SaVoa.Org

The SaVoa Advisory Board had it’s monthly meeting recently, and members took much of the hour discussing the finer points of developing an affiliate program.

The CEO of one of the top studios in the nation joined us for 20 minutes to participate in a general discussion of what an affiliate relationship between us would look like.

Some of the issues we’re ironing out have to do with whether SaVoa (being an accreditation group) needs to limit the number of affiliates so as not to water down the quality of the offering to our members, and still maintain a certain exclusivity for our partners. We generally agreed that our goal in this affiliate program should be designed to benefit our members, and in doing so, have value for our affiliates in the form of access to our membership.

Since the September meeting, a subcommittee of the Advisory Board has composed a general one-page “letter of agreement” to formalize the relationship we would enter into with our affiliates. But the Board discussed at some length how a possible affiliate might come up for consideration. Who can nominate?…any member?…only Board members? Does that nomination deserve a “second”? What sort of vetting process takes place to determine whether a candidate is extended an invitation? How to sever a relationship that is no longer fruitful? What does it mean to be an affiliate? It was generally agreed, then, that we need a mission statement that defines a SaVoa Affiliate and a standardized process for approving affiliates.

The general categories of affiliation that we hope to offer are loosely described as:
Consultant
Casting Agent
Coach
Professional Services

SaVoa is already very close to announcing two affiliate relationships that are near finalized, but it’s hoped that all categories of affiliation can soon be filled.

The SAB agreed upon a SaVoa affiliate logo (designed by Nikki,) as well as a SaVoa-TV YouTube logo and intro/outro graphics package.

Advisory Board Chair Thom Wilkins is preparing a newsletter for the membership announcing end-of-4 year stimulus sign-ups, new members, progress with the affiliate program, and other membership alerts.

The Board briefly discussed our mission in the marketplace: how we might be perceived by the Unions, how to deal with non-paying clients, and whether SAB member Robert Sciglimpaglia (an attorney), might be depended upon to help in drafting a legal notice to send to slow or non-paying clients.

All six members participating in the call agreed that our progress is encouraging and we’re making good strides in refining the mission of SaVoa

…Dave Courvoisier, SaVoa Advisory Board member