Membership policy
Interested in becoming
a member?
Join our mailing list and participate in at least four (4) of our bi-weekly meetings within one calendar year, and you’ll be eligible to join Means of Production as a member. Membership grants you voting privileges and access to administrative involvement, as well as access to our internal resources and programming.
You can start your path to membership at any time! Read below for more information on what it means to be a member.
meANS OF PRODUCTION MEMBERSHIP POLICY
Who We Are
We are a collective.
We will continue to use the term Collective while we build towards the status of Professional Association, Worker-Owned Co-op, or whatever next step is most appropriate. We will use the term Professional Association only if it can be eventually said that we represent the needs and interests of Individuals in Production Leadership and be held accountable for upholding our values and standards. We are still growing and learning and will update our status as we continue to evolve.
We do not seek formal affiliation with a larger organization at this time.
We are, however, seeking partnerships and support from a wide variety of organizations, especially Professional Associations and Unions such as Associated Designers of Canada, Canadian Actors Equity Association, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and Professional Association of Canadian Theatres. We will prioritize our independence and accountability in these conversations.
Membership Rights
Each member is entitled to an equal voice in our decision-making process.
All members have access to all materials, meetings, notes and minutes for all discussions.
Members are entitled to mentorship, education, and professional development opportunities, and a say in shaping what these opportunities are.
Members will be considered "in good standing" by attending an average of 1 meeting, workshop, work session, roundtable, or town hall per month, averaged over a 12 month period. It is understood that this requirement is flexible in nature, and that large work engagements may require a member to be unavailable to the Collective for months at a time.
Members are entitled to access any group plans or benefits arranged by the Collective, as they become available. These could include liability insurance, health insurance, benefits packages, etc. We anticipate that these will be a “buy-in” option, and that further research is needed. Priority will be given to those without access to these benefits elsewhere.
Members are entitled to equal access resources donated in-kind to the Collective, such as meeting and office space, gear for lend, etc.
Members are entitled to full access to all of the Collective's databases, including any documents, resources, templates, or listings created by the Collective, except where they may contain information of a sensitive or personal nature.
New members will gain access to the Collective's resources after attending one regular meeting, and having one orientation session with one or more standing members. New members will gain full privileges including voting after their 4th meeting or activity, including the orientation session.
membership Responsibilities
Collective culture
Members are responsible for upholding the Collective's Mission and Values.
These include commitment to healthy, safe, and equitable working practices - for themselves and the teams they manage and facilitate. This also includes committing to actions in pursuit of Anti-Oppression, Anti-Racism and Accountability.
Members are responsible for holding other members accountable to the values and terms of the Collective, and bring issues to the collective, until such a time as an Accountability Policy is put into place.
Members are responsible for supporting other members by sharing resources, advocating for each other, and engaging in open sharing of information.
Members are responsible for acting in solidarity with one another, through pay transparency and refusing work that undercuts other members.
Collective responsibility & leadership
Members are responsible for participating in discussions, attending meetings, and contributing to initiatives of the Collective, as they are available for such work.
All of our work is peer-reviewed, and everyone will have the opportunity to contribute. This will mean that our process will take longer, and that there is no “final” version of anything. Everything is up for review and revision at any time.
Our work is handled by a rotating and flexible team, and organized through a collaborative working model, in which all members involved will engage and share responsibilities, and will consult and inform the full membership throughout the process.
Members may opt in to perform administrative or project-specific roles, as available and as interested, so that no member holds a privileged position within the collective, and no one is held back from working in the field. The method by which administrative or project leadership roles are selected will be transparent and accessible.
Administrative commitments will be flexible responsibilities, and have a maximum term of 6 months, with an option to renew.
Members are entitled to fair compensation, as it is available, for all administrative labour. This includes research, outreach, copy editing, grant writing, and consultation. This could mean a fee, as funding becomes available, or other non-monetary compensation, commensurate with the task performed and as agreed upon by the Collective.
A fee schedule and hours tracking system for project-specific work will be included in our Standard Terms.
Each project/task, including admin, will involve an estimate of weekly hours required for the term of the engagement, to ensure that each member can accurately gauge the commitment and plan accordingly.
confidentiality
Members carry the responsibility of keeping sensitive or professionally privileged information confidential and anonymous. Internally-facing documents will be kept in confidence until such a time that they become shared publicly.
Members may request a private meeting to discuss any topic of a sensitive nature.
membership fees
Currently, MoP has no membership fee cost to the individual. Any future decisions to change this policy for the benefit of the collective will be made jointly by all collective members.
Budget and Finances
The Collective’s full Financial information, including the details of fees collected and/or dispensed, will be available to all members at all times.
The decisions related to the budget will be made in meetings specific to that topic, and voted on by the full membership. The budget will be tracked monthly and reviewed quarterly.
The funds to compensate members for their work, pay consultants, and other needs of the Collective will come from a combination of grants, donations, and fees charged by the Collective.
Generator Performance is providing financial administrative support for funds from our first grant in 2021.
Access and Accountability
In addition to establishing our Accountability policy, and to remain accountable to one another and to our larger community, we will hold regular Roundtable discussions. This process will lead to many additional commitments and strategies to stand behind our values and remain in open dialogue with our colleagues, collaborators, and communities.
Nonmembers, interested parties, community partners, and engagers will have access to a limited number of our documents in PDF form. This includes our Mission Statement, Statement of Values, and Standard Terms and Conditions - which includes a fee structure and job descriptions.
A list of members will be publicly available, both posted on our website to assist engagers in contacting a member of the Collective to hire, and via attribution on our external-facing documents, such as our Statement of Values.
To further enshrine our working Statement of Values, the collective will establish formal policies for Anti Harassment, Accountability and conflict resolution.
The Collective will welcome new members with an orientation session that will include a welcome, an introduction to our core documents (Mission Statement and Values, Standard Terms, etc) a discussion of our Membership Policy and working culture, and an opportunity to ask questions and get to know us a little better.
The Collective will attribute collectively-created documents to the individual members who contributed to them, (listed as “contributors”) but will be the shared Intellectual Property of the Collective.
Voting
Voting will be open to all members.
All decisions that are put forward for voting will have a voting period of at least 1 week. Deadlines will be enforced to encourage timely participation, but can be extended by request.
For major internal policy decisions such as adopting this policy, a unanimous consensus will be required; all voting members must agree. For most decisions, a 50% + 1 majority must be reached. Quorum in both cases is set at 10 members participating. This means that no action requiring a vote may be taken without the agreement of at least 6 members.
These numbers will be reevaluated annually or at membership reaching 30, whichever comes first.
Meetings
Members are entitled to participate in any and all of the Collective's meetings, conversations, and working sessions - including those about the shape and form of the Collective and its membership.
Regularly-scheduled bi-weekly meetings should be open and accessible to all, regardless of membership standing. It is understood that conversations of a more sensitive nature, including any discussions requiring confidentiality, will be held outside of our bi-weekly meetings.
All meetings will have the option to call in by phone or video.
At all meetings, one or more members will volunteer to take responsibility for managing video conferencing, the taking of minutes, and facilitating.
These decisions will be made at the top of each meeting.
The facilitator will first ask for amendments to the agenda, and will close each meeting by setting the proposed agenda for the subsequent meeting.
Currently the bi-weekly meetings are the second and fourth Monday evenings of each month from 6-8pm Eastern Time. Meeting times will be reviewed regularly to ensure that scheduling does not unfairly prohibit anyone from participating.