The Structure of the National Council, the Regional Boards, and why the Central Region is different.

Before I go any deeper into policy issues or making endorsements, I want to dig into the structure of our Council, Boards, and committees. And I beg your indulgence: this might get a bit weedy, and even then possibly a bit over-simplified.

Equity’s National Council has 83 seats.

With the changes made via last year’s referendum, 66 of those seats are distributed across the Eastern, Central, and Western regions by total membership population (as measured using members’ registered home residences) and across the Principal, Chorus, and Stage Management job classifications by the total number of contracted work weeks in those classifications.  These seats are what we refer to when we talk about “Western Stage Manager,” “Central Principal,” or “Eastern Chorus” Councilors, for example.

9 seats are now so-called “At-Large” seats, distributed across the three regions by overall population, but explicitly carved out for members living outside the three office cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. These are now styled “Western At-Large,” “Central At-Large,” and “Eastern At-Large”.

Then there are the 8 Council Officers.  1 President; a Secretary-Treasurer (who Chairs the House Affairs Committee); a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Vice-President, one for each of the three job classifications (and who then, ex officio, Chair the Principals, Chorus (ACCA), and Stage Managers committees respectively); and three Regional Vice-Presidents (who then also serve as Chair of their respective Regional Boards).

The National Council generally meets once per month, more or less as circumstances require.

The Council Executive Committee meets as needed, is chaired by the President, and is made up of the rest of the Officers with 3 Councilors from each region as elected by the rest of the Council.

There are two main types of committees – Contract and non- or Cross-Contract. National Contract committees must be chaired by elected Councilors, are made up of both Councilors and “members-at-large,” and work with staff to provide oversight of our collective bargaining agreements, respond to concession requests, and generate committee proposals for new or renewal negotiations. The Chairs of these contract committees are elected by Council immediately after each completed renegotiation of an agreement. The newly-elected Chair then selects and puts forward for Council approval at least 2, but usually more, Vice-Chairs to serve as advisors and substitutes. 

National Contract committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs must be Councilors because they have the ability to act on behalf of the entire committee with “Chair Authority,” most often when it comes to supporting or denying minor or time-sensitive concession requests, in consultation with staff. Sometimes such decisions are made by a poll of all the Chair/Vice-Chairs instead of going to the full committee. Either way, to possess that authority for a national agreement (such as Production, LORT, COST, etc.), each Chair or Vice-Chair has to have been elected by the entire national membership as a fiduciary to represent their interests.

Non- and Cross-contract committees (ACCA, Stage Managers, EEO, Membership Education, Entry to Equity, Media and New Technology, to list a few) craft policy recommendations, create programming, and/or put forward specific contract proposals that might apply across all agreements, for that committee’s area of concern. Their Chairs are elected once every three years.

Finally, the 1st and 2nd Vice-Chairs of each National committee need to come from the two regions other than the Chair’s home region. All these roles require a certain amount of experience, expertise, and time commitment – over and above the basic council responsibilities. Most Councilors serve on multiple committees, often – especially in the Central Region – with multiple Chair or Vice-Chair responsibilities.

National Committees meet anywhere from twice a year to monthly; some Chairs can be actively communicating with staff almost daily.

Then, there are the Boards.

Each Region has its own Board, which also generally meets monthly.  The Boards are subject to Council oversight, but have direct policy authority over regional agreements and issues, with associated Regional committees.  For instance, the Off-Broadway agreement is an Eastern Regional contract, and is directly overseen by the Off-Broadway Committee, a regional committee that reports to the Eastern Regional Board (ERB)… in the same way that the Central Regional Board (CRB) handles CAT and the Western Regional Board (WRB) handles the 99-Seat Agreement for LA.

Each Regional Board is chaired by that region’s Council Vice-President, elects its own Board Vice-Chairs, and is comprised of the elected Councilors and Officers resident in that Region. For example, the Council President, Secretary-Treasurer, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Vice-Presidents all currently live in the Eastern Region, so they, together with the other 47 Eastern Councilors, are members of the Eastern Regional Board, chaired by the Eastern Regional Vice-President. Were any Officer to move to a different region, they would switch Board membership.

And so here’s where it gets unique for the Central Region.

As of 2019, only 9.76% of the national paid-up membership resides in the Central Region – and that’s with some recent growth. For quite a few years prior to this coming election, the Central Region has had only 7 seats on Council – the Central Regional VP, 4 Principals, 1 Chorus, and 1 Stage Manager.

Because of population shifts and the implementation of the carved-out At-Large seats, once the 2020 Council election is complete Central will have 9 seats – the VP, 5 Principals, 1 Chorus, 1 SM, and 1 At-Large – but will lose one in 2022, dropping back to 8 – the VP, 4 Principals, 1 Chorus, 1 SM, and 1 At-Large.

When the national representation plan was adopted, it was recognized that a Regional Board can’t fulfill its required functions with that few members, nor can so few Councilors fulfill all the required Chair and Vice-Chair responsibilities for 40-odd national and regional committees. So the AEA Constitution and By-Laws provide for the election of “Non-Councilor Central Regional Board Members,” distributed across the 3 job classifications, up to a total CRB size of 20. Non-Councilor CRB members are elected solely by the Central Region membership, and so can exercise fiduciary responsibility only on behalf of the Central Region.  This means that they can Chair or Vice-Chair Regional Contract Committees or National non- or Cross-contract Committees, but may not Chair or Vice-Chair National Contract Committees. They have recognized attendance and speaking rights in Council, but may not submit motions or vote in Council meetings.

After the 2020 elections, the Eastern Region will have 53 seats on Council as Members and Officers, the Western Region will have 21, and the Central Region only 9 (with up to 11 non-Councilor CRB members).

Those stark numbers are why, for me, having experience in Equity governance, and specifically spending time in office as a CRB non-Councilor first, is the single biggest factor I consider before I will vote someone into a Central Region Council seat.

Not counting the national officers who generally reside in and around NYC, the East has 47 council seats to work with. They can easily afford to elect a few new, entirely inexperienced members, and it will not appreciably impact the quality of their representation on Council.  In parliamentary terms they have a very deep back-bench, and there are plenty of people to spread the work around.

Not so here in the Central. The moment someone with comparably little experience gets elected to a Central Council seat, our immediately effective voting representation on Council drops by as much 12.5 percent. And because it’s not at all likely that someone green will have the experience to serve as a National contract committee Chair or one of the “senior” (i.e., 1st or 2nd) Vice-Chairs, those responsibilities and that work – and make no mistake, it’s time-consuming work – now gets shifted onto the handful of other incumbent Central Region Councilors.

The good thing is that we do have CRB non-Councilors, who get access to Council deliberations, are with rare exception treated as informational peers, and can gain experience as Regional committee Chairs or Vice-Chairs, and National non- and Cross-contract committee Chairs or Vice-Chairs. The CRB non-Councilor seats are the Central Region’s “back bench”.

As a general rule, the Central region simply can’t afford to continue to have our small number of Council seats filled by members comparatively inexperienced in the governance of our union, often via targeted support from outside the Central region. It’s not as reductive as “paying one’s dues,” it’s about ensuring that a candidate actually knows enough and possesses enough of the skill sets to be able to begin working immediately and effectively.

My basic principle is that – assuming no complicating factors – I need to see someone spend at least one 2-year term on the CRB before I would ever vote for them for a Central Council seat.

With that in mind, my endorsements for the open Central region seats are here.