Screen Actor's Guild
Young Performer's Committee
Conference Report
September, 1995

Dear Friends,

Enclosed you will find the final report based on the three discussion groups conducted on Saturday afternoon, September 9, 1995.Since the conference, the committee has been busy assimilating the information gleaned from these discussions and prioritizing the steps to be taken in presenting motions to the. SAG Board of Directors for implementation. So much potential positive action was identified by the conference that the committee will remain very busy and challenged in 1996.

On behalf of the entire National Young Performers Steering Committee, we want to thank you for so generously giving of your time and professional expertise in making the first SAG Conference on Young Performers such an extraordinary, successful and historical event.we wish you all continued prosperity in 1996 and look forward to future mutual endeavors.

Best regards,

Jeanne K Russell
Chair, Young Performers Committee

Michael Harrah
Vice-Chair, Young Performers Committee

Paul Petersen
Conference Coordinator

September 19, 1995

To: Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors
Industry Advancement Cooperative Fund

From: SAG National Young Performers Committee

Re: First SAG Conference on Young Performers
9-10 September, 1995
Sheraton-Universal Hotel
Los Angeles

Participants from throughout the Entertainment Industry and from around the country in various professions came together to explore the status of Young Performers in the Entertainment Industry and to present their observations for the future.

The charge to the Conference was to address the needs of Young Performers in six areas of concern:

• Parental Orientation
• Rules and Regulations
• Education
• Finances
• Child Development & Risk Management
• Transition to Adulthood

After a set of general remarks from representatives of various endeavors in the Entertainment Industry-Producers, Directors, Writers, Former Child Actors--SAG National Young Performers Committee Chair Jeanne K. Russell presented the Committee's position paper, covering specifics in the six areas of concern. Then the Conference split into three discussion groups to discuss the situation:

The discussion groups covered all areas of concern, and the synthesis which follows is the conclusions and recommendations of the Conference, based on those deliberations:

I Parental Orientation

Several areas of concern were identified:

1. Parents have no clearly defined role in the Entertainment Industry.
2. Parents have no uniform and user-friendly source for complete and accurate information.
3. Parenting a child in the Entertainment Industry often works a financial hardship on parents.
4. Parents are required by law and by contract to be at the child's work place at all times, and yet they are rarely compensated.
5. Parents cannot receive insurance benefits as a result of their child's work.

The Conference recommended several solutions:

1. There should be an organization of show business parents. It should be a fairly formal organization, perhaps even affiliated with a labor union, which would not only be a reliable source of information, but also could negotiate on behalf of parents for common concerns and goals, including perhaps compensation and benefits.
2. The performers unions, perhaps jointly, should offer regular informational seminars for parents, requiring mandatory attendance. These seminars should be periodically offered for entire family units to explore how the whole family can manage the rigors of having show business children.
3. Parents should be compensated. While this concept was almost uniformly endorsed, there was no consensus on how to achieve it. Agent negotiation received the most support, but it was conceded that without some compelling reason for it, producers would be unlikely to embrace the practice voluntarily.
4. Parents should be able to qualify for medical insurance as a result of their child's work. While this concept was not as completely endorsed as compensation for parents, there was strong sentiment favoring it. The reality of insurance coverage, however, was acknowledged as a major obstacle to this goal.

II Rules and Regulations

Several areas of concern were identified:

1. The interview situation, particularly commercial interviews, was almost universally seen as being out of control. Most felt that conditions on many commercial interviews bordered on "child abuse". Length of interview sessions, numbers of interviewees, intrusion of interview schedules on school time and evening hours, and incidence of interviews after a full days work, were all cited as abuses.
2. The assignment and qualification of studio teachers* / tutors was considered a major problem on many multiple day jobs.
3. The reasonableness of maximum work hours under both California regulations and the AFTRA and SAG agreements was questioned. Most felt that work hours needed to be extended.
4. Creation of uniform national work regulations found complete agreement, and all concurred this would take national legislation.
5. The work permit process was generally seen to be a needlessly Byzantine and cumbersome ordeal. It was generally agreed that this aspect of the situation was in serious need of revision, not only in California but in every other jurisdiction as well, where permission to work was almost always a very unfriendly routine to have to undergo.

The Conference recommended several solutions:

1. The interview situation for children needs to be overseen by the performers' unions. While it was generally agreed that legislation or governmental rules in this area would probably not be productive, it was felt that strong union guidelines and perhaps, under some circumstances, even contract provisions, should be promulgated
2. The qualifications and conduct of studio teachers, tutors, and welfare representatives must be standardized, made universal and codified once and for all. The Conference participants agreed that the lack of continuity and standards in this area was one of the most glaring problems we have. Jurisdictional variations, as well as widely varying standards of conduct must be eliminated. It was universally conceded that someone other than the producer must be the direct payer of the teachers, and that true reform in this area was inherently impossible without that. It was also suggested that, while this would not cover non-union situations, teachers should all be covered by a union contract that had "teeth". (Probably only the performers unions would be able to handle this as a reality.)
3. Work hours must be restructured. Producers will be most flexible on other requirements (school time, teacher qualifications, etc.) if they can maximize the work time with the young performer. (Just how to handle this intelligently and appropriately lacked consensus.) There was general agreement that teenagers are able to work longer hours than California regulations and SAG contract provisions currently allow, especially when school is also a factor. It was also generally agreed that extension of hours needs to be undertaken on a gradual basis, to see what is truly workable and reasonable for minors; the extensions in this area should be made in gradual increments, with a clear and well-defined program of oversight and assessment firmly established.
4. The guilds and the producers together should seek federal legislation to establish uniform work regulations, The legislation' should include a provision for ongoing revisions without requiring additional legislative action by Congress.
5. There must also be a viable, uniform work permit process throughout the country. It could be handled in a similar manner to driver's licenses, which are honored in any Jurisdiction. It was agreed that schools should have some input with regard to the minor's academic performance but that schools should not be able to dictate whether or not a minor can hold a work permit. This should be a cut-and-dried process, determined by fulfilling a set procedure and taking a standardized test

III Education

This was generally conceded to be the area of concern most in need of reform, and virtually all participants were in agreement that the minor's educational situation in show business was the most frequently abused or neglected situation of all.

First, a status report: In most jurisdictions, there is not any provision for a child working in show business vis a vis the child's education. For the most part, schools pretend that a) show business doesn't happen, b) if it does happen, we'll treat it as though it doesn't, c) it shouldn't be happening, and therefore we'll inflict penalties as a result, or d) who cares?

Several areas of concern were marked for change:

1. Studio teachers* must be qualified uniformly across the country, and their procedures for handling on-set education must be standardized.
2. Education of working minors must be treated as interstate commerce, and even international trade when it involves an American company working offshore. (It was even strongly suggested that truly offshore productions, i.e. those filmed abroad by foreign companies using children, must demonstrate that American standards have been followed in order to be approved for distribution and or exhibition in the United States. This was viewed as a human rights issue)
3. Minors working in the Entertainment Industry must be treated fairly by their respective schools.
4. Standards for on-set education vary widely from state-to-state; they should be uniform.

The Conference had trouble defining the needs of children being educated in the Entertainment Business. However a number of recommendations were advanced.

1. Either the guilds or the federal government must promulgate uniform standards of qualification and conduct for studio teachers. Enforcement was seen as a problem and no uniform idea for doing so emerged.
2. Federal legislation must be enacted to standardize educational standards and procedures for children working in the Entertainment Industry.
3. Schools across the country must recognize work in the Entertainment Industry as a legitimate excused absence, including necessary time spent seeking work, going to and from work and receiving training and/or preparation for work, provided that school work is made up and/or maintained in a uniform and clearly defined manner. A uniform academic grade level (C or better average was recommended) must be maintained in order to continue being work permitted, and there must be no way to circumvent this standard. (Non-academic grades and behavior grades should not be counted; pass/no pass grades should be honored, but satisfactory/unsatisfactory must be more clearly defined.) Students must not be penalized, demoted, held back, restricted, denied access, or in any other way barred from the educational process in their home schools, and the penalty of doing so must be significant.

IV Finances

This was by far the most controversial subject addressed. It is a well established concept in common and codified law that children are the property of their parents and that children's earnings are the property of the entire family.

What this does, in essence, is make the working child a chattel, and while no one went so far as to suggest that this situation constituted slavery (and thus a violation of the US Constitution), there was the strong suggestion that existing federal and state laws never envisioned children making large sums of money on a continuing basis, and thus the legal standing of the working minor is, at best, cloudy.

It was generally agreed that the working child should be able to expect to receive some money as a result of working when he/she reaches the age of majority. It was further agreed that all earnings by a minor should receive some degree of sequestration until the age of majority. At that point, however, agreement was less than unanimous.

There is a general consensus that the "Coogan Law", a California statute designed to protect a portion of a working minor's earnings, is outdated. In the way of background, the Coogan Law was enacted in the 1930s, when there were only a handful of employers, and minors earning any significant sums of money were all under studio contracts. It can be safely argued that the parameters for sequestering funds under the Coogan Law were never growth oriented and that the limitations became more and more unrealistic as the years went on.

Moreover, as the Entertainment business is conducted today, very little money is ever available for protection, and that which is protected is often treated haphazardly. (It was frequently asserted that attorneys and courts charged with enforcement are flagrantly violating the terms of the law itself, for reasons which can only be described as expedient.)

Beyond the Coogan Law however, it was agreed that most parents begin by wanting to do "the right thing" with their children's earnings. It is only when those earnings become significant that problems arise.

These problems were seen as occurring in several circumstances:

1. Inadequate accessible investment programs.
2. Confusion over the proper role of the parent and compensation/reimbursement for discharging that function.
3. Reliance of the family on the minor's earnings for living expenses.
4. Assumption of an unreasonable lifestyle as a result of the minor's earnings.
5. Unrealistic situation of surrendering sequestered earnings to the minor upon the age of majority.

There was one generally conceded solution, although the implementation was far from consensus:

There has to be national legislation, recognizing the child performer as a unique, marketable entity, whose work is national (even international) in scope. Legislation must be enacted to define the child performer, provide for disposition and preservation of earnings and define the parents role and responsibility in this situation,

The Conference made several recommendations, regarding finances:

1. The Coogan Law must be revised, and the revision enacted nationally.
2. Parents must have readily available guidance on financial planning and counseling.
3. It must be a clear guideline that at the point at which the minor's income exceeds that of the parent's), SAG must make financial counseling mandatory. (Just how feasible this last conclusion may be is questionable,)

The Conference specifically requests that the Young Performers Committee petition the SAG Board of Directors to immediately establish a working group of 5-10 people, comprised of SAG members as well as professionals in the financial field, to devise legislation to revise the California "Coogan Laws" and draft national legislation in this area.

V Child Development and Risk Management

The tenor of the entire conference embraced child development and risk management. It was generally agreed that children in show business are not "normal"-that is, they grow up in an atmosphere which is quite unlike that of their nonprofessional peers. And it was generally conceded that this circumstance poses a risk to well being. Just how that happens and what conditions ought to exist were very widely described, indicating that individual children react very differently to the wide variety of experiences which the Entertainment Industry holds in store. Varying backgrounds, encountering varying situations, encountering varying degrees of success, encountering varying reactions to it all, make this area of concern very difficult with which to grapple.

The Conference did recommend several general options:

1. Ongoing counseling, probably through the guilds. held at all stages of the young performer's career, probably voluntary, but certainly promoted and urged in the strongest possible terms. This counseling should be available both in peer groups and one on one.
2. Continue and expand the SAG orientation for Young Performers, currently in Hollywood only, an open Young Performers meeting, is held in the evening on the third Tuesday of each month at SAG. The session is directed not only at new SAG members, but also established members with questions or other input. Present are SAG Young Performers Committee members, studio teachers*, parents, former child actors, agents and managers, detailing sensible procedures for Young Performers in today's Entertainment Industry, and responding to specific questions,

The Conference strongly urged that this procedure go national, be instituted at every branch and that a master video be produced as a guide to establishing and maintaining the procedure.

VI Transition to Adulthood

This area of concern was seen as closely related to Child Development and Risk Management, but several areas were singled out as being more transition related:

1. The need for ongoing, realistic information about the Entertainment Industry, how it works, and how that affects the careers of Young Performers.
2. The need for career information about other phases of the industry other than performance.
3. Ongoing counseling for Young Performers in transition to adulthood, not only about leaving the industry or moving on to other aspects than performance, but also how to orient oneself to and compete for more "adult" roles.
4. Endgame Counseling, including outplacement, job retraining and psychological reorientation.

Deciding that counseling was needed in several areas, the Conference felt that only SAG would be able to establish it properly:

1. Career Day, an organized event when Young Performers could tour studios and see all aspects of production, with an eye toward being able to switch careers in the future.
2. Transition Counseling-Both during the minor's active life as a performer and as a former Young Performer making the transition to other activity.
3. Special scholarship availability to qualifying Young Performers, (Current Guild scholarships, for the most part, exclude Young Performers.)
4. Job/Vocational Training, possibly with matching industry funds.

All of the ideas in the transition area really need a great deal of concentrated hard exploration before they can become realistic and feasible. The Conference charged the Young Performers Committee with developing viable solutions, and various participants volunteered to help the Committee in this endeavor.

Overall, the Committee believes that the Conference was very successful, The goal of soliciting information and direction from many varied sources, both inside and outside the industry, was accomplished, and the Committee is very gratified by the level of participation. The Committee will now begin to generate a series of proposals to the SAG Board of Directors to implement activities in all of these areas to achieve the goals set by the Conference.

The SAG Young Performers Committee is very grateful to the SAG Board of Directors for its support and approval of our efforts, and the Committee is especially grateful to the Industry Advancement Cooperative Fund for the financial grant that made the entire Conference a reality.

The Committee is especially grateful to Barry Gordon for his unceasing support for this Conference and for taking valuable time from his campaign to Chair the Conference.

In addition, the Committee would like to thank several members of the SAG executive staff, who were invaluable in making the Conference a reality:

Leonard Chassman, without whose ongoing endorsement we wouldn't have been nearly as graceful.

Clinta Dayton, without whose day-to-day, hands-on clear headed, we might well have spent our funds and efforts less successfully,

Harry Medved, whose guidance as to realistic and appropriate publicity kept us on a realistic basis.

Suzanne Papazian, for giving all of our small details the careful attention we were missing.

Catherine Spratt and Tawanda Lewis, for their untiring input in the complex area of contracts,

Cindy Tinius, Jill Slater and Debbie Wonder for their loyalty and efforts above and beyond their day-to-day assignments which made our continuity successful.

The Committee has committed to submitting a final draft of this report to the Conference participants, and we plan to do so as a part of the budget already allotted to us in our original proposal.

    Respectfully submitted,
    Jeanne K Russell
    National Chair, Young Performers Committee

*The Studio Teachers Union, Local 884, asserts that the term "studio teacher' is unique to that position as defined in California regulations and SAG contract language. We inquired as to whether that term had been trademarked, making it unavailable for casual use, a representative of the teacher's union said that it had. We have not verified that as fact as yet. If it is true, then the Committee must devise some other term to refer to the position outside of California.