild know what his/her earnings were in a particular quarter. If a member had no earnings, he/she checks the appropriate box on the statement and sends the appropriate monies back ($50 minimum basic dues). If a member does have earnings, the completed statement is sent back to the Guild and Membership calculates the dues owed and sends out a bill.

All of this information must be entered into the several databases. Genevieve Stephens, the department's Assistant Administrator, directly oversees the earnings reporting and dues billing areas. There are two people who manage the membership's dues accounts: Angela Urbina, letters A through K, and Kent Butler, letters L through Z. Amazingly, the average turnaround time for calculating dues owed and sending a bill is approximately three days. There are two data processors who assist the department in making this kind of turnaround possible: Carmen Lois and Eleanor Gomez.

Dues are charged on income of all kinds, excluding per diem. This includes initial compensation, vacation pay, holiday pay, completion of assignment, bonuses, percentage compensation, etc.

Another area of responsibility for Membership is Agency. "A lot of the things we deal with in Membership are directly related to employment," Zepp explained. "That's why it's so important for the members to realize that they need to keep their agency and employment contact information current with the Guild. To further aid in this endeavor, we have established more contact with the agents and agencies to exchange more information. According to our Talent Agency Agreement, franchise agencies are required to provide us with a list of their clients twice a year. We began enforcing this provision in 1998 and since then we've had amazing results from the agencies. We've gotten to know who their clients are and how we can best represent our members at the Agency Desk by giving out correct and up-to-date information as far as who are they represented by.

"Omar Greene is our Agency Coordinator and Sheryl Lebedev is the Agency Desk Assistant. Sheryl handles the phone-contact information and all address changes. Omar oversees agency reports, which means generating client lists for the agencies to review and send back with any updates. This will be our third year sending out these lists and this year we even got one from an agency unsolicited in the mail.

"We also have become more aggressive about pursuing members whose addresses are not current. We have a series of steps to go through: we'll use the Pension office, we use the directory, we'll use phone numbers that we'll have on file. One of the things I can't stress enough is for members to let the Guild know your current information."

The department also makes the initial determination on whether an individual can work in a DGA–covered capacity on a production. For directors, technical coordinators and live and tape television production associates, the employment criteria is very straightforward: you must obtain employment with a company that has signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Guild.

However, there are other Guild–covered positions that require that certain employment criteria has been met. For assistant directors and UPMs the employment criteria requires placement on the appropriate Qualifications List. "For instance, if you're a 2nd AD, 1st AD or UPM in film and commercials, you have to prove you are qualified," Zepp explained. "To do this, you're going to submit evidence of having worked so many days to the proper QL office. There is a separate list for film and commercials."

Tape associate directors and stage managers have their own criteria. "You have to be guaranteed a certain number of days on a particular project," Zepp said. "If you don't get the guarantee, then you could document your previous experience in live and tape television: three years in tape-covered work such as props, lighting, camera, makeup, wardrobe, editors, etc. and one national nonunion program in a specific category, e.g. director, associate director, stage manager or production associate. Let's say you have three years in tape as a regional director at a station in Duluth. That's fine but you have to also have worked in one of the above-mentioned categories on a program that has been televised in a national market. Someone could use a show they made for the Home and Garden network and that would qualify."

Keeping track of all of the Guild category employment criteria falls to Sheletta Seaborne, QL and New Membership Supervisor.

Zepp said that because of this, unfortunately, Membership is sometimes seen as the "bad cop" of the Guild. "But, really, we're here to help the members."

According to Zepp, the QL and the stringent criteria for live and tape television were instituted as a way of preventing a once-common practice in Hollywood — producers loading up productions with nephews, cousins, and other relatives, and having them fill these below-the-line positions. The DGA began to grow very concerned that the integrity of these very important positions was being eroded.

"AD/UPMs and AD/SMs, these are crucial positions in productions," Zepp said. "They face staggering logistical problems and quite often help ensure that productions are done efficiently and within the framework of the budget. You can easily understand that if there weren't requirements for a certain level of proficiency, the integrity of a Guild-covered position would be compromised. Therefore, the DGA set up specific employment criteria and ensured that these positions didn't go the way that some other production credits have gone."

New Member Orientation meeting, October 24, 2001. (Photo: Robert Hale) click photo for larger view

Before an application goes out, there are a series of checks and balances that need to be made. Just because Membership receives a deal memo doesn't mean that somebody is working appropriately according to the Guild's Basic Agreement.

Membership works very closely with other DGA departments such as Residuals and Signatories/Reports Compliance. Zepp said that he has worked and continues to work very closely with Eric Popish, head of the DGA's MIS Department, to further streamline all areas of Membership Department procedures.

Table of Contents     Top of Page