Dear Members,
I wanted to reach out to all of you to address the need to postpone our assembly yesterday afternoon due to major technical difficulties.
When it comes to our assemblies, it is important to point out that all members are entitled to participate and if you were on the Zoom part of the meeting today, you understand that it was just not working and the technical issues were numerous.
The questions that are in front of us are pivotal and in a very real sense will dictate what our union looks like a year from now, five years from now and into the future. Under the circumstances, a motion to adjourn was the only sensible thing to do.
A vote was held amongst the participants and the majority was in favour to end the meeting and reschedule it on another date.
We will regroup, learn from our mistakes, and bring everyone together to meet and discuss the questions before us. Only then, when everyone fully understands the decisions, we are being asked to make, can we make those choices.
We will say that the Zoom platform is a good one and many of us have participated in countless meetings throughout this pandemic that have all run very smoothly.
Many locals across Canada have used the platform with successful “Town Hall” meetings and webinar’s and have seen increased participation from their memberships. We regret the technical issues that plagued our assembly today and assure you that our next meeting will be technically successful and hope that many of you will participate, to ask questions and make yourselves informed on the issues.
In solidarity,
Daniel Matthews
President
IATSE 514
