Change in EMC Program (Equity Membership Candidate Program)

Actor’s Equity has made changes to the EMC program. In the past, candidates needed to accumulate 50 points to be eligible for their card. Now you will only need to have 25 points to be eligible for your equity card. According to the email, if you already have accumulated 25 points you can get your card now paying the 2017 rate for your initiation fee. If you apply for your equity card after Dec 31, you will only need 25 points, but fees are going up. .

My daughter only has 4…she has a ways to go LOL

Wow that’s a big change! Mine has her card, but that will help a lot of kids. My advice is still not to take the card until you have to. There’s lots of non union work out there.

I wonder why the change? S got his card over the summer but really went back and forth about it. It seems quite limiting to me but I guess time will tell!

My S says he doesn’t want to be equity until he gets an agent at the very least. (He’s close under the new rules but not there yet.)

I wonder if this will change how they earn the points…

I don’t think so. It’s still one point per week of work. http://www.actorsequity.org/membership/emc.asp

Though now you can only be an EMC for 25 additional weeks of equity work before you have to join. Didn’t it used to be five years, regardless of how much you worked?

D and I just had that conversation. She has enough points under the new rules to go ahead and get her card. And getting her card has always been a big dream. So the fact she can do so is exciting. But now that she is eligible under the new rules, there is concern that having your card limits what work you can pursue. And it has also left a feeling like she hasn’t truly earned the right to have her card yet - like she’s cheating or shortchanging the system somehow. she needs to complete her current contract before applying so she has some time to think about it. I’m interested in hearing what others decide to do. My guess would be memberships will go up!

…as will AEA’s revenue via membership dues. Do you suppose that the rule-change is also politically motivated? That is, to give AEA more leverage in the industry? As far as economically motivated, that’s quite likely a given.

Mine had to take hers and she’s still in college. It makes auditioning for summer work difficult, as she can’t attend auditions like Straw Hats and NETCs.

It seems like it will create more younger equity members. Right now companies hardly ever cast 20-somethings as equity outside NYC, but i suppose if a larger % are equity, they might have to start?

This has been in discussion for a while. I doubt that they’d ever admit it but a motivating factor in the change is, not only the added revenue they’ll get in expensive dues, but also the fact that those actors will now no longer be able to do non-Eq work.

And with less non-union actors available theatres and programs are compelled to cast union actors = union leverage in industry. Good for union actors, though, if they then get paid a living wage.

Aaaahhhh so political and economical reasons.

The real target is the non-Eq tours, not regional/local theatres. Don’t assume that actors on the non-Eq tours aren’t being paid a living wage.

A higher living wage as required by the union.

Yes, I’m aware that Equity actors are paid more than non-Eq. But that isn’t what you said, which is what I was commenting on.

You’d better check my grammar and spelling too counselor.

Just for clarity - Equity/Non-Eq has nothing to do with wages, really. Many Non-Eq companies (Prather comes to mind) pay middle of the road Equity salaries. There are Equity contracts that pay less than $300/week.

Most of the top Non-Eq houses also offer Equity conditions in rehearsal/performance/accommodations.

Health/Pension and Union protection in a dispute are the two strongest AEA benefits.