We have some fascinating people on this list. Could we please do formal introductions? Samantha Clark Albuquerque, NM At-Large Organizing Co-Chair, NWU I'm an officer and the part-time paid organizer for NWU's At-Large Unit. We cover over 30 states. My job is to help unorganized areas of the At-Large eventually become Sub-Units, then seperate Units within the union. I work with our members with everything from hooking up with our resources, starting organizing in their geographic areas, affililiating with their Central Labor Councils and state feds, and whatever other hand-holding may be required. Oh yeah, we cover the rest of the world as well. (NWU has membership open to any writer.) We've been involved in outreach actitivity to our membership during the last 2 years in the following states: AK, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NM, NV, NY, OH, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, WA, WI, WV and WY. A member asked me when we'll start organizing France. And hey... I ask that myself. When do I get a trip to Paris? My fellow At-Large Steering Committee members accuse me of being BizTech-centric. But I feel that business and technical writers are our best opportunity for organizing. Journalist and book authors tend to have a lot of organizations already competing for their attention. There's another union for authors, the Authors Guild. The At-Large has had a heart-stopping drop in membership over the last year and a half. We really need to get serious about finding and retaining freelancers. Another immediate focus for the At-Large is getting out the vote. 14 of the 17 battleground states (give or take) are in the At-Large, including NM, OH, FL, IA and so on. So we have the potential for getting media coverage in some important states around the upcoming elections. My writing background is some journalism, which has now turned into PR work. I'm also an artist. Samantha > In response to this missive, I agree. As a CWA local > president involved in legislative matters, I know we > have been hammering away at these issues. With our > clout in various state legislatures, our elected > officials are listening. > > However, it's not just a privacy issue. We're sending > data overseas that includes credit numbers, social > security numbers, etc., that make identity theft not > only an opportunity, but a temptation. > > There's also the buzzwords that the current > administration always employ: issues of "national > security," "unpatriotic" movement of American work and > jobs to foreign shores... > > Make no mistake - these actions are gutting the middle > class and undermining the infrastructure of our > country. How soon before we're a third world nation? >