New Membership Criteria, More Diversity

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that arms out the Golden Globe Awards, dedicated to a sweeping “reimagination” of the group on Monday, pledging to extend membership by 50%, maintain new board elections and rent skilled government management.

“For the past 60 days we have worked hard to come up with a plan of action – culling ideas from the members as well as outside entities – to present a cohesive, comprehensive proposal. We have engaged in much-needed, deep introspection with the help and guidance of our outside advisors, experts in diversity and inclusion, and our media partners. Together, we have created a roadmap for transformational change in our organization,” board members mentioned in a press release to fellow members. “We want to reaffirm our commitment to bringing Black and racially diverse members into our organization, which we feel can be accomplished by lifting many of the membership barriers, building pipelines with diverse journalist groups, and developing a long-term plan in partnership with a new Chief Diversity Officer.”

The letter to members continued, “The Board, as well as our outside partners, wholeheartedly endorse this reimagination of our organization. We must meet this moment, knowing that if we join together in support, we can become a better organization and, with hard work, an example of diversity, transparency and accountability in the industry for others to follow, just as our founders imagined almost 80 years ago.”

In the memo to members, the group mentioned it will instantly set up an impartial overview committee consisting of “racially and ethnically diverse members” to supervise the reforms. Additionally, the group will maintain a brand new board election, underneath new bylaws, no later than Sept. 1 — board positions will not be lifetime appointments, so each member should run for reelection after two years.

The group additionally revised its membership eligibility standards and admissions course of, pledging to confess no less than 20 new members this yr, with a “specific focus on recruiting Black members.” The group set a objective to extend membership by 50% over the following 18 months, in addition to so as to add members from “other underrepresented groups in each class,” together with AAPI and Hispanic journalists. The HFPA is eliminating the Southern California residency requirement and increasing eligibility to any certified journalist residing within the U.S. who works for a overseas publication. The earlier sponsorship requirement by an present member may even be eradicated, as will restrictions on what number of members will probably be admitted per yr and what number of members will be a part of the group from every territory (each of those restrictions have been a serious supply of competition over the previous few years).

The HFPA has been underneath fireplace in latest months over its lack of any Black members — in addition to its observe document of snubbing films and TV exhibits with Black creators — and deep corruption that drew backlash from the Hollywood neighborhood, prompting Time’s Up to demand an overhaul of the group. In response to the backlash, the group employed a range advisor, USC professor Shaun Harper, to deal with “systemic” points. But following a gathering with Time’s Up, Harper give up after he was confronted with the small print of the HFPA’s issues. In addition, former HFPA president Philip Berk was expelled final month after sending an electronic mail to members with a submit describing Black Lives Matter as a “hate movement.” The HFPA mentioned it will announce a set of reforms by May 6.

The group will instantly retain a range, fairness and inclusion advisor and develop a “comprehensive” DEI technique, in addition to rent skilled administration employees, together with a chief government officer, chief range, fairness and inclusion officer, a chief human sources officer and a chief monetary officer by Sept. 1. Non-HFPA members will probably be eligible…