after all the complaining...

It is www.iatse51.org
for those of you with memory loss...

Local 51 Website Online

Received an email this morning and, lo and behold, the website is back. Where is the forum would be the next question? Evil Santa are ya listening?

Helix Nebula

Is it just us or does this look like someone is watching?

Just in case you were wondering...

The Local 51 web site should be online in the next week. If not, the forum will go where it has gone before and give you the Local news.

A Friend of the Arts passes on

I. W. Marks passed away Tuesday. A long time resident of Houston, a business man with a great flair for promotion and a major supporter of the Arts. He gave of his time, his money and his presence to help many organizations become the solid producers they are today.
We offer our condolences to his family and our thanks for giving us such an exceptional member of our community. He will be missed.

new iatse51 website team

We hopefully will be seeing a new dimension to the Locals website. Good luck to the committee and to the contributors. Thanks to Jeff Lanes who has made the transition easy.

Stagecraft

What are your thoughts on how to improve our stagecraft? How do we correct and improve the way we do our jobs?

Remembering Doyle Hodges

In response to one of our brothers, who honestly signs his comments, we offer up his suggested topic.
Write a few words or relate a story about the man, the legend, Doyle Hodges, who had quite a few stories of his own.

Getting Back on Topic

In trying to get our education program back on track, who do you think the President should name to head the committee and who do you think should teach the classes?

Who wants to know?

Judging by the intelligent and articulate responses to the last post, is it any wonder that the quality has reached a new low? The only way that people are able to get away with minimal effort is by allowing ourselves to pretend it isn't happening. We really try to understand what makes the people with any kind of perspective continue to beat their heads against the wall when it would be so much easier to join in and become a drone. Good luck with any kind of aspirations with a vision so constricted it makes constipation look enjoyable.

Great Jim!

Jim you win the award for both the first and most productive comment on the last topic. Training is a great idea Jim. We used to have training of sorts. It was pretty bad.
So todays questions:
Have we ever had a class you learned something from?
Who taught it?
What should we be teaching?
How do you get a Journeyman who already has a position on the active work roster and gets plenty of work watching skilled stagehands work come in and learn basic stagecraft?
How much does a clove hitch degrade the strength of the rope its tied into?

New for 2008!

New for 2008 and the new IA51 Administration:
New blog ownership!
New blog look!
New blog ideas..... help us here, I'm not sure many people realize how much of a commitment keeping something like this running is.
New blog topic: what are the first and most important things we would like to see the new administration tackle? Oh, and how are we as members going to help them.
New blog masters rant: Your all idiots. Except for Cletus, at concerned union headquarters we sort of like him.
Please continue to discuss, slander, and prove my point.

The voting is over...

Congrats to Ron Ellis for becoming part of the new E board along with Barry Thomas as President. We guess there is something 'electric' about new blood...

Who's making the calls, part 2

Rumor has it, a certain department head called in two of her 'regulars' to work a show without consulting with management. Management had already called in two senior - qualified people to work the same positions. The senior people were placed on the show but one at a reduced rate position. Neither of these calls went through the Local's office.
Guess it still is, who you know and not how long you have been doing it...

Runoff Elections

Who will win? Who will do the best job? Who should have won? Will the Cowboys go all the way?
(Just kidding about the last question - that went out for J.D.)

Memorable Events of 2007

The last year in our business has had some ups and downs. What do you feel are the highlights and lowpoints of last year?