Chair: Ben Arkell
Minutes: Josie Underwood
Present: Mimi Doulton, Paule Constable, Kelsie Acton, Beth Steel, Paul Carey Jones, Prema Mehta, Nikki Edmonds, Jake Orr, Tom Piper, Athena Stevens, Ella Taylor, Alistair Cope, Steven Hogget, Jess Murrain, Freddie Crossley, Leigh Toney, Emma Jayne Park, Josie Underwood
Updates and reports
MT research offer
Email offer in inbox for us to propose questions on a study being done: “In the process of applying for a small amount of additional funding to drill down into what freelancers need to be able to make live streaming and other digital adaptations financially feasible.. produce something that would be useful for you (a kind of ‘free’ consultancy if you like). What do you want to change/have some data to inform?”
ACTION POINT:
- Message re research offer to go on slack for thoughts (JU)
Donation Thank You’s
We have recently had a generous donation and wondered whether there should be a way of publicly thanking those that have donated. Beth also suggested that we could have a donation button on the website to make this process easier for those who would like to make a donation.
ACTION POINT:
- Proposal to be put on slack to find a way of thanking donors – (JU)
- Al to put donation button on website? – (AC)
Minutes and Newsletter call out
We need someone to minute next fridays meeting (21st May) and someone to write this weeks newsletter – with the focus of this weeks newsletter being on FMTW’s 1 year anniversary.
ACTION POINT:
- Call out for all FMTW volunteers to write a short statement about FMTW a year on (JU)
March for the Arts
Nikki went to launch last week. A collective, came through a week and a half ago from LIPA, huge study has been funded for freelancers (not many have heard about it!!) – they have come up with a document looking at the treatment of freelancers and how freelancers should be engaged. Worth a read!!! Directory of freelancers who sign up, so they can be connected with organisations. They have drop in zooms, and are still working on feedback.
Inspiring to hear them talk, their passion that has gone into this project. Definitely something we could connect with FMTW – very well put together and easy to digest.
Directory is great – how do lesser known freelancers find organisations
PM – 2 months ago, GLA fuel coming together project – we were unsure about the processes, so Prema reached out to them online and they wrote a detailed response and were interested in engaging with us.
TP – how much overlap with Big Freelancer Report? Is one of our roles to sift through these things so that know
PC – UK theatre/SOLT conversation a UK wide model so that things aren’t as piecemeal. Happy to catch everyone up on this
BS – Almeida has had a week reading/discussing/working on the Big Freelancer Report. Some organisations are taking it upon themselves to do the work on this.
ACTION POINT:
- PM will repost GLA information on slack and get in touch with then via email (cc JU on hello@) to further discuss (PM)
- PC to further inform everyone on UK Theatre/SOLT conversation (PC)
Stage film call out
A call out for the film that PC, AS, FC and JU are making was sent out via email on Thursday 13th to all FMTW and some additional freelancers asking for input of provocations from freelancers to go in the film. Deadline for this call out is Monday 17th
ACTION POINT:
- Group to send The Stage film responses (emailed to group on Thursday 13th) by Monday 17th.
UVW – DCW Connection
Trade union that started with a focus on low paid and migrant workers. They are looking at mass solidarity. One of the members brought in the Big Freelancer Report and started to look at it and discuss how this could extend to other theatre workers (front of house etc)
Focus on precarious theatre workers (move away from them and us approach of work)
PC – should we put this on the website as an alternative option alongside BECTU etc. Al said they ARE on the website.
LT – BECTU rep training, pushing to create a freelancers
London freelancers branch
Massive conversation with sound designers, a big group of people who would have previously been represented by Equity. Another meeting on 18th May. Leverage to give to BECTU as a way that this could go forward and how they are held in constraint
EJ – UVW are interested in cross union solidarity. Looking at sociocracy and member led union work.
PC – Unions negotiate terms and conditions, BECTU re recognised as the place that people go to, so trying to find a place where
EJP – there is a lack of understanding about what the collective bargaining agreement and what unions do for freelancers. FMTW should be signposting this and perhaps developing a 101 on how unions work and how to use them.
SC – The World Transformed released a video last year “mapping the arts union landscape” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gzaMcPHsWY
ACTION POINT:
- EJP to invite UVW into a meeting when we have head space
- EJP and NE to collab on newsletter around unions
FUTURE of FMTW
- If we sustained a smaller core group how who should be in that group? ie How should it work? How might that be defined? How would a larger group feed in and remain as participants? Can we have a revolving door?
- If we had a small and a large group – how should meetings work? How often? How might information be communicated between the two groups? What meeting structures might be useful? What structures start to feel too much like rules….
- What might the invitation to volunteers be? How can we support new volunteers? What do we need from volunteers and what do they need from us?
- How do we become freelance friendly ie support variable capacity, make the group easier to drop in and out of?
AC – meeting on tuesday talking about the result of the poll:
Results key points: need to answer these questions first in order to move forward
JM – interested in how we sustain a onboarding process
SH – there is a guilt complex about being away from the group for a while. Slack can incapacitate if there is any time away so is there a way of making a process so that people who are in the wider group can come in and help without becoming overwhelmed?
LT – Agrees with SH about the guilt of being away. The ‘I don’t know’ responses to the poll are interesting – this could invite a broader pool of info over the yes/no answers.
BS – suggested a time bank where you can say ‘I have two hours here’ and you can be given a task.
MD – as people start to go forward into a more planned way of living, is there a way that we can schedule way to be included in FMTW.
LT – someone in the survey suggested a similar thing in terms of how we clock time, could the audit be helpful for this, we can have a pool of info of people’s skills and what time each has available
JM – one place where there is listed everyone’s specialism, means that people with tasks have a pin board of who does what and then ask the directly the person that might help on that task.
JU – is there worth in doing a weekly/monthly availability call out?
NE – CITea has a list of specialties, and a buddy system (everything is done in pairs!) merge two groups if they are duplicating the same work! It is important that we are using programmes like Slack properly in order to not overwhelm those that are a bit out of the loop (eg replying in thread and using emojis wisely)
EJP – Rather than a time bank, perhaps we could have a to do list that anyone flip time bank to a do list, so that there is no guilt of how much time you can commit
Audit of specialisms and interest – people turn up when they are excited!! Might help defeat burn out
Rotating core team – responds to the way we are choosing to work, but we have a genuinely rotating meeting so it doesn’t become a core group that are really tight and then outside team is diss
PC – Don’t want to lose the joy and comradery of the bat signal, but agrees that professionalism suggested by NE would be useful moving forward. Suggested Tom Trumps!
MD – buddy scheme sounds great! Interested in things means that we could enjoy learning new things without the pressure of getting it totally right on your own
PM – Perhaps we could create an annual plan has an overall vision broken down into something much more manageable, that people can dip in and engage with
JM – flexible timeline and strategies, longer term vision in what we are hoping to do can sustain a wider group
PM – Suggested that there might be one person dedicated to looking after new members
SH – Agreed that a list of tasks would be helpful, especially for new people coming in dont know what they might offer. How do we encourage and nurture those people?
SC – huge amount of info that needs to be shared with the group, and then communicating headlines and synthesising
CO – thoughts for the space:
- Understanding where we have come from – some way of writing case studies of how past projects have come about and how they have happened. Might help us to see how these things have happened and might help people feel more comfortable that things can be done as a team. “Collective memory.”
- Survey – is there a space we need to create where people could have 1-on-1 conversations where people can feel like someone has heard their hopes and wishes for FMTW, and is there someone or some people that we trust to note down those thoughts and collated and shared.
- Has a capacity planning document – happy to be shared on slack. The things we all agree we want to achieve and then people can voluntarily decide what capacity they have and what they would like to contribute.
VM – interested in collective memory, feels like a really helpful project that could we could learn a lot
PC – how do we move all of this on?
LT – 3 different strands:
- Strategy, timeline
- Process, spreadsheets etc
- Personal, how do we onboard, find new members
Suggested three separate working groups?
RB – Year long plan for FMTW where we can map our future and planning. The values work is so crystal clear but we need to move that into action and what our priorities are for the next year. Buddy system great, on going todo list. Appraisals (not the right word!) but this being a space for personal and professional growth – not just what we have to offer, but what we want to learn.
EJP – process and personal need to be built on top of a strategy. We need to decide what FMTW is now in order to build that strategy. Everyone gives those that they think would be good in this strategy building group a call in the next few days to empower them to take part?
PCJ – FMTW fills a hole, and is so successful because it is adaptable and able to meet the ever-changing demand of freelancers. Thoughts; the rainbow badge started as a way for NHS staff to sign up to a declaration that they would be approachable by members of the LGBTQ+ community. Often all people need is to be listened to, and FMTW is a badge that allows us to be approachable.
SH – interface with each other, and interface with industry (which feels temporal) the qualities and the values that we have been talking about are not yet being put in place in the actual industry.
MD – there seems to be more of a cohesive connection with other freelancers (althoguh we are all doing different jobs on different rates of pay) we are more aware of what our rights should be. We must never say we are going “back to normal” but instead that we are going “forward to something new”.
BA – Noting that the Big Freelancer Report is a resource that we can use, and that others are already trying to use.
JM – Tangible action, agrees with a strategy group
The actor doesn’t always feel invited into the freelancer conversation
AC – the landscape has changed but a reminder of 10 months ago we all had a lot of time and very easily recognisable enemies. We had sub-groups that worked well (wellbeing, lobbying, future labs etc)
JU – For now will create two separate groups that come together:
- Process group
- Strategy group
Option to nominate yourself for each group and option to nominate others too.
EJP – these two working groups need to be rotating and utilise whatever works for different groups. Is there a 15 minute turn around before any meeting so that anyone can come in a be caught up?
SH – never would attend a tech meeting during my lunch hour. But would happily sit on a meeting for FMTW
BS – what are the big things we pursue?? Keying this down will free up capacity.
LT – capacity and streamlining, important to think about this like you would putting contingency in a budget – make sure there is capacity for responding to things as well as the things that we are ‘focusing on.’
EJP – Could all FMTW emails be entitled ‘FMTW’ to identify all emails from and for the group.
ACTION POINT:
- Set up process working group (with description) – JU
- Set up strategy working group (with description) – JU
- Doodle poll of Slack, Whatsapp and Email usage – JU
- All FMTW emails to be labeled ‘FMTW’
AOB
PC – New York Times, request from alex marshall NYT Europe, would like someone from FMTW would be able to talk on the phone about reopening.
EJ – happy to do but would be good to chat within a pair
PCJ – also happy to talk to him
PC – Letter to treasury needs to be sign up TODAY! To be put on Bat Signal.
AC – Zipcar have partnered with national theatre, free business account for anyone working with NT. Works sort of like a santander bike, but with a car! They would like to see if they could extend it to us, offer a free business account with zipcar which gives you £50 credit and 30% off. Worries; we have never partnered with anyone before, and if we give the code out on twitter then anyone can use. Suggestion: we could trial a soft-launch to our newsletter participants to monitor if it working. NB, Zipcars are available in Bristol, London, Cambridge, Oxford (https://www.zipcar.com/en-gb/business/partner/FMTW)
EJ – could we look into Zipcar’s employment practices? (Al will check)
BS – Suggestion; could we have a ‘donate’ button on the website?
ACTION POINT:
- PC to connect EJP and PCJ to talk about reopening with NYT Europe
- PC put treasury letter on Bat Signal
- AC will look into Zipcar employment practices
ACTION POINTS RECAP
- Message re research offer to go on slack for thoughts (JU)
- Proposal to be put on slack to find a way of thanking donors – (JU)
- Al to put donation button on website? – (AC)
- Call out for all FMTW volunteers to write a short statement about FMTW a year on (JU)
- PM will repost GLA information on slack and get in touch with then via email (cc JU on hello@) to further discuss (PM)
- PC to further inform everyone on UK Theatre/SOLT conversation (PC)
- EJP to invite UVW into a meeting when we have head space
- EJP and NE to collab on newsletter around unions
- Set up process & strategy working groups (with descriptions) – JU
- Doodle poll of Slack, Whatsapp and Email usage – JU
- All FMTW emails to be labeled ‘FMTW’
- PC to connect EJP and PCJ to talk about reopening with NYT Europe
- PC put treasury letter on Bat Signal
- AC will look into Zipcar employment practices
Upcoming Friday Meetings:
21st May: Chair – Peter Mck Minutes TBC
28th May: Chair – Ben Arkell Minutes Josie Underwood
4th June: Chair – TBC Minutes TBC
11th June: Chair – TBC Minutes Josie Underwood