In this month's issue:
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On June 1, the Animation Guild's decade-old 401(k) Plan gained a new Plan Administrator with MassMutual Financial Group taking over from the Principal Financial Group, which has administered the plan since its founding. MassMutual's expertise with larger funds was the main reason for the switch.
The change in administrators means participants have new fund selections. The Plan trustees, including President Kevin Koch, Business Representative Steve Hulett, and Trustee Stephan Zupkas, analyzed the new fund lineup with an eye to bringing in replacement funds that are of equal or higher quality to the ones they replace. The Trustees worked with outside firm 401(k) Advisors in choosing the new array of funds.
The Plan now offers five different asset allocation funds (a mixture of stocks and bonds) that are keyed to your age and date of retirement. It also offers sixteen domestic stock and bond funds and three global/international equity funds. For the first time, participants will have the ability to create automatic diversification between plan funds by choosing conservative, moderate or aggressive stock and bond allocations.
In addition to the information on the MassMutual website, the Guild's website now features expanded Plan information, such as Morningstar reports for all the available investment options, and copies of all the forms needed to enroll, change contribution percentages, rollover or distribute your 401(k) funds. Go to the Guild website and click on the Benefits tab.
Accessing your new account
During the week of June 13, all Plan participants should have received a mailing with a temporary PIN and information on accessing your new MassMutual account. If you have money in the 401(k) Plan and you did not receive this mailing, contact Marta Strohl-Rowand at the Guild office, (818) 766-7151 ext. 101.
Even if you have not yet received a temporary PIN, you can still set up a permanent PIN by following this procedure:
Remember that once you follow this procedure to set up a new PIN, the temporary PIN you received in the mail will not work.
Once your PIN is established, you can proceed to access your account over the phone. Or you can log on to MassMutual's Retirement Services page and click on Individual Account Access - Login.
The transition to our new administrator has gone very smoothly, and we look forward to the expanded services and investment options from MassMutual.
Everyone with funds in the 401(k) Plan should have received a closing statement from Principal Financial Group. The first page of this statement may have stated that your account balance is zero. This reflects that your Animation Guild 401(k) Plan funds have been successfully transferred to MassMutual, and is not any cause for concern. The second page of the Principal statement will reflect your closing balance at the time of the transfer to MassMutual. The same mailing containing your temporary MassMutual PIN also contained an opening statement for your new investment account. Some participants who have contacted MassMutual may have been incorrectly informed that the statements would only go out once a year. In fact, you will receive quarterly statements from MassMutual (once every three months), at the same frequency as the Principal statements. Contact Marta Strohl-Rowand at (818) 766-7151 ext. 102 if you have any questions. |
From the PresidentTwo months ago, the adult daughters of a Guild member stopped by our office, asking for information about the pension plan. They told the staff that their dad had stopped working at the age of sixty-five after over thirty years in the biz, and now he's having a hard time making ends meet.
It seems it never occurred to him to apply for his pension.
There were more than a few dropped jaws when we were told this story at a recent Executive Board meeting. But we realized there are probably more than a few retirement-age members out there with untapped vested pensions that they could be collecting merely by making a phone call and filling out a form -- except that they "just forgot". Jeff Massie says he's talked to retired members who assumed that because the company they used to work for let them go, that their pensions had somehow "disappeared". You know those damn unions, always stealing people's pension money. This despite the fact that we all get annual statements in the mail from the Pension Plan, telling us in great detail what we've got waiting for us when we're ready to retire. That is, we get the statements if we ever get around to reporting our address changes to the Pension Plan.
This month's Peg-Board is the fourth consecutive issue to prominently announce that the TAG 401(k) Plan is switching administrators, and that everyone's investment accounts would be transferred from Principal Financial Group to MassMutual. There have been multiple mailings from the Guild and from MassMutual detailing the changeover. Still, when the closing statements were mailed from Principal showing that the funds had been successfully transferred, quite a few members called the Guild, blindly panicked that somehow their 401(k)s had vanished. Despite the numerous articles, mailings and e-mails, a majority of these callers swore they were never informed of the change.
Some would say: after all, we're just artists. Insert your favorite "left-brain" joke here. Well, I'm sorry, but being creative is not an excuse for not reading your mail, or not understanding the basic rights and privileges of being a Guild member.
The Guild spends a lot of time, money and effort keeping our members up-to-date, but there's only so much we can do to spoon-feed the less informed. I happen to think The Peg-Board does a good job of it (and based on what I've seen of other labor publications, we have a much better newsletter than most unions out there). But the Peg-Board can't tell every member everything they ought to know about the Guild. Much as we repeat things, we can't cover every relevant issue every month. And don't forget, management reads the Peg-Board. It's too public a forum to handle a lot of important and sensitive matters -- organizing issues, contract negotiations, grievances, etc. That's what membership meetings are for.
The frustrating thing is that I know I'm preaching to the converted -- if you're reading this column, you're most likely not one of the people to whom it's directed. But you certainly know or work with at least a few people who just don't understand what a great deal they're getting by being a Guild member.
A friend told me that he knows a fellow Guild member who brags about taking the Peg-Board out of the mailbox every month and putting it right into the bottom of his bird cage. I'd worry about insulting the guy, but unless his birds can both read and talk, I think I'm in the clear. But is that really a worthwhile goal -- to be both ignorant and proud of it? To end up like the retired member from the beginning of this column, letting your hard-won benefits fritter away without even knowing what you're missing?
I'd like to suggest that every member reading this column take it as their responsibility to light a candle in the darkness, and adopt the ignorant. If you know someone who seems particularly ill informed, drop a copy of the Peg-Board on their desk when they aren't looking, opened to the page announcing the next membership meeting. Make sure they overhear you talking about that report from the Pension Plan, and how reassuring it is to know how much money you're going to get when you retire. Loudly proclaim what a great time you had at the Golden Awards, or how much you enjoyed that Karl Gnass life class at the AAI. Drop hints about the membership meetings, the training grants, the computer lab, the loans of Gnomon DVDs, those informative Job Workshops that Dori Littell Herrick holds at the Guild every other Monday -- all free of charge to members. Remind your ignorant adoptees that if they send an e-mail to Jeff Massie, they'll find out about all such great stuff before it's too late.
Keep up the hint-dropping, and eventually your adoptee will join the crowd that no longer automatically throws away anything that comes in the mail with a TAG return address. They'll step into the light, and perhaps start lighting candles of their own.
This could lead to something.
-- Kevin Koch
From the Business RepresentativeAs you can see from this issue of The Peg-Board, we are touting changes to The Animation Guild 401(k) Plan, so what better time than now to give you "Hulett's investment tips and guidance"? Especially since Hulett is not a licensed money or portfolio manager, but merely poses as one during 401(k) enrollment meetings?
So, with the above caveat, I expand from last month's column with more of my imparted wisdom I have picked up in the course of being a 401(k) Plan Trustee:
When putting those savings away, avoid "portfolio managers."
When you tuck away money each month, put all of it to work for you. Do not run to a brokerage house and give a piece of it to a stock broker. I had a broker for twenty-five years, and month after month, rain or shine, he skimmed two percent of everything I gave him -- checks, dividends, interest, right off the top. One day I had a confrontation with him, and asked how he could justify the fee. "You get service," he said, "and I've outperformed the S & P 500 index!"
I asked him if the performance was better than Standard & Poor's blue-chip index after we factored in his two percent; he hemmed and hawed and finally admitted that no, it was worse, actually.
So the next day I pulled my money out and started "managing" it myself. Where did I put it? In a diversified array of Vanguard funds because a) they are high quality and low cost, and b) the less money I give to third parties, the better I like it.
Hulett's picks? Vanguard's STAR fund (for instant diversification in domestic and foreign stocks, also in long and short-term bonds) Vanguard's Total Stock Market (for the complete American stock market). Vanguard's Total Bond fund (for a good intermediate bond fund.)
Most (or all) of what you need to know about investing is out there at the Library -- or on the World Wide Web -- waiting for you to discover it.
Here's a couple of examples: Some time back I told you about William Bernstein's investment book The Intelligent Asset Allocator. In that book Bernstein gets into the history and mathematics of optimum investing, how it's difficult to time the market but easy to rebalance a diversified allocation. For instance, if you divvy up your investment pie into one quarter bonds, one quarter U.S. stocks, one quarter foreign stocks and one quarter cash (that's usually a money market account), every twelve or eighteen months you go back and make sure your four allocations -- all of which will have made money or lost money at different rates -- are still at twenty-five percent each.
Bernstein's book is terrific, and his website is good too. If you want to know the mathematics of risk and return, you want the details regarding the behavior of real world portfolios over time, Bernstein (a neurologist in his other life) is your guy. But he gets pretty technical and detailed, and at times, all the numbers and graphs he rolls out can give you a headache. Another book, The Truth About Money by Ric Edelman, was a best-seller in the 1990s and is now out again in revised and updated form. Truth casts a wider net than Asset Allocator and discusses not only investing for retirement, but financing college for kids, inflation, taxes, buying cars, buying houses, variable annuities, writing wills, life insurance, long-term care insurance, and we would go on but my collar is getting tight.
In short, The Truth About Money covers a great deal of ground, and does it all in an entertaining and clear way (one of the reasons it was a best-seller, no doubt). What I'd like to focus on are the high points of Edelman's chapters on investing and building a strong investment portfolio.
Predicting the market is iffy at best. The Federal Reserve, which influences the course of the economy through its control of short-term interest rates, has said that it can't predict future gross domestic production (i.e. "the market"). If the Fed can't successfully predict, who can?
Last year's Mutual Fund winners -- those funds that came in #1 in their asset class -- seldom repeat their winning performances. In picking funds, don't focus on the rate of return, since return -- which is tied to the economy -- will always swing up and down.
Diversification is the key to investment success: the best average annual returns are offered by a diversified portfolio of twenty percent cash, twenty percent bonds, twenty percent U.S. stocks, twenty percent foreign stock, twenty percent real estate; the lowest standard deviation (that is, the least up and down movement) of the same portfolio mixes. Edelman has a lot of other useful insights and information, and the book is a treasure trove of info on how to use money wisely. I don't agree with every detail of the book, but overall it's a great way to find out about how to invest from an expert.
The Truth About Money has so much information, so many different topics, that it will take you a while to wade through everything that the book has to offer. I don't agree with every detail, but it's a tome you should consider in your search for good investment advice.
The bits and pieces of advice I've listed above are far from comprehensive. When you're investing, there is always more to know, and one measly column in The Peg-Board ain't gonna do it. But I've learned that most people -- you, me, that guy drawing storyboards in the cubicle across the way -- are fully capable of handling their own financial affairs if they only put a little time and effort into it.
Start salting money away, even if it's only a few bucks a week, and breathe easier when you're closing in on retirement.
-- Steve Hulett
Here are the investment funds now available to Animation Guild 401(k) Plan participants through MassMutual. Click on the links to view the Morningstar reports for each Fund.
EuroPacific Growth Fund (American)
Growth (Templeton)
International New Discovery (MFS)
Destination Retirement 2010
Destination Retirement 2020
Destination Retirement 2030
Destination Retirement 2040
Destination Retirement Income
Social Investment Equity (Calvert)
Spectrum Growth (T. Rowe Price)
Premier Capital Appreciation (OFI)
Select OTC 100 (Northern Trust)
Select Diversified Value (Bernstein)
Select Indexed Equity (Northern Trust)
Tom Sito
That's not a typo. If you aren't currently employed at a union shop, we strongly urge you to take an honorable withdrawal, which will save you from having to pay any dues until you get another union job.
To take an honorable withdrawal, you must be in good standing -- that is, fully paid up -- as of the current quarter. If you're in good standing, you have until the tenth day of the quarter to take an honorable withdrawal without having to pay that quarter's dues. For example, to take a withdrawal without having to pay the third quarter 2005 dues, you must be paid up through the second quarter and you must request withdrawal by July 10. Requests for honorable withdrawal must be in writing, dated and signed.
Members on honorable withdrawal are still considered in good standing. Withdrawal will not affect your health or pension benefits or 401(k) plan in any way. (Understand that if you have not worked at a union shop for a period of time, your health benefits will eventually expire. However, they won't run out any faster if you're on honorable withdrawal.)
If you return from withdrawal in less than a year, all you will owe will be the dues for the period you've been out. If you come back after a year, you'll save money -- you'll just owe the IA head tax for the period you are out, plus a $25.00 reinstatement fee. In no event will reinstatement from honorable withdrawal ever cost you more money than keeping your account active.
Members on honorable withdrawal still have the right to seek employment at union shops. Withdrawn members have "voice but no vote" at membership meetings. They may not vote in union elections or on the ratification of union contracts, and they may not run for union office while they are on withdrawal or for one year after reinstatement. With these exceptions, there is no disadvantage to you in taking a withdrawal.
There is no charge for members on honorable withdrawal to continue to receive the Peg-Board by mail. Once a year, you will need to send a written request in order to continue your free subscription.
For further questions, contact Lyn Mantta at the union office, (818) 766-7151 ext. 103.
Friedman 3D will be starting a new semester on July 5. Instruction will be provided in award-winning Alias Maya from 8 am to 3 pm Monday through Friday. There will be an additional class offered in Adobe After Effects that will run from from 3 pm to 6 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The cost for classes is $75 and $25 respectively, plus a $25 registration fee. If you are collecting unemployment benefits from EDD you may qualify for collecting those benefits while a full-time student at Friedman 3D.
The Alias Maya course will be delivered in two sections by Vincent Delay, a Maya artist and formerly a CG Supervisor at The Engine Room. Section One will be introductory and will run in the mornings from 8 am until 11 am. Section Two will be an intermediate course and will run from noon to 3 pm. The class will start Tuesday, July 5, 2005 and will run until December 16, 2005. $75 + $25 reg. fee.
Adobe After Effects instruction will be delivered by Nancy LeMay, who has worked as a titles and graphics artist for NBC and a host of other companies. The class will start Tuesday, July 5, 2005 and will run until December 16, 2005. $25 + $25 reg. fee.
Friedman 3D is located at 570 W. Avenue 26, Suite 425, Los Angeles, CA 90065 and is a non-profit, collaborative venture between the Los Angeles Unified School District's DACE program and Studio Arts, Ltd. As a branch location for Venice Skills Center, Friedman 3D offers low-cost, high-end training in computer animation, visual effects and other graphics classes to provide IATSE members and the general public an affordable alternative to expensive CG learning.
For more information about Friedman 3D, please email or call Eric Huelsman at (323) 227-4776.
On Saturday, July 30 from 9 am to 2 pm, Studio Arts is offering a one-day, hands-on workshop on "How to Create a Professional Demo Reel". The instructor will be ALLEN STOVALL, owner of Alta Video Works/L.A. Lightworks, with over six years experience in demo reel editing.
This is a comprehensive course, covering the entire process from concept to delivery. While the emphasis is on technical instruction in such skills as non-linear editing and DVD authoring, there is also ample discussion of the aesthetic and professional citeria which are necessary and desirable to help your demo reel achieve recognition in today's highly competitive job market. Participants are provided various scene files from which they may assemble a rudimentary sample reel, as well as comprehensive course notes for future reference.
Cost of the seminar is $150. Animation Guild members will receive a 20% discount (and pay only $120.) For more information, please email or call Eric Huelsman at (323) 227-4776.
At the water-coolerRecent blessed events: CARSON and TINA KUGLER's son, Keaton Charles Kugler, was born on May 27. He was seven pounds, eleven ounces, twenty inches long. Everyone is doing well ...
MAREK and TRACY KOCHOUT celebrated the birth of their daughter Sophie on June 11, weighing five pounds, seven ounces.
I have no use for those -- regardless of their political party -- who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when organized labor was huddled, almost as a hapless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
Designer, storyboard artist and teacher KAREN JEPSON CIRAULO died on April 1. She was killed in a car accident in New Mexico, in which her husband Ben Ciraulo was critically injured and is currently in rehabilitation.
She was a 1996 graduate of CalArts, where she wrote and animated two independent films. She began her career designing characters and animation for educational CD-ROM games. She later worked as a storyboard artist for Warners on Pinky and The Brain and for Klasky Csupo's The Wild Thornberrys.
After moving to the San Francisco Bay area, she earned a Masters Degree in Arts Administration at Golden Gate University. At the time of her death, she was the managing director of the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County and also taught art classes for the City of Brentwood.
Besides her husband, she is survived by her parents, Jim and Rosemary Jepson, her brother, Paul and his wife, Christine, and their three children, and many relatives, friends and associates.
A Celebration of Karen's Life will be held on her 32nd birthday, on July 24 in Sonoma, California. Please contact Trine Frank at (818) 240-3765, for information concerning the celebration.
-- Jim and Rosemary Jepson
"Hugh Pettibrain", by Alex McCrae
Layout and background artist HUGH
PETTIBONE died on May 18 at the age of seventy-five. From 1990 until
1998 he worked for DIC, Universal and Warner Bros.
Our paths first crossed over a decade ago at Warners, while crafting key background layouts on Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain.
Hugh and I hit it off from day one. We were the studio early birds. Coming in from Oxnard, Hugh would make it in no later than 7:30 am, and I was usually in by 8. We would ease into the day with chitchat and repartee ... a few belly laughs to meet the day.
Hugh, Norm McCabe and Tom Ray were regulars at the Valley Inn, Warner's answer to "Cheers". It was there that Hugh introduced me to that strange, yet life-altering deep-fried culinary phenomenon of ham, cheese, bread, powdered sugar and strawberry jam, the Monte Cristo sandwich. On a pristine white napkin, no less.
I was later jolted by the news that Hugh had lost his vision to macular degeneration. But Hugh seemed to take this devastating event in stride to move on. With the love and support of his wife Betty, Hugh coped for several years until his passing. He leaves behind his wife and three beautiful daughters, and a legion of friends who will miss his keen wit and down-home decency and charm.
I'm going to miss you ... my dear friend Hugh.
-- Alex McCrae