FREELANCERS MAKE THEATRE WORK MEETING: FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER
Chair: Peter McKintosh
Minutes: Josie Underwood
Present: Kelsie Action, Peter McKintosh, Alistair Cope, Jake Orr, Josie Underwood, Paule Constable
Apologies: Paul Carey Jones, Ben Arkell, Vicki Mortimer
Updates and reports
Fundraising
JO: Paule reached out to ACE and they have said that they might have some money to offer as support for ongoing work with FMTW. This would note be offered for a specific project, but they also would be interested in supporting project based work.
The Arts Council are also interested in launching a Symposium for freelancers which we would be invited to be involved in.
We also had a very constructive conversation with David Hall – clarifying FMTW’s current situations and offering thoughts about how FMTW may want to proceed (i.e. charitable route etc) but also offered that we should be going to the “big 12” theatre organisations and see if there is a potential that we could secure ongoing funding support from them. Also utilising those organisations to access individual givers.
PC: Recently had correspondence with DCMS, reiterating the point about the lack of tangible responsibility to the workforce. (Also bumped into Bob Crowley, who with Richard Eyre are responsible for awarding FMTW the Maria Bjornson Fund grant? How do we thank them? See below point.)
Thank Maria Bjornson Fund
PM: It is extraordinary that this funding is available, Maria was a freelancer and we should find a way to thank and acknowledge the fund and Maria herself, whilst being conscious of all the other funding bodies that we are grateful to.
ACTION POINT:
- Write a thank you to Maria Bjornsen Fund to go out in newsletter/blog- PM
Bristol Uni Archive project
AC: Bristol approached us with their ‘Projects at Risk’ project to explain a little more and to ask if we might share with the freelance community. In the light of covid and people clearing out their homes and not having the space to store their archive material they are offering to help people find a place to store archive materials, or give advice on how to store it themselves. AC and JU both felt they aligned with FMTW values and are happy to share once the ask has been clarified (i.e. they decide whether they want it to be shared as a newsletter, series of tweets, blog post, etc)
ACTION POINT:
- Share Bristol Projects at Risk with freelancers – AC/JU
Wellbeing invite
- Wellbeing google form
- Wellbeing Invite
JU: After receiving the MB grant it feel less urgent to gather new volunteers in a short space of time. This combined with the pace we were working at being unsustainable (particularly on a personal level for JU) Josie and Al have decided to spread the new volunteer asks over 3-6 weeks. We will be sharing one invitation at a time and then leaving that invite open as an ongoing volunteer invite which can be altered or added to when necessary. This will be the same for Wellbeing, Research and Lobbying for the time being, and any other groups that we feel are needed in the longer term. Request that KA read over the Wellbeing google form with an eye to making sure that it is fully accessible.
ACTION POINT:
- Check wellbeing google form invite for accessibility – KA
- Send out wellbeing invites next week via newsletter and social media – AC
MPs Letter – priority asks
AC: Mimi offered to update our MPs letter, but we need to clarify what we need to ask of our MPs at the moment. Due to the fact that there are few people in the room currently with a specific idea of what these asks might be we will instead bat signal to the wider group to ask for input.
ACTION POINT:
- Bat Signal to ask for input on MP’s letter main asks – AC
Anti-racism – Inc Arts Unlock (& action points!)
AC: We have been meeting on a Wednesday morning to go through the Inc Arts Unlock, and it is a fantastic toolkit, that creates really positive conversation. It is hard to report back exactly on these conversations, as the main learning is done through the conversation that is had in the rooms and the different perspective we each bring to the conversation. It is also interesting to note that while the toolkit is aimed at organisations it is still very interesting and useful for individual freelancers from all backgrounds, as we each see the toolkit through the lens of our own practice. As we have committed to using this toolkit and implementing the learning from it in our practice as FMTW it feels important that this learning is widespread through our volunteer base, however there are currently only 4-5 people attending the weekly Wednesdays. It’s understandable that not everyone will be able to make the Wednesday morning slot, so we therefore talked through the following options as ways to make sure the majority of FMTW members are doing this work:
- Option 1: as individuals we would propose that everyone in FMTW goes through the toolkit so they have had an opportunity to engage with the learning on an individual basis at least
- Option 2: getting into small groups (3-4) to go through the tool kit together, as this creates a space for learning through conversation
We also discussed having a clear anti-racism section on the website, as we currently have links to Inc Arts and other anti-racist organisations and resources, but we don’t have a specific section like we do with sexual harassment and violence.
PM: Missing a meeting makes it difficult to continue the work, so it feels that if you haven’t been able to make one of the meetings you can’t go to the next one. The ask would be that everyone commits to this, and a way to make this more accessible to everyone would be to provide guidelines of how the toolkit works and how it might best work (i.e. take 30-40 mins per week, in small groups). Do we also have a ‘what we learned this week’ section, a way to share our learning?
AC: Do we approach Amanda to share our experiences as freelancers going through Unlock, and offer that they go through the tool kit with freelancers? Is there a way we can work with Inc Arts to create a way for freelancers to directly engage with the toolkit without having to adapt the provocations?
JO: In terms of sharing this toolkit opportunity with FMTW volunteers, do we have to take a targeted approach to individuals? Might there be a little bit of hand holding at the beginning to ensure this work is being done.
PM: Given the work that the Wednesday group are doing, is there value in working with Inc Arts to repurpose this document for freelancers?
JO: Could this be a funded project that we go ahead with?
AC: Amanda mentioned the potential of the freelancers targeted toolkit is already happening. Our position should be to support their amazing work.
JU: It is most likely that a targeting approach will be necessary to make sure these groups take off and all volunteers can match up with other volunteers that have similar availability times to go through the toolkit. However, this ‘hand holding’ might be seen as an unwillingness to do this work, which is can be an exhausting thought for the people in the group that suffer racism, so it is worth taking note of this.
PM: Agree that is disappointing on a piece of work like this there must be some hand holding, but we must also acknowledge that getting volunteers in the space at the moment is really difficult as capacity and wellbeing levels are low all round, so if this is the way to make sure this work happens then it is necessary.
JO: Is it necessary to have POCs in each group?
JU: The benefit of the toolkit is the conversations you have in these rooms, and the different perspectives that are brought in, so if there are only white voices in the room that is going to have an effect on the conversation, but you also don’t want to say there has to be a black or brown person in each room.
AC: There is also a lot of pressure put on any people of colour in a room to take the weight of those conversations and bring their own experience, and maybe trauma or stories into the room, and we shouldn’t expect that.
SH: The toolkit is structured in a way that it doesn’t require a black person or brown person to be in the room. There is also a potential that a conversation might be easier in a room of all white people as you can say all the dumb things you want to say without worrying that you will offend the black or brown people in the room.
JO: I would be up for being part of a new group to do the toolkit, but currently don’t have the capacity to set that up.
JU: Happy to send out an invite to get these groups set up, and connect volunteers who have the same availability. Unsure whether we will need to set up multiple Unlock accounts in order for each group to go through the toolkit, but will look into it.
ACTION POINT:
- Approach Amanda Parker about targeting the Inc Arts Unlock to freelancers – AC
- Reach out to volunteers specifically about setting up smaller groups to work through the Unlock toolkit with – JU
AOB
SOLT
PC: Have written a document aimed at safeguarding and good practice around employment. This puts us in a difficult position whilst we are working on a letter to them about David Pugh’s conduct, and therefore raises questions of accountability around a document like this.
We should add a new intro to the David Pugh letter to contextualise our predicament with this offer.
- Rewrite the intro to the David Pugh letter, send to SOLT – PC
- Share the SOLT offer with those at the current meeting for review – PC
People Make It Work
AC: Richard from People Make It Work has offered pro-bono support for HR and external support to FMTW. If there is specialist support with need from an individual within People Make It Work then the fee would be down to the individual providing and not necessarily pro-bono, but this is an amazing offer and will help greatly. We will still be looking to create a pot of money to contribute to external support in any cases where this pro-bono offer may not apply.
ACTION POINTS RECAP
- Write a thank you to Maria Bjornsen Fund to go out in newsletter/blog- PM
- Share Bristol Projects at Risk with freelancers – AC/JU
- Check wellbeing google form invite for accessibility – KA
- Send out wellbeing invites next week via newsletter and social media – AC
- Bat Signal to ask for input on MP’s letter main asks – AC
- Approach Amanda Parker about targeting the Inc Arts Unlock to freelancers – AC
- Reach out to volunteers specifically about setting up smaller groups to work through the Unlock toolkit with – JU
- Rewrite the intro to the David pugh letter, send to SOLT – PC
- Share the SOLT offer with those at the current meeting for review – PC