Without getting into any of the pros and cons of their being an affirmative action program for media composers, it would be interesting to discuss how such a program, if ultimately desired, could be designed, implemented and supported.
Among the areas to explore could be:
1. What are the objectives?
2. What are the specifics?
3. Are there Quotas?
4. If there are quotas how are they determined and defined (gender, race, age, sexual orientation, experience, income, nationality, etc?)
5. How is an employer defined (a production company, a studio, an individual producer, a distributor, etc.)!
6. How many composing employees does an employer need to have to trigger qualification under the affirmative action plan (how does the plan work if a one-off employer is only hiring one composer for their project?)
7. How many scores does an employer need to have and under what period of time to trigger the plan (ie: the employer has 3 films over a 5 year period, at what point does the affirmative action plan go into effect?)
8. Is the affirmative action plan voluntary or is it enforceable under a law or agreement?
9. If it is voluntary, what would Incentivize participation?
10. What means of enforcement would there be to make employers follow the program?
11. How would the plan address pre-existing relationships between composers and filmmakers (would there be situations where a director would be told they could not hire their usual collaborator because of this plan?)
12. Who would determine any of this?
Looking forward to lots of thoughts and input around these questions.
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