The deadline for filing your federal income taxes has been moved to July 15, 2020. Foundation Communities teamed up with GetYourRefund to launch free online tax prep for anyone who needs it. The team of IRS-certified tax preparers is ready to help you prepare your return and claim your stimulus payment. To learn more, visit ProsperTaxHelp.org. To get started, go to https://www.getyourrefund.org/?s=FC.
Brothers and Sisters,
To allow us to conduct business safely during the Covid-19 pandemic, International President Loeb has granted Local 205 permission to conduct membership meetings by video conference while social distancing mandates remain in effect.
Therefore, please join me for our first ever virtual membership meeting,
WHAT: APRIL REGULAR MEETING
WHEN: MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020 AT 7:30 PM
WHERE: YOUR COUCH
This meeting will be conducted via Zoom. Please familiarize yourself with this platform. You may have received an invitation from Zoom to sign up for a user account. This is optional; you do not need a user account to participate in a meeting you are invited to, you can simply click the links provided to you.
Note only a phone is required to join the meeting. Computer, zoom app and webcam etc are all optional. If you do dial into the meeting, Zoom also has two over-the-phone codes:
*6 to mute or un-mute
*9 to raise your hand.
To ensure security, you will need to register in advance for this meeting, check your email for an announce message containing the registration link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. When you join the meeting, expect to be held in a virtual waiting room to be admitted, so join a few minutes before 7:30 PM. Also, the meeting will be recorded for the purpose of obtaining accurate minutes. Once the minutes of the meeting are drafted, the recording will be disposed of.
As this will be our first virtual meeting, please be patient and expect challenges. I will post a meeting agenda in due course. I intend to keep it light, but if you have a particular item of business you wish to discuss, please email Secretary Twenter or myself ASAP to have it added to the agenda.
We will not hold the election for Vice-President or nominations for Treasurer at this meeting. These items are on hold until I have received advice from International. I suspect that we will be able to hold nominations virtually with proper notice, but that elections will have to wait until we can meet in person.
In Solidarity,
Rachel Magee,
President.
Tutorial for joining a meeting:
Tutorial for joining and configuring your audio/video sources:
During the past month, with the help of Assistant Business Agent Davis and Crewing Stewards Siegel and Rave, we’ve been working with Ed Hills on transitioning to the latest version of Call Steward database, Call Steward 3 and are making good progress.
Soon you will receive an email with information on how to log into your profile on the new CS3 site. This will require steps to set up and we will be available to assist you. Once we have it ready to go, we will send you the information on how to access and complete your set up.
In Solidarity,
Nikki Combs
Business Agent
Brother Joe Martin writes, “I hope this finds everyone safe and well. During these trying times, the downtime we have recently acquired is shocking. With a lack of public places to go, Im sure a lot of us are going a little bit stir crazy. While this crisis is keeping the public at home, many companies across the industry are offering their online training programs, free of charge!
“Lets all take advantage of these services, and make good use of the downtime we have. Included below is a link that lists all the free services available to entertainment professionals during COVID-19. Free and training aren’t two words you see together often, so lets jump on it! I hope the classes offered will be to the benefit of everyone, and we can come back stronger than ever once all this madness blows over.”
Brother Liam Dolan-Henderson writes, “Hello, everyone! We now have a Discord! This will be more of a space for socializing and simply keeping each other company during this time of social distancing.” The invite link is in the 205 Mutual Aid FB Group. If you do not have facebook you can request an invite via .
If you are unfamiliar with how Discord works, here is a how-to guide from wiki-how: https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Started-with-Discord. Discord was created to support gaming communities initially, but has expanded vastly from there with features such as multi-channel voice calls, video calling, and screen sharing. You don’t have to use those features. At its core, Discord is a chat room.
You can simply use Discord in the browser, but there are also client apps you can install on your device.
IOS app is here:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/discord/id985746746
Android here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discord…
Desktop versions here:
https://discordapp.com/download
From the IA:
Sisters, Brothers, Kin—
As you know, the COVID-19 virus poses a significant risk to many of our members who are older, disabled, or immunocompromised. Additionally, many of our members are caretakers of others who fall into the at-risk category, and they simply cannot risk going to the store to get what they need.
If that sounds like you, we wanted to let you know that we’ve created a system to have trusted IATSE volunteers help get you what you need, like groceries or prescriptions.
The service is free, but is available on an as-needed, as available basis for members. That means that we need to confirm one of our 2,000 volunteers is in your area. Still, our goal is to successfully respond to each member in need request within 72 hours.
Additionally, we encourage everyone to help make members who are less internet-savvy aware of this program, and even input requests for them on the iatsecares.org website IF ASKED TO DO SO.
In solidarity,
The IATSE C.A.R.E.S. Task Force
TO VOLUNTEER, click this link: https://iatsecares.org/volunteer/
Want your stimulus check faster? Didn’t have a refund or direct deposit setup for the IRS in 2018? Didn’t file in some of the previous years? If you want your stimulus check faster you need to provide payment information to the IRS!! Use their new portal to enter your info, otherwise be stuck waiting for printed paper checks to be mailed.
Main Portal for tracking Stimulus:
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments
Groups not required to file taxes should provide payment method here:
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here
The following was sent to the membership via the announce mechanism April 9th 2020 from the office of the recording secretary:
The following was sent to the membership via the announce mechanism on Mar. 27th 2020 via the office of the recording secretary:
The following was sent to the membership via the announce mechanism on Mar. 25th 2020 from the office of the president: