Nominations for Animation Guild President, Vice President, Business Representative, Recording Secretary, Sergeant-at-Arms and 11 Executive Board seats took place at the General Membership Meeting on Sept. 24. The meeting was attended by more than 200 Animation Guild members.
Members can meet the candidates and ask questions at a Candidate Forum on Oct. 22, 2019, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. Additional reminders will be forthcoming.
A Special Election edition of the Pegboard presenting candidate statements will be available in mid-October.
Candidates for Executive Board officers (in the order nominated) are as follows:
President
Jeanette Moreno King (currently on the Executive Board)
Gavin Dell
Vice President
Jack Thomas
Candice Stephenson (currently on the Executive Board)
Business Representative
Steve Kaplan (currently on the Executive Board)
Recording Secretary
Paula Spence (incumbent)
Lee Crowe
Sergeant-at-Arms
Robert St. Pierre (incumbent)
In addition to the nominations for officers, 25 members are running for 11 open positions on The Animation Guild Executive Board. The nominees (in the order nominated) are as follows:
Greg Colton David DePasquale
Richard Arons Gavin Freitas
Stephen Silver Michael Milo
Crystal Kan Emily Walus
Cynthia Petrovic Ashby Manson
Eugene Salandra Elisa Phillips
K.C. Johnson (current President) Spencer Knapp (inc.)
Morgan Ducker John Cusumano
Roger Oda Jason Mayer (inc.)
David Gemmill Jorge Garcia
Brandon Jarratt (inc.) Laura Hohman
David Shair Carrie Liao
Ryan Khatam
* Inc. denotes an incumbent candidate
Seven nominees were disqualified in accordance with the rules outlined by The Animation Guild Constitution and By-Laws (Article 6, Section 1, pg. 8). The TAG Executive Board offered individuals an opportunity to appeal the ruling, and the process was reviewed by lawyer Michael Feinberg of Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers, to ensure eligibility requirements were followed appropriately. Executive Board members with conflicts of interest recused themselves from the hearings. This appeals process was an important part of ensuring that the Animation Guild is conducting the 2019 TAG elections in as fair and inclusive a manner as possible while upholding labor law and our constitutional requirements.
As outlined by The Animation Guild’s Constitution, the American Arbitration Association (AAA), a third-party vendor entrusted with ensuring the integrity of the election, will mail out ballots on Oct. 21, 2019. Only active members who have paid their 2019 4thquarter dues by 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2019 will be eligible to vote. For the avoidance of any doubt, individuals must have fully paid all dues, assessments, and fees and must have fulfilled all their obligations for becoming members, including returning a completed membership application to the union office for processing and having that application successfully processed. Membership is dependent on all parts of the membership process being completed successfully! Ballots will be counted at the AAA’s Los Angeles office on Nov. 9, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. On the Monday following the count, the results will be posted on the Animation Guild website and announced via email. A motion and vote took place at the meeting to acknowledge Robert St. Pierre as the winner of the Sergeant-at-Arms office, an uncontested seat, so his name will not appear on the ballot. For more information on election procedure, visit our news page.
If you have any questions about your membership status, please call the union office at 818-845-7500 or email membership@tag839.org. We want all those that are eligible to vote in the upcoming election!