AGM Chair’s report 2025
One of the things I said at the regional AGM was that we needed, as a branch, to define an MO to move forward and to increase turnout at meetings. I was trying not to be pessimistic, just pragmatic, which is a word I uttered a few times, I think. We’ve clearly fulfilled what you’d expect of a union branch in terms of guest speakers, updates and trying to inform members of what is current in the profession.
Our monthly speakers over the year have provided positive and entertaining contributions to individual and branch skills, knowledge and understanding and they have kept us fully informed of the campaigns and issues being addressed by the union.
We need to do more than the minimum that a union member would expect, and we have, and I therefore think that we are moving towards an MO that is more assertive and confident.
We are developing an overall pattern of artist development, support and networking. The June and September events showed that when real needs are addressed and where there is an offer (not just food) people will show up. We need to continue the momentum in this regard and our programme through to February is supporting this objective.
· The podcasts have been innovative and exploit a real need for short, lively and informative dissemination of issues. Questions are answered in a way that reflect current social media contexts – we need to get them seen and heard!
Having said that we still need a critical mass of regular attendance at branch meetings and an active membership above and beyond the core committee members. They have done an outstanding job in building the branch and I want to personally thank the retiring committee for their support over the past year – Gillian as Treasurer, Eleanor as Variety Officer and Mel and Ken, without portfolio active committee members. I include also Ian and Vijay, who always give unwavering and total support to our efforts.
But going forward we need to
· Consolidate the new committee by defining roles more clearly (without losing our collective approach)
· We need to develop a cadre of student members and reps. There are clear reasons for this in terms of a continuing active base to the branch, and in digging deeper and earlier into the professional and creative context of the region
· Strengthen further our engagement and expertise with social media and comms generally
· We need to re-define and inspire a New Variety approach that could attract new younger artists working in the various skillsets into union activity – the showreel event is attempt to kickstart this
· And in common with a lot of relatively new, geographically spread-out branches, we need to have a policy about where we meet, whether this is one central location to provide stability or peripatetically to provide coverage and maximise reach
None of this represents a lack of optimism or celebration, more a sense of pragmatic development.
Kim Gillespie
Chair Equity East Midlands Branch October 2025