Welcome to fall and hopefully cooler weather!

October is busy for our Local, and I hope you all will  attend the upcoming Zoom event on Oct. 7, Your Rights, Your Representation: Navigating SAG-AFTRA Agency Rules. 

This workshop is important, whether you already have an agent or not, and will be led by Zino Macaluso, SAG-AFTRA national director/senior counsel, professional representatives.

Mid-month is one of my favorite things happening in our Local right now, our monthly Coffee Chats.

What started as a simple way to get together has turned into exactly what we had hoped it would be: members and pre-members connecting, talking shop, asking questions, sharing what is happening in their corner of the industry and, yes, occasionally just sitting down with people who actually understand why we willingly chose this business.

And the best part? It is growing.

We are not just gathering in Dallas. Our members in Oklahoma and Arkansas are getting together too, and I love seeing those connections happening across our entire Local.

Our next Coffee Chats are Oct. 10, when we’ll be in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Little Rock. I hope you will come out. You do not need an agenda. You do not need a union crisis. You do not need to prepare remarks. And you don’t need to RSVP.

Just come have coffee.

Then, on Oct. 11 at 2 p.m., we have our annual membership meeting. And yes, I know “membership meeting” may not sound quite as exciting as “coffee,” but hear me out. This is where you get to know what is actually happening in your union, ask questions, hear updates and have a say in the work we are doing.

Because this union belongs to all of us.

Which brings me to something I really want to encourage: Get involved. Join a committee. Volunteer. Serve in a leadership role. Raise your hand.

I know some of you are thinking, “I do not know enough about the union to do that.” Neither did most people when they started, including myself. But you learn by getting in the room. You don’t need to know every contract, every Roberts Rule or every piece of union history. You just need to care about your fellow members, be willing to listen and be willing to do the work. And if you have ever complained about something and thought, “Somebody should do something about that…” 

Congratulations. You may have just nominated yourself for a committee. That is how involvement starts. 

Show up. Ask questions. Meet people. Find something you care about and put your energy behind it. Our Local is stronger when more voices are at the table, and there is room at that table for you.

So I hope I see you at Zino’s event, our Coffee Chats on Oct. 10, at our membership meeting on Oct. 11, and maybe even serving alongside us in a committee or leadership role soon.

And yes, I will probably be asking, “So … what committee are you joining?”

In solidarity,

Nikki Dixon

Dallas-Fort Worth Local President