Wednesday, November 23, 2016
IATSE Local One Donates $875,000 to Actors Fund
Stage Directions: The membership of Local One of IATSE, the theatrical stagehands of New York City and the oldest entertainment Union in the United States, approved a five-year financial commitment of $875,000 to support the programs and services of The Actors Fund.
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2 comments:
As the New York Times article in 2013 was titled “Hey, Stars, Be Nice to the Stagehands. You Might Need a Loan.” Well, it looks like that is becoming true. Now this isn’t really a loan, and its not directly to the stars, It is still the stage hands helping out the performers. I did not really know what the actors fund does, since I had barely even heard of it, but after some brief research I can see it is really an interesting fund. It is set up primarily to assist those in the entertainment industry. However, it also does other charitable work that does not necessarily relate to the entertainment industry. For example, $300,000 of the donation was used for a home that does not directly benefit those in the business. To me, this is not a problem, but I can see how some would feel odd about donating to a fund that does not really benefit who they say. Also, does IATSE need to donate money for specific reasons? do they need to donate over 3/4 million? That seems a lot for a Union, but I don't really know if that is common.
At first just seeing the title of the article I thought similarly to Drew in that it reminded me of jokes about stagehands needing to give actors money, however reading the article really just seems to be IATSE trying to watch its own back. The reason I say this is because the Actors Fund despite its name is not just for actors, the technicians and stagehands would also qualify to receive help from the Actors Fund. Thus meaning that when IATSE donateds its $875,000 to the Actors Fund they will also receive benefits from a strengthening of the Actors Fund. One fact that does stort of raise an eyebrow is that Local One President James Claffey, Jr. is also on the board of trustees of the Actors Fund. While I hope his position as president of local one was not used to influence local one in supporting another organization where he also has influence as a board of trustee member, I just find it doubtful. But since it seems that this donation benefits anyone in the entertainment industry I don't see reason for too much concern.
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