FREELANCERS UNION BLOG

  • Director Dispatches, Community

Update: January Member Meeting

Forgot to mention it in my last post, but my New Year’s resolutions include sleeping more, using my YMCA membership card (though it stays so shiny when it sits in my wallet!) and upping the ante here at Freelancers Union to accomplish as much as possible for independent workers. It was exciting to see that so many members are equally eager to get knee-deep in freelancer advocacy—we had a crew of nearly 30 Freelancers Union members show up on January 12th for the first Monthly Member Meeting of 2011! To see a more detailed account of what took place there you can read the meeting minutes here. (The November and December minutes are now online, too.) For now, some cheap and cheerful takeaways:

  1. We want freelancers to feel empowered—and the Freelancer Bill of Rights helps them to do that!
  2. Our members also need useful tools to protect themselves. We're starting the Sample Contract Campaign Working Group with the goal of a) developing a great contract template for members to use, with additional industry-specific guidelines, and b) eventually launching a public education campaign about the use of contracts.
  3. Members are also the best spokespeople for helping to get the Freelancer Payment Protection Act (Bills A11520/S8074) passed in Albany this year. The New York District Meetings Working Group will coordinate, schedule, and train for freelancer meetings with elected officials to talk about why client nonpayment needs to end, and how they can help us.
  4. We need to know who you are so we can more effectively advocate on your behalf. You can be counted by taking our Annual Advocacy Survey.
    And, of course, don’t forget to sign-up for the next Monthly Member Meeting held on February 16th at Freelancers Union HQ. Kaitlyn Volunteer Coordinator Questions? Write to knewman (at) freelancersunion (dot) org