CHAIR’S REMARKS

Among my numerous failings, I count the fact that I like to cook and have a weakness toward making analogies. Accordingly, I’m about to use the one in order to accomplish the other, an analogy about cooking which applies to the Caucus.

If I give you a pound of ground round and a slice of jack cheese, followed by a package of hamburger buns, I do not have to be a member of the Psychic Friends Network to anticipate that what you’re about to make is probably going to resemble something we all know as a cheeseburger. It is an immutable fact of the kitchen that ingredients go a long way toward defining results. And if the ingredients are limited in number and variety, the finest chef in the world is going to be severely constrained in what results can be attained. Not only is the menu a limited one, but the lack of ingredient variety also limits the quality to be attained. You can make a good cheeseburger; you can even make a really good cheeseburger. But you're not going to make a great cheeseburger, because cheeseburgers are small in scope. Good they can be; greatness and cheeseburgers form an instant oxymoron.

We are in grave danger of becoming a cheeseburger.

And to stretch the analogy to its shrieking point, the reason has to do with the ingredients we bring to the process.

There are approximately 250 members within the organization we call the Caucus. Of that number, I would guess that an estimate of 50 some odd who are seriously committed to giving of their time, energies and insights would be described as a generous one. The overwhelming majority of the membership evidence great enthusiasm upon nomination and acceptance in the Caucus. Following that reaction, they apparently move at once to have magnets surgically implanted in their posteriors and cast iron cushions installed on their couches. The result of this abrupt shyness is to limit what we can do because we are limited in the scope and diversity of the ideas and responses available to us, had we a group more forthcoming and energetically involved. And that is a damned shame and does harm to us, both as an organization and as members of the creative community of the television and film industry.

We do not duplicate any other organization within this town. No guild, no occupationally themed grouping has our concerns and agenda. We have the opportunity to represent ourselves in a specifically unique way, and this opportunity presents itself at an especially volatile time, a time when the convergence of a monolithic ratings system and an explosion of high tech breakthroughs promise to transform production processes and delivery systems in ways we can barely grasp.

And we stand essentially mute, given the magnets in the buttocks holding much of our membership fast to their Sealys. Yes, a good part of that has to do with the busyness of doing business. And life intrudes and needs to be lived. All well and good, but none of it excuses our inactivity in a time of such ferment.

It's imperative we open the cupboards and provide our kitchen with all the needed ingredients. The result can be wonderful and productive. Or it can end up a cheeseburger.