[1][2][3] In 2014, the ADG membership voted unanimously for constitutional changes to enable the Guild to register as a trade union under Australia's federal Industrial Relations Act 1988.
It seeks to promote excellence in screen direction through seminars, conferences, workshops and awards, to encourage communication and collaboration between directors and others in the industry, to provide professional support for its members, to represent the interests of directors in cultural and policy debates and decisions and to play a constructive role in matters affecting the Australian screen industry as a whole.
The ADG provides members with information, access, professional advice and advocacy relating to issues that affect directors – such as contracts, fees, codes of practice, rights and disputes.
It maintains and provides connections with overseas Guilds through its affiliation with the International Association of English Speaking Directors Organisations (IAESDO).
[5] The Guild organises a Directors Attachment Scheme in cooperation with Screen Australia whereby successful applicants are placed in productions in order to gain experience working in film or television.
The staff and operations of the Guild are financed through fees for membership, income from events, a small percent of overseas royalties collected through ASDACS, a voluntary levy from the budgets of members' productions and sponsorship from state and federal film bodies, Screenrights and Media Super.
Nine directors were the formal signatories: Gillian Armstrong, James Ricketson, Esben Storm, Albie Thoms, Henri Safran, Keith Salvat, Tom Jeffrey, Carl Schultz and Michael Pate.
New signatories to the ASDA Articles of Association on 15 January 1982 included Phillip Noyce and Stephen Wallace and a number of directors best known for their television work: John Power, Maurice Murphy, Peter Maxwell, Ron Way and Ian Barry.
Attempts at instituting a standard directors contract proved fruitless as the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) refused to negotiate, citing ASDA's lack of industrial registration as its reason.
ASDA Board meetings were initially held in members' houses or at an industry watering hole, the 729 Club, until 1984 by which time income had increased sufficiently for the establishment of an office in the suburb of Glebe.
As the organization developed further, eventually including membership in other capital cities, the Australian Film Commission (AFC) began to give financial support to ASDA's cultural events and seminars.
During this period also, ASDA continued its participation in industry policy development with submissions to and meetings with relevant organisations, reviews and government departments.
Importantly, with the subsequent passing of the 2006 Copyright Amendment Act, ASDA and the Australian Writers Guild, now working together, managed to achieve protection for their members from contractual pressures to waive their moral rights – a waiver which is permitted and widely exercised in some other jurisdictions, notably in the United States.
ASDACS subsequently formed further relationships with other European collecting societies and in recent years has distributed roughly half a million dollars annually to its 800 director members in Australia and New Zealand.
[15][16][17] In 1999, ASDA made further gains for directors in arguing for their inclusion as beneficiaries under the retransmission scheme proposed in the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act (2000).
[22][23] More broadly and in line with the ADG's understanding of the increasing impact of globalisation on Australian screen, Argall officially represented Australia in the founding of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity in Seville in 2007.
[4] The ADG continued to maintain a focus on directors' creative and craft issues through seminars and discussion screenings in capital cities, at its national conference, and in collaboration with a range of other industry organisations, educational institutions and film festivals.