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AGM plans training for branch members
London Freelance Branch hammered out its plans for 2024 - including a focus on protecting freelances from copyright theft committed by AI scraping, supporting colleagues in need, and relaunching a programme of vocational training courses for branch members - at its annual general meeting held on 8 January.
A screenful of participants; there were more. January's AGM was the best-attended branch meeting for nearly two years
Industrial action by rail drivers was called off at the last moment but LFB took no chances and switched from its usual in-person + remote hybrid meeting format to a Zoom-only event for the occasion. The lack of sandwiches and shoulder-rubbing did not deter members wanting to get involved in the pivotal branch assembly of the year, thankfully, the paucity of social comestibles failing to dent attendance figures: January's AGM was the best-attended branch meeting for nearly two years. It is highly likely that members were still in the mood to get together following the successful pre-Christmas Winter Party held in Soho jointly with London Magazine Branch. A full write-up of this latter event, complete with Tatler-style photos, can be read online here.
Annual general meetings can be tiresome procedural affairs involving the approval of annual reports and so on, so much of this detail was dealt with by supplying members with the documents in advance and taking questions straight away at the beginning of the meeting. This allowed participants to dive swiftly into the main event of the night: electing a new branch committee for the year ahead. Again, this is hardly a thrill-fest but all credit goes to chair Tim Gopsill and deputy chair Deborah Hobson for leading members through the democratic process swiftly but fairly. Contacts for the 2024 committee have been posted to the branch website at www.londonfreelance.org/lfb/contact.html
This left plenty of time to discuss other matters important to freelances, in the form of motion debates. A number of charitable contributions from branch funds were proposed, discussed and put to a vote. It was agreed to increase the branch's monthly donation to NUJ Extra, the union's official charity for helping members who fall on hard times. Donations were also made to the International Federation of Journalists' Safety Fund and to Hazards magazine to support its valuable coverage of workplace health and safety issues.
In an attempt to breathe life back into LFB's moribund training calendar, the AGM passed a motion to devote energy into developing a fresh set of low-cost short-courses designed for freelances and discounted for those in LFB. The existing successful mentoring project, currently curated for exiled journalists, will be folded into the training programme with the intention of widening its scope to embrace more members.
A motion to press NUJ head office to support freelances whose work is absorbed into AI models without payment led to considerable debate: it was not universally agreed whether photographers should allow their work to be used in generative AI products at all, for fear of misuse. The AGM eventually voted to approve the motion but no doubt this issue will continue to be challenged and debated throughout the year.
Reports
The meeting received the following reports: