Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Honours Schedule Change

Since 1975, Council has regularly solicited nominations from members across the country for deserving honourees in (now) four categories. The nominations and support material are reviewed by a Council committee, and the final candidate list is presented to Council for approval. The awards themselves are presented at a honours evening to which the general membership is invited.

Going forward, Council will be changing the honours schedule from an annual to a biennial activity, and will be combining the presentation event with the national AGM. This change is intended to save money, since the expense of holding the event is not inconsiderable, and neither is the cost of bringing honourees in from across the country. The new schedule will maintain Equity's ongoing commitment to peer recognition, while recognising the financial situation in which the association currently finds itself. 


The first presentation under the new schedule will take place in February 2014. Nominations already received in 2013, as well as any held over from previous years, will be considered for presentation at that time.

The upside of this change, however, is that if you have been considering nominating a colleague for one of the honours, you now have a bit more time in which to do it. If you catch yourself thinking "people really ought to know how special that person is", head to the nearest computer, or give the office a call, and submit a nomination. That is exactly the kind of person the honours exist to celebrate.


                                                                                       

Life Membership is awarded to members who have made an outstanding contribution to the performing arts within the jurisdiction of Equity. It recognises not only an extraordinary career, but also colleagues who have gone "above and beyond" in other ways that contribute to the benefit of either Equity or its members.

Honorary Membership is awarded to an individual who is not an Equity member, but who has made an outstanding contribution to Equity and/or its members, or to the performing arts within the jurisdiction of Equity.

The Larry McCance Award is awarded to a member or to a former staff member, who has made an outstanding contribution to the Association and its members, through elected representation, notable service on staff, or other exemplary action and advocacy.

The CAEA Award of Distinction may be given to any organisation, individual, or group of individuals, excluding current staff, in recognition of significant contribution within the realm of live performance benefitting the membership of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.


Full details on the honours categories, as well as a nomination form and instructions, can be found here. Nominations are accepted all year, and will automatically be considered for the next available round of honours, depending on the submission date.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Dancers at Les Grands Ballets Canadiens join Equity

Welcome! Bienvenue!





Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Did you know? - Learning more about Council

Ok, I'll concede right off the top that attending a board meeting may not be most people's idea of a fun way to spend an hour or seven, but it's good to know you can if you would like to. All regular meetings of Council are open to members in good standing.

If you would like to attend a future meeting, drop us at note at president@caea.com in advance, and we'll set it up. Generally, meetings are on the 4th Monday of January, March, April, May, August, September and November, and the 4th Sunday/Monday in February, June and October. Exact dates are posted in the Calendar section of the Equity website.

There is other stuff available to you, too…

You have elected Council to govern the organisation on your behalf, and we are committed to being transparent about how we do that. Members have ongoing access to agendas, minutes and the recent monitoring reports on all aspects of Equity; these can be found in the Members Only section of the website. Our policy document (the Big Book of Board Rules) can be found here.

If you would like to know even more about Council, and how it operates, you can find a series of articles throughout this blog.