FREELANCERS MAKE THEATRE WORK MEETING: FRIDAY 26 NOVEMBER
Chair: Leigh Toney
Minutes: Josie Underwood
Present: Leigh Toney, Josie Underwood, Jake Orr, Prema Mehta, Peter McKintosh, Paul Carey Jones, Freddie Crossley, Kelsie Acton
Apologies: Alistair Cope, Paule Constable, Sunita Hinduja
Updates and reports
Big 12 funding letter
We have sent out a letter to large NPO’s in England to ask for annual donations, a lot of whom have recently received CRF funding. This was raised at last weeks meeting and it was decided that we would send out these emails asap, as a lot of these orgs have recently received CRF funding and will be planning their budgets for the next financial year. We also have an initiative incase they get back to us saying they can’t help directly with funds to ask them to host and facilitate meetings and events with wealthy individuals who might be interested in donating to FMTW.
JU: We are going to set up separate meetings to talk about Scotland and Wales (particularly making sure we are not stepping on Cultural Freelancers Wales toes!) – anyone is welcome and encouraged to join these conversations.
Prema M: How many signatures did we get?
JU: 16!
Shout outs to Jake, Paule, Al, Beth and Josie for getting this done! And big thank you to Peter and his husband who helped with a rejiggle at the end!
FC: Really exciting! When do you hope to receive donations and what will this lead to?
JO: We hope for this to be an annual donation from each NPO which will go towards our core costs, and then we will only need to fundraise project by project.
VM: I would like to be involved in the conversation about wealthy individual givers.
Action points:
- Devolved nations meetings to talk about individual approach – anyone to join!
Agenda Points
Freelancer anti-racism training – lobbying and FMTW offer
JU: We have recently been working through the Inc Arts unlock toolkit and recently the idea of committing to ongoing anti-racism training has come up and only employing people who have recently undergone anti-racism training, which has instigated conversations about the accessibility of these sorts of professional development training to freelancers. This encompasses the fact that even when freelancers have access to training through organisations even if it is offered for free the freelancers are often not paid for their time, making it inaccessible to some freelancers. We have discussed the possibilities of offering training to freelancers through FMTW, lobbying organisations to make sure they are offering freelancers access to training (and paying them!) and talking to unions like Equity and BECTU to ask that, if organisations are going to start requiring anti-racism training in their hiring, that they (Equity, BECTU and organisations) begin offering the training.
Peter M: Is payment necessary for this training? Should the onus of this be on the organisations?
JU: In the context of FMTW we could probably offer the training for free, but the conversation was acknowledging that if employees of organisations are being paid for their time when doing these trainings, that this offer be extended to freelancers as well, or it could act as a barrier to employment.
LT: Bookending for freelancers on projects – there is often an evaluation form sent out, but no paid evaluation period or introduction period on individual projects. Could this be something we lobby for?
VM: Ethical industry effort, if the freelance community don’t have access to the same trainings then it is exclusionary.
Prema M: If the Big 12/NPOS respond to say they cannot fund, can we reply with a suggestion that they invest in training for their contracted freelancers.
FC: How do we ensure the training is helpful and not damaging? We don’t want to point freelancers to inadequate training.
JU: This is definitely a consideration. Our angle would be making sure that freelancers have equal access to training as employees. Starting the conversation is important!
FC: It is also important to ensure that we don’t do more damage by pointing people to unvetted training.
VM: Can we bring this to Inc Arts? Also, recently got an email about Mental Health First Aid courses – will share!
JU: This is definitely a conversation about joining the dots and working with unions, orgs and trainers to make sure this is accessible for freelancers. We are also not the ones to be doing the anti-racism training ourselves!
Action points:
- Talk to Inc Arts about training offers
- Talk to Equity and BECTU about providing training for freelancers
- Vicki to share Mental Health First Aid courses with Josie and wider group!
ACE survey
JU: ACE have recently launched a survey focused on financial implications from the pandemic. We were worried that this had not been shared with freelancers, and therefore the data will be unreliable from a freelancer perspective. We have contacted them to see if they would like us to share with freelancers, and we would like to have a continued conversation with ACE about supporting freelancers. Anyone welcome!
Action points:
- Set up meeting with Joe from ACE
AOB
ACE Project delivery monies
JO: We have been fortunate to secure a discretionary grant from ACE. This project needs to be delivered before March 2021. We need to start a project group to make sure that we are delivering this on time.
- Grant will cover:
- Otter.ai, Audio description, Closed Captioning, BSL
- Skills based workshops; taxes, unions, EDI training
- Big Freelancer Survey; promo, delivery
- Person to support the delivery of this work
ACE would like us to keep them in the loop for BFS and skills workshops.
Prema M: Do you know how often and contact time for this project?
JO: It will be dependent on the group and will be freelance friendly.
FC: Is there a written proposal for this project?
JO: Josie will share in chat and with the wider group
FC: Do we need to be involved in every aspect of the project?
JU: No, the team can work in a bespoke/freelancer way, but we would have a project leader.
VK: If it is paid, do we need to advertise the project lead role?
JO: BFS group already exists,
JU: Please get involved in BFS if interested!!
Leigh and Prema interested!
Action points:
- Create a project group to deliver this project
- Josie to share ACE proposal as project description
- Josie to set up a meeting to discuss the projects – no strings attached!
Sunita’s craft sunday
2-6pm, Sunday 28th Nov 2021. Drop in crafting afternoon!! Come along!
Action Points:
- Josie to share invite to Sunita’s Sunday in slack and minutes!
ACE Symposium
VM: 1pm 2nd Dec – People Make It Work have been invited to an interview with ACE. There would be hope for a prior meeting before the 2nd with the affiliated teams. If anyone would like to come along, please let Vicki know.
JU: When would the ‘prior’ meeting be?
VM: Not sure at the moment, will all be on the hoof
Offers from Freddie and Jake to join
Action points:
- Vicki to send application to Josie to be shared
New MP’s letter template
PCJ: In brexit and lobbying slack channel – should be ready in the next week or so, sharpen your pencils!!
ACTION POINTS RECAP
- Devolved nations meetings – anyone to join!
- Talk to Inc Arts about training offers
- Talk to Equity and BECTU about providing training for freelancers
- Vicki to share Mental Health First Aid courses with Josie and wider group!
- Set up meeting with Joe from ACE – anyone to join!
- Create a project group to deliver this project
- Josie to share ACE proposal as project description
- Josie to set up a meeting to discuss the projects – no strings attached!
- Josie to share invite to Sunita’s Sunday in slack and minutes!
- Vicki to send application to Josie to be shared