OP/ED by Tim Tritch
One of the main criticisms of the industry’s testing program is that performers pay all the costs, or the large majority of the costs. OSHA, AHF, and County Health point this out every chance they get, along with the privacy issues of the AIM system. And these are legitimate points.
Producers have argued that it wouldn’t be fair for them to pay for a performers test today, and then that performer uses that tests on another company’s shoot tomorrow. Also a legitimate point. And agents know that good health means good business. STD’s mean lost work days and cost everybody time and money.
So here is my Forty Dollar Solution.
Every company makes a thirty dollar donation to AIM for each performer they hire. And the agents make a five or ten dollar donation for every performer they book for a scene. Not much to ask. A shoot with as many as ten performers would only cost $300.00 to the producer, and fifty to a hundred for the agent.
And here is the best part. Everything is voluntary. Nobody can stop the producers or agents from doing this, not OSHA, County Health, AHF, ACLU, nobody. And its a tax deductible donation too!
And lets not forget the performers either. They could still pay a fee of say $25.00 each time they test.
This would easily cover the entire cost of the testing, and probably generate enough revenue to pay for hepatitis B testing and vaccination, and antibiotic treatment for gonorrhea and Chlamydia. It might even be enough to got to a two or three week testing interval.
By providing the performers with this service the industry can eliminate another piece of ammunition from the arsenal of its detractors. GONE is the argument of performers paying for everything. GONE is the argument that producers don’t do anything regarding health and safety. GONE is the argument that the testing is too expensive. GONE is the argument that one producer is paying for a test to be used on another shoot. Its a pay as you go system.
There has always been talk of two week testing. But with performers paying all the cost that will never happen. There are more details to this plan, such as for first time testers, and follow up testing for positive results. It may even be possible to have donations made in the individual names of performers. There are lots of options available. What if individual performers used Twitter and Myspace to solicit donations for tests. What better way for a performers fans to help out. There’s lots of options here.
This, along with my previous suggestion to changing the reporting system, will take these pieces of ammunition out of the hands of industry detractors. This is a chance for producers and agents to share and show responsibility, and relieve themselves from possible litigation in the future. And its tax deductible!
As I said in 2004,"If you guys don’t change and improve your system, somebody else is gong to do it for you." If the industry tries to rest its case on the status quo, you’re going to lose. That’s my opinion.
Any comments or suggestions are welcomed.
Thank-you
Tim Tritch
tritchtm@ca.rr.com
So here is my Forty Dollar Solution.
Every company makes a thirty dollar donation to AIM for each performer they hire. And the agents make a five or ten dollar donation for every performer they book for a scene. Not much to ask. A shoot with as many as ten performers would only cost $300.00 to the producer, and fifty to a hundred for the agent
What? Performers are paid contractors, if producers pay or donate they open a whole can of worms tax and liability wise, same goes with agents. Besides $300 is a fair amount of money to a producer. And we can get the fanbois to donate too, if they can give money to Cytherea to have her hooha tightened up I guess they can do this too.
Performer are employees. That is why OSHA has successfully cited 8 companies in the last two years. Every citation was upheld, and the fines paid.
Producers and agents have been making donations to AIM to get their passowrds for a few years now. No monthly donation, no password. Can you explain what tax and liability problems you see here? If there is a legal problem with this I would like to know, honestly.
This is all completely voluntary. That is the beauty of it all. Nobody can stop any director, producer, agent, or fanboi from donating.
Thanks for your comments Larry.
Sorry for the double post here Larry, but I thought I might clarify something.
If producers and agents donate monthly to AIM in exchange for a password to patients results, and no tax or liability problems have arisen in the years that they have been doing this,then what kind of tax and liability problems would come with making a donation and not getting anything directly in return?
Donations or payments made for a specific booking or specific project would make those performers employees and the agent as well as the producer liable. Donations made in general to AIM for access to a database is not a tacit acceptance of direct involvement with a project. Also imagine if cheap fuck producer decides to use the results that another producer has paid for and what about companies that use performers on multiple days for different projects, do they have to donate $30 for each different project even though there might be a difference of one day. In this business there is little honor among thieves. In fact if producers and agents are making donations for access isnt this a misuse of AIM, they are paying for a service not making a donation.
http://aim-med.org/news/2009/10/28/1256757504/
Larry, the system is voluntary. It wouldn’t require specific donations for specific projects. At the end of the month Comapny Owner X can estimate that he used 40 or 50 perforers that month, and make a donation based on that. Just a charitable tax deductible donation to a 501c3 organization. Companies donate to AIM all the time.
The success of the program would simply be judged by the amount of donations AIM receives. If companies voluntarily go along AIM will reap the benefits and the talent will benefit, if not then you’re right back where you started.
There will always be those that dont play by the rules. Good for them. That’s no excuse for not being responsible.
Larry, your post started with the statement that specific donations would make producers and agents liable. Liable for what?
I would also submit that using the database to get soemones results before hiring them for that specific project does make a direct involvement relationship between AIM and the producer.Especially companies that only accept AIM tests. That is why I first suggested getting rid of the password system.
Thanks again Larry.