It’s a tough job, and, apparently, nobody wants to do it. Despite extending the deadline for nominations, seems nobody is interested in becoming the new president of the CMG’s Freelance Branch.
The office has been vacant for a few weeks, after past president Don Genova left to travel outside of Canada. Genova is a food columnist.
”I think the thing this showed us is we need to work on succession planning,” CMG staff representative Keith Maskell told InsideTheCBC.com. “We got caught a little flat-footed this time so we weren’t able to do all the searching and grooming that we’d have normally done.”
While the freelance branch is meant to represent all Canadian media freelancers, its largest group of members comes from within the CBC. More than 1,700 people have contributed freelance work to CBC in 2006. Maskell says the branch is keen to assist others. “We wanted to make sure that freelance issues both at the CBC and beyond become a political reality…. We want to find ways to get collective bargaining rights for all freelance content creators.”
In the absence of an elected president, the role will be filled until December 2007 by Amy Jo Ehman who left the CBC in 2000 to freelance. Maskell says help is still needed for committee work and interested parties can reach him at keith@cmg.ca.
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You have done quite a disservice to the Freelance Branch of the CMG. First of all, the position of president has not been vacant for even one day. Don Genova has not yet left the country, and we have made a seamless transition from one president to the next. True, no one stepped forward for a presidential election - including myself - because we knew if no one stepped forward that I, as vice-president, would assume the job automatically. That’s exactly what happened. Furthermore, I was not laid off in 1992. I was issued a layoff notice, but when the dust settled there was a job for me. I worked at CBC Radio and CBC TV in Saskatoon until 2000 (except for one year when I was abroad). I left the CBC in 2000 to freelance, but my ties remain strong with both the CBC and CMG. I freelance to national programs and produced a documentary for Ideas. I was a trustee of my union local for several years and vice-president of the Freelance Branch for the past two years. In that role, I sat on the negotiating committee that crafted the current freelance contract at the CBC. I also sit on the Joint Freelance Committee which includes freelancers, union representation and senior management. The Freelance Branch has been very proactive, creating an information pamphlet that has been sent to every active freelancer at the CBC, and a companion pamphlet for producers that will be issued soon. As well, we created a full guide to freelancing at the CBC which is, at this moment, in the hands of management for their input. We are always looking for freelancers who want to participate in our committee, or who need help sorting out problems with contracting and payments. I would greatly appreciate if you gave this update the benefit of a blog entry, because I fear too few people will choose to read the comments and your negative impression of the Freelance Branch will remain on the record. Thank you.
Hi Amy Jo,
Thanks for your comments. All the information I posted came from a telephone interview I conducted with the CMG’s own staff rep Keith Maskell. He hasn’t indicated to me that anything in the piece was inaccurate.
In response to your specific concerns:
> the position of president has not been vacant for even one day
Yes, I covered the story when it broke. I’m unclear on why this would be a concern to you — should I have held off posting something about it? I did not break any embargo; I actually found out about it on the CMG’s own web site.
> Don Genova has not yet left the country
The story does not say that he had. It says he he left the position to travel — a fact I verified with both Don and Keith prior to publication.
> no one stepped forward… because we knew
> that I, as vice-president, would assume the job automatically
Amy Jo, I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here. The CMG not only advertised for a President, it also extended the nomination deadline. Do I understand you to say that it was planned that nobody would run, so that you would assume the position?
> I was not laid off in 1992.
Then you should correct your bio with the Guild. The quote from my interview with the CMG’s spokesperson Keith Maskell: “She’s a former CBC worker. She was laid off in, I think, 1992.” I’m sorry that the story didn’t leave room for your entire bio, but I had believed the basics would suffice. I’m glad you’ve posted it.
Amy Jo, I’ve covered the Guild on this blog before with such stories as:
(In the latter story, I not only made mention of the extended deadline for freelance branch president, I even provided contact information for people wanting to become more involved in the Guild’s work.)
While I do understand that it might be embarrassing for the Guild that it wasn’t able to find a president (something Keith clearly felt when he told me “We got caught a little flat-footed,”) I find it hard to classify my coverage of the Guild as “negative.”
For the record, I am a card-carrying Guild member and a freelance contractor.