Hollywood Board Appoints Joliffe, Sparks New Controversies
Even if it weren’t – to say the least – irregular, the Hollywood Board’s action tonight installing Membership First’s David Joliffe to fill out the National Board term of Justine Bateman, who resigned, is a double-barrelled shot at the rest of the union. The Hollywood Board passed over Marcia Wallace, who is the alternate who had the next highest number of votes (42.31%) Â in the last election and reached down to Joliffe, who was dumped out of both his National and Hollywood board seats when Hollywood members overwhelmingly rejected his candidacy, with only 33.15% voting for him.
Why the unusual move? The Hollywood Board is still under the control of Membership First. Wallace is a member of Unite for Strength. Joliffe, who finished not just out of the money in the election but 54th, a full 21 positions behind the last selected alternate, is a stalwart of Membership First.
Joliffe is the former chair of the TV-Theatrical negotiating committee, the committee that was pushed aside in order to achieve a breakthrough on the TV-Theatrical agreement. He also is one of those who has been involved in incidents of disparagement of AFTRA.
Angry UFS and RBD members have called the move “outside the rules” and “shady.” However, after rereading the SAG Constitution, we can’t find any provision that explicitly prohibits it. Then again, maybe we missed it.
Ah, I said this on the other thread –read the constitution. Article V, Section 1, items K and L. There is clearly every intent to treat permenant replacement of a director as a very separate matter from the office of Alternate Director.
IMHO, this was just a silly a move on the part of MF. I always assumed they would pass over any UFS members for one of their own – fine, but why would they choose someone so divisive??? I don’t see how this helps their cause at all, I guess they really are employing a scorched earth policy.
Gosh, this reads like a violin with a too-high pitch. Let’s not kid ourselves. UFS will do the same if they gain power in Hollywood, replace one of their departing board members with a UFSer even if a MFer is next in the voting.
Joliffe is vastly more experienced with regards to contracts, governance, etc. than the UFS slate combined. Save your whining. The elections are coming soon. Who’s that UFS presidential candidate again?
Makes you wonder if Bateman fell on her sword for just this outcome.
Bateman fell on her sword, as it were. UFS has considerably more integrity than MF and yes Joliffe has experience at being divisive. They love him because he has an extraordinarily cynical brain.
But more to the point, I don’t think he has every been an elected National Director and its been many years since he was elected higher than the 14th alternate.
Hollywood Board of WHAT? Surely no longer a valid part of SAG….
Please let me amend my last statment: Hollywood SAG members are absolutly valid and vital – Hollywood Board NOT!
Oh look, the unelected one has again arrived
the bridesmaid known as Jolly
but not even voters in his own tribe
will put up with much more of his folly.
No matter, say those MF clowns
with Jolly we’re ready to rumble
but the blustering bloviator of the quasi-profound
like Humpty, will certainly tumble.
Because you can break all the rules
and stack all the decks
you can plan on the fools
writing blank checks…
But little by little, they’re catching on
to the mad little stoner; to his NFL beau.
to Jolly, now come, and Bateman, now done…
And in September, they’ll let them all go.
It’s no suprise that MF puch Jolliffe – in fact, most of us were expecting it. MF will never change its colors.
Who’s the Membership First presidential candidate, for that matter?
I certainly DO HOPE UFS will “do the same when they gain power.”
Last time MF bought the farm – after their 2000 strike debacle -
they were allowed to survive
and allowed to be on committees, etc.
THAT egg surely should have been crushed in the shell.
But, you know, like they say – “Never Again.”
Unfortunately, it’s up to the Hollywood members to make a stink. They should not be burdened with having to be the watchdogs and then go through stopping every slight of hand MF Cult members try to pull off. At some point members of SAG should be able to trust that their reps are doing their job.
Marisa
The rules governing this are not in the Constitution per se.
They are in each Division’s Rules of Procedure.
It has been past practice in Hollywood to replace Alternates with members-at-large (like Jolliffe),
and to replace National Board members with the next Alternate “in line.”
So much for past practice.
Membership First will scream like holy hell when this is pulled on them
and they’ll have this (impotent) instance thrown back in their faces.
Each time they pull a gotcha like this it will return to haunt them.
As for this (impotent) instance – it merely shows their colors.
Does Hollywood division have its own bylaws separate from the SAG constitution? Are they published somewhere on the net?
It is certainly reasonable practice –and indeed shows a due deference to the electorate– to offer the post to “the next Alternate” when a perm replacement is in the cards. But the Constitution is clear on the point of Alternate Director being its own thing. Presumably because some members are willing/qualified to serve as Alternate that may not be willing/able to serve as Director. Tho probably many of those who would be willing to serve as Alternate but not Director would be those not in the Hollywood division (travel and such).
Each Division has its own Rules of Procedure.
I’ve seen them only in the Orientation/Reference Manual
which is available to each Director at the October Plenary.
So, then the Hollywood Division Rules of Procedure are available to Marcia Wallace (the alternate) and the SAG legal staff. If she and other UFS board members in Hollywood see a problem, can they bring it to the National Board? Or must they deal with it within the Division?
Are the Hollywood Division Rules of Procedure available to the public?
Wow. Another reason the SAG body should vote these bozos off the board. It is obvious, from this maneuver, that they have absolutely no respect for the membership at large.
Matthew, the voting membership of SAG made it very clear that they did not want David Joliffe on the board. Walk into any commercial casting session with actors who lived through the 2000 strike and just ask. No one’s arguing about his experience or the fact that he is extremely knowledgeable, but his interpretation of all those facts is quiet often just stunningly wrong. You, on the other hand, are just plain ignorant of UFS and the organization’s intentions: completely wrong and based on assumed information that you know nothing about.
From what I understand, long standing precedent before MF grabbed control of the union, was that the departing board member would name his/her successor. MF changed it so that they could insure their continued majority presence on the board. Ms. Bateman did not name a successor, so logic and respect for the MEMBERSHIP would assume that the next highest vote getter should be elevated. Obviously, the membership of MF is so desperate to hang on to their current Hollywood board majority and National minority that they’ll continue with their tired political and strategic mistakes. And we, the membership, continue to pay the price.
Ah, so your best defense for ignoring the will of the voters in the election is that “you would have done it if you could?”
Way to take the high road, Matthew.
Joliffe’s experience wasn’t enough to get him elected in the first place, or even land an alternate slot, but let’s overlook how the voting membership feels about him because he’s one of us?
Ignoring the electorate’s decision?
Sounds a lot like an actual coup, doesn’t it, Matthew?
Marisa & Tom, I just found HW rules on sag.org under “about us”. Go to governance, then Constitution & by-laws and scroll down to Division Rules. I don’t see anything there that can stop this. I hope it backfires on them.
Hollywood, New York, and RBD Rules of Procedure can be downloaded here: http://www.sag.org/node/4
The Hollywood rules provide only that for permenant replacements of National Directors that the remaining Hollywood Division National Directors (or an Alternate sitting for them) shall vote on the successor. For a perm replacement of a Hollywood Division National Alternate Director, the entire Hollywood Board votes.
–
Admin. Comment – Correct. And because there is nothing in the SAG Constitution that covers this, the Hollywood rules control. That’s why what Membership “First” did is legal, even if it’s really putting the membership’s wishes last.
Admin, I’m a big believer in the concept that “having the right to do something doesn’t make it the right thing to do”. Not everything has to be criminalized to make it appropriate to say “dude, wtf were you thinking?” and hold representatives accountable.
“Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked around. It was Clover. Her old eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she tugged gently at his mane and led him round to the end of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood gazing at the tarred wall with its white lettering.
“My sight is failing,” she said finally. “Even when I was young I could not have read what was written there. But it appears to me that the wall looks different. Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?”
For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.”
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1946
Seems to me the general Hollywood membership had better wake up. But then, apathy always has been a problem until it’s too late. Maybe the time has passed and it’s too late now?
Beat the drums, rouse the animals and vote the pigs out!
Hey – thanks for that – I wasn’t scrolling down far enough.
Ha! How ironic, David Jolliffe, of the so-called “hard line” Membership First slate, can’t get elected to the SAG Hollywood Board, even as an alternate.
However, he can get easily get elected to the Hollywood AFTRA Board!
AMJ got the second highest number of votes, in the AFTRA National Board election.
Wow Scally…great job! And right on target!!!
The “Admin. Comment” (whomever she or he may be) admits:
“That’s why what Membership “First†did is legal”
So why the bloated “CONTROVERSIES” headline?
–
Admin. Response: Because legal isn’t the same as uncontroversial. BTW, the original post said it was legal, too. Legal, but controversial just the same. Putting someone back on the board who’d been voted off by the membership? That’s putting membership last.
‘Joliffe drafted!!’…As my “spidey senses” told me back on my July 3rd post under the ‘Bateman, “I quit”‘ banner.
What should surprise none of us is the MF playbook is almost completely predictable.
Just remember this rule of thumb: *If its the logical, reasonable, right thing to do in the best interest of the members, MF will do the total opposite with a righteous, unwarranted sense of entitlement!
Erik –
I know you to be a liberal-minded egalitarian who stands for the rights of the electorate. How could you favor such shenanigans? Don’t you realize that the wishes of SAG Hollywood voters were just trashed in a most egregious fashion? You may be thinking, “He’s Membership First. He’s on my side. Hurray!” But does that make this shady, unfair action right? What would you think if you were a friend of Marcia Wallace or Dule Hill? Do you really think Jolliffe’s a friend of yours? That he’s a square player? How could you condone such behavior?
Is there another national board meeting scheduled before October? Presumably this now means Jolliffe could attend if so.
VG
VG -
There is an National Board meeting on Saturday, July 25.
VG,
He could always sign Written Assents in the meantime. If he was asked politely, I mean.
I always amazes me, the amount of ignorace displayed on this Board.
From the Screen Actors Guild Constitution: ARTICLE V, Section 1. Paragraph K, Sub-paragraph 3.
(3.) In the case of a permanent vacancy in the New York or Hollywood Divisions, the Division Board of Directors of the Division in which that vacancy exists shall have the power to fill such vacancy from the membership of that Division provided that the member chosen as that replacement must be qualified to be a candidate for, and
hold, that office pursuant to this Article. Any such Permanent Replacement shall thereafter serve as a Director until the next annual election in accordance with the Division Rules of Procedure.
As Justine’s term of office expires with this election, Jollife will have to run in September to secure the seat on his own merit.
I’ve thought so all along. No one in MF ever acts alone. Everything is strategized and staged.
So this is a typical MF ‘one-two punch,’ carefully choreographed.
V.
Joliffe, though never elected to the NB, is almost ALWAYS in the room.
It’s the old traditional ‘MF Scramble’ when they – after each election – determine who of those MF elected is going to fall out so they can move Joliffe up, and back into the room.
Member voters decision be damned.
V.
Asking questions and inquiring about the legal imperatives in a situation or act are not anywhere NEAR ‘ignorant.’
To be IGNORANT is to act with an arrogant righteousness and contempt toward those legitimately seeking information.
V.
I think it does make a difference that the seat is on the verge of expiring anyway, so far as determining just how much outrage should be exhibited over this. The voters can have their say soon enough.
What’s the essential difference between having Justine Bateman vote the way David Jolliffe says to, or just having Jolliffe vote that way himself? Cuts out the middleman, so to speak.
VG
careful who you call ignorant, Terence. At least no one here is threatening anyone.
“What’s the essential difference between having Justine Bateman vote the way David Jolliffe says to, or just having Jolliffe vote that way himself?”
Voiceguy-
Are you implying that Justine, or anyone else on the board, is some puppet that is controlled by David Joliffe, of all people? Now THAT is the most ignorant thing I have ever heard. Justine is not exactly the type to let others make decisions for her.
And as Geo noted, who cares, as David will have to earn a seat on his own merit in 2 months anyway? It seemed that a couple weeks ago, when Justine resigned, this very space said it would not affect the balance of power since MF will appoint her replacement for the short term. Why the faux outrage?
Matthew, the inference is the MF vote in lock-step…and it doesn’t matter who fills the seat – MF only/always vots as a unit…with the exception of Keith Carradine.
Matthew,
Justine Bateman did turn her voting device over to Angel Tompkins during the 28 hour filibuster meeting, so suggesting that she was merely a puppet for someone has some justification, don’t you think? The only real difference was that Angel Tompkins was the one deciding how Bateman’s vote would go, rather than Joliffe. At least with Joliffe’s hand on the level, we know it won’t be the spirit of Jimmy Cagney pushing yea or nay.
“As Justine’s term of office expires with this election, Jollife will have to run in September to secure the seat on his own merit.”
He has no merit.
And William Katt. Which is why you won’t see them again on an MF slate.
And Joliffe is not just a puppeteer, he is their main strategist and voice. He, at least, can restrain himself from flippng the bird to people he doesn’t like.
Let’s remove these sour grapes from the vine once and for all come next election. This is another flagrant abuse of power and a disgusting display of how little the will of the membership means to these people. They should enjoy their “last stand” while they are still in office…because the time is coming to cut these arrogant losers down to size.
David Jolliffe seems like a decent man, dedicated to serving actors and the Screen Actors Guild. He has demonstrated a unsurpassed knowledge of the the contract. Mr. Jolliffe also has lots of experience with contract negotiations.
That being said, the strategy that was used by SAG, during the past couple of years, was a disaster. If it was his strategy, I don’t know. He seemed to have an inordinate influence on SAG. But if it was his disastrous strategy, it lead to AFTRA taking over the majority of the TV shows, this coming season. He should be held responsible.
Who’s Terrence Beasor?
You don’t know?
I do.
It was his strategy.
“Inordinate” is a good word for it.
“Disastrous” is also a good word for it.
“Responsible” isn’t a word he uses followed by the words “I am.”
Joliffe and McCord have been the main strategist for MF and the policies that have crippled SAG have been their babies.
Good question.
http://www.sagwatch.net/2009/07/beasor-censured-by-sag-trial-board/