Sole Tuesday

Today was a lengthy morning in the office talking to lawyers, members and studio reps, a shorter afternoon at a studio.

This is pretty much the shape of most workdays. Office work (phone calls, e-mails, meetings with members) followed by studio visits, followed by more office work. The high points of today's festivities:

* A member comes in and we spend an hour going over his personal service contract. I explain that because the company has a start date but no end date for his services, the Animation Guild considers it an "At Will" agreement, meaning that the studio can give him notice when it wants, and he can give the studio notice when it wants. (Some studios don't consider personal service agreements without end dates to be "at will." TAG does.)

* I'm on the phone multiple times with a Disney rep. He gives me a "heads up" about an employee who is being terminated (I already suspect the employee was soon to be let go). Then we discuss 401(k) Plan stuff.

And then I tell him about the ongoing Uncompensated Overtime issues at Disney and elsewhere. He assures me that the production people in animation have been told that time cards need to be filled out accurately, and that overtime will be granted when artists come to get approval. (Problem solved!)

* A Century City lawyer calls me about a high-profile industry person coming into membership. We mail paperwork out.

* A story board revisionist calls about his possible promotion to production board artist. We chew the subject over. He's aware of the iron deadlines.

* Lunch.

* I visit Cartoon Network. Flash animators tell me about weekend freelance jobs ("lots of work out there."). Artist talks to me about getting stiffed to the tune of a few thousand dollars by Educational Adventures (a non-signator studio that produces Danger Rangers). I tell him we're trying to get them to pay, but don't have a lot of leverage (they're non-signator, after all). I tell artist there are many other stiffees besides him.

I return to the office and return more phone calls. Get ready for an executive board meeting.

(Hulett will be out of the office the balance of the week, blogging from an undisclosed location. Which explains the "Sole Tuesday" title above.)