Chair: Josie Underwood
Minutes: Alistair Cope
Present: Josie Underwood, Alistair Cope, Paul Carey Jones, Paule Constable, Vicki Mortimer, Bill Bankes-Jones, Peter McK, Mimi Doulton
Apologies: Freddie Crossley,
Arrival time: 9.30-11.30am
- Welcome & introductions (9.30-9.40)
FMTW Values & Anti-racism statement
(2 values to be randomly generated and read out and anti-racism commitment to be read out)
Values 4 and 5 were read out and we started the meeting by declaring how we’d liked to be cooked if we were a potato.
- Updates & reports: (9.40-10.00)
- Freelancer Community Rep project (JU)
Work has continued during the week with many different members and we’ve moved it on quite a way. There has been a lot of thinking behind it but there has been a bold adjustment to the plan.
Please see working doc: Link
We discussed that a monthly meeting is not as beneficial as weekly meetings to the FCR will be asked to commit to weekly hour meetings rather than a monthly 2 hour meeting.
There will be a weekly rolling agenda that is added to during the week and then discussed at the meeting.
These meetings will not be about ‘how FMTW is run’ but very much around the topics affecting freelancers. Internal FMTW structure discussions etc are separate.
The first invite for the pilot will be from the pool of people who have previously worked within FMTW rather than people who are completely new to us. We will then open it up after the pilot has been analysed.
Reps will attend the weekly meeting and we be required to be up to speed on the discussions included in the agenda.
There would be an invite to the whatsapp active channel.
The weekly meetings are open to anyone so people can volunteer their time for it.
Monthly meetings will continue but those will probably be ‘updates only’ meetings as the main discussions will have been happening during the weekly meetings.
Pilot to start in January and we’re looking at 9-10am on Thursday.
We are looking at the budget and will revise the fee up as the new proposal requires more investment.
VM – We must make sure that the FCR pilot people are aware that they also need to input into how the pilot is going during their time.
PC – Can we look at ‘paying it forward?’ If people don’t want to be paid for their time etc.
PMc – Is the ask that people have to commit to these four meetings a month?
JU – We want commitment but we also want to be freelance friendly so it they can’t come, we should be able to accommodate that.
PMc – My immediate thought is that an ask of once a week is too much, could we look at once a fortnight.
JU – That’s the point of the pilot, to find out what works and what doesn’t. We want to head into it with the big ask and then see what is possible.
MD – Its a pilot and we don’t have to get it all right, now.
VM – We’ll need a good (but brief) description about what a meeting could look like and what it feels like to be in this room. Also a good list of FAQs that could be a living document.
MD – we should discuss how we encourage people who have taken part in the FCR programme to stay as volunteers and how that process works.
- Structural work (JU)
Lobbying group – We’re proposing to pay the lobbying group alongside the FCR. They will be paid per meeting ad hoc which we hope will support people to continue to attend the lobbying meetings and perhaps encourage others to also. We’d have to budget and cap the amount of people we send into a space. People can still volunteer their time.
Project work – would also be paid ad hoc (like The Big Freelancer Survey and the workshops etc)
The board – We’ve had a lot of meeting about who and what the board is. The board needs to understand the values and activity of FMTW. Keeping the staff and ongoing activity in line with the values of FMTW. They are there to make sure FMTW sticks within our charitable aims and support that.
PC – The board have a financial responsibility to make sure we spend the money wisely and conform to our charitable aims.
Structure doc (ongoing) – Link
PC – Can we make sure the decision making process is included in this doc?
- Digital update (AC) – website redesign is on track and should be complete by end of November
- Comms update (PCJ) – two newsletter on the boil. Working in Europe and the spotlight changes.
- Agenda points (10.00-11.15)
- The Stage: ‘I’m looking to speak to playwrights on how shifts in theatre leadership models might impact writers’
-JU forwarding to Beth and Chino.
Break 10.25-10.35
- Action points (11.15-11.20)
JU – Induction plans and callout plans for FCR
JU – Budget for FCR
JU – Ask bat signal what the best time for FCR meetings are.
- AOB (11.20-11.30)
-ABTT offer. Emma cameron is going to represent FMTW at both the upcoming JACE meeting and TSC meeting.
Joint Advisory Committee for Entertainment (JACE) – we have been invited to attend these meetings as FMTW. They are part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and discuss all things Health and Safety in the entertainment sphere (including film, TV, gaming and even performing animals). They meet 3 times a year and the next meeting is 9th November.
National Theatre Safety Committee – like the above, we have also been offered a seat in this room. It is very much about health and safety in the workplace again but this is specifically for theatre. It is currently attended by SOLT, UK Theatre, Equity, Bectu, The ALSD, THE ABTT and a few others. This is the room that discusses guidances notices and helps propose and write new ones which the ABTT then action and send out to theatres, organisations and bodies regarding health and safety in the workplace. This also includes mental health guidance notices. This group meets 4 times a year.
-Paule is going to pursue a response from Cameron Macintosh about the Just Stop Oil discussion.