The Published - EquityUK Buyouts Booklet

​Equity Stagemanagement Committee - Open Meeting - Buy out contracts

Chronology

It began with an Open Meeting
On Friday 29th January 2016 at 1pm Equity hosted an open meeting to discuss the issue of buyout contracts discussing...
​
  • What’s good about them?
  • What’s bad about them?
  • What can Equity do about them?
  • What can you do about them?

EquitySM Meeting February 2016

When it came to sending a motion to the ARC the committee had two burning issues BuyOuts and Digs. The Digs motion went to ARC, the Buyou Calculator directly to the Equity Council.
​​At the Stage Management Open Meeting regarding Buy-outs on January 29th, the need for some form of ‘buy-out calculator’ was re-iterated.

​Despite SM Committee members spending many hours over the past three years trying to create such a tool, the variety and diversity of the agreements between Equity and UKTheatre/SOLT make this an intricate and complex task which has exceeded our capabilities and the meeting felt that professional involvement is now necessary to further this project without unnecessary delay.

Once established, the calculator tool could be adapted for use by members working in fields other than Stage Management, and prove a useful investment for the entire membership, in an environment where the ‘buy-out’ culture is on the rise.

Council is therefore asked to appoint a specialist to develop and create a comprehensive, accurate, and user friendly buy-out calculator which can be made available to members via the members’ area of the Equity website, providing a pivotal tool to aid the committee’s campaign on buyouts.

Annual Rep Conference (ARC) May 2016

Exploring development of a BuyOut Calculator

​(above) Council's decision to fund the BuyOut Calculator motion reported in the October 2016 council report. Alex Burke led on this project. The Project was supported by Caron Lyon. Several Excel spreadsheet development professionals were approached. Scope and cost was secured. Our developer was engaged to work with us in January 2017. 

Wheels in Motion

ALPHA 2017 - 18
Versions 1 to 3 during the Alpha phase were tested between the committee with Fiona Mott providing deep insight to the intricacies of correctly calculating basic earning following the rates set out in the Commercial Agreement.
BETA 2019
​News rates for the Commercial Agreement are due to be announced and shortly behind will follow the new West End agreed rates along with the prevalence of buyout contracts the committee needed to test the calculator to prepare it for launch.
In February the committee recruited 20 Stage and Company Managers working on the Commercial Agreement having accepted buyouts who are agreed to use the calculate. Was their deal was a good one?
June 10th there is a reporting phase in readiness for the first sign off before the calculator is adapted to accommodate the remaining Equity Theatre Agreements.

As of July 23rd 2019 there is a fully functioning buyout calculator for the Commercial Agreement. West End, Subsided, Independent and Fringe are ready for configuration.
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#WatchThisSpace

BETA TESTING PROGRAMME

Equity members working on the Commercial Agreement on BuyOuts are currently testing the developed calculator. 
​Do you want to join the BETA GROUP? Get in touch.
Resource Documents and Relevant Links
SMA's - INFO SHEET - Employing a Stage Manager
File Size: 250 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Equity BuyOut Guidelines NEW DRAFT 2016
File Size: 213 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Stay in the Loop

You can follow us on twitter @EquitySM and join our Facebook group Stage Management : Meet Equity where you can talk with members of the Equity Stage Management Specialist committee, the Equity Stage Management Councillor and each other about issues affecting your work and the work of Equity.  It's quick and easy to ask questions, make suggestions, raise concerns and get answers.

Proposal

Build a self contained workbook for each of the 5 contracts.
  • Commercial
  • Subsidised
  • West End
  • Independent
  • Fringe
​Develop workbooks using the Excel version contained within Microsoft Office 365 for Windows. (Members with a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007 will NOT be able to use the workbook). 
​The workbook(s) will be loaded onto the Equity website. Equity members will download the workbook to their local PC.
​One workbook will be used for each 'contract'. The user can 'insert' as many time sheets / contracts as they see fit in to a single workbook.

Calculator 

USER VIEW
​​Control worksheet - where the user will be able to automatically generate a new 'blank' timesheet / payslip for the week
​Summary worksheet - week by week listing of Equity derived pay, the week equivalent 'buyout' wage can be entered here here to give weekly and cumulative figures.
​Start worksheet - place holder to aid cumulative calculations​
​Timesheet Payslip worksheet - there will be a number of these for each week, as determined by the user.
End worksheet - place holder to aid cumulative calculations
ADMIN VIEW
​​Rate Card worksheet - the rates for each position & year are maintained in this sheet. When new rates are issued they should be added to this sheet.
​Parameters / Rules worksheet - the contract rules for the contract in question are maintained in this sheet
​The workbook will be relatively simple and intuitive to use.
ASSUMPTIONS
​​The workbook will be fully automated where possible.
​Wherever possible drop down selections will be offered to the user to avoid illegal data being entered.
​Data validation will be implemented wherever possible.
​Data entry re 'BUY OUT' rates will be actioned following newly announced negotiated rates by the SM Committee.