AT-LARGE SEATS

More than 40% of Equity's members live outside of Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Ours is a national union without a local governance structure, and so it's incredibly important that our democratic processes include everyone from across the country. Sadly, when I first ran for Eastern Regional Vice President, only 4 of the 82 members of the National Council—less than 5%—were from anywhere outside those three cities. It wasn't representative of our members, and it wasn't acceptable.

During the 2018 election, I made the following promise:

In order to ensure that our Council is truly regionally representative, I have and will continue to work towards amending Equity's Constitution and By-Laws to require no fewer than 10 dedicated Council seats for members living outside our office cities. Only when we require that members from across the country have a seat at the table can we be certain that their concerns will be properly addressed.

I'm proud to say that in my work on Equity's Constitutional Review Committee, I championed the need for this new, inclusive policy. The committee ultimately recommended the creation of dedicated At-Large Seats on the National Council, reserved exclusively for member living outside of Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. By the end of the 2022 election cycle, we will have nine At-Large Councilors.

That's a massive improvement, and I'm proud to have been a part of it.