A quick question from Mark Thorson, who is also one of my most diligent spotters-of-typos on this blog…
It is my understanding you have to belong to every union for which you qualify, so a writer-director would be a member of both DGA and WGA. You've written several times about your membership in WGA. Are you or have you been a member of any other unions?
The WGA is my only current union unless you also count ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. And come to think of it, we should count ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Years ago, I joined the Screen Actors Guild because I was an extra in a sketch on one show, plus I had done a few audience warm-ups on different shows and that's a SAG job. At one point, I got a notice to join AFTRA because of other warm-up jobs I'd done and I filled out the forms and sent them in and they were supposed to do something and send me a bill and they never did…and I never followed-up because by then, I'd stopped doing warm-ups. So I guess I never joined AFTRA.
I went on Honorable Withdrawal (or whatever they call it) from SAG and also from The Animation Guild. I joined the latter back in my Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears and Disney days and even picketed in one strike. But when I stopped working for those studios, I moved to inactive status. That's a much better union now than it was when I was an active member. Back then, I was very much torn between my beliefs, which are basically pro-union, and my feelings that The Animation Guild — which then had a different name — was run badly and to some extent as a puppet of Management. I'm happy to say that's ancient history.
