National Writers Union Oregon Chapter
Minutes for July Meeting
New Chapter Logo
If Oregon members have a campaign or event where they want to show union support by using our union’s logo, we now have a new chapter logo that includes our state name along with the national logo. We should have it up on our website soon. Reminder: members need to get union support for any campaign before using the logo. That requires either coming to a union meeting and winning member agreement or sending a proposal to the steering committee for its approval, per our current process.
Treasurer’s Report
- Oregon 2025: In 2025, we paid for our AFL-CIO dues, the web hosting, and the bookmarks. At year end we had $8,194 in our unit fund.
- Oregon 2026: On May 31, 2026 we had paid $483 in 2026 AFL-CIO dues, and $100 for the Willamette Writers ad. 2026 income was $425. We had $8,167 in our unit fund.
- 2026 Oregon budget was approved by ExCom. In addition to the items already paid for, it includes funds for member-specific organizing, our postcard project, a social media intern, scholarships for NWU memberships for members facing financial hardship, and our annual in-person meeting.
Social Media Intern
We hired Alexandria (Alex) Fig to help our chapter’s social media work after advertising the position to national members and Oregon members. Alex has years of work as a freelance social media manager. She will be working for us from mid July – mid-September. Her responsibilities include helping our chapter develop a social media strategy, support our members’ use of social media, and to strengthen our use of WhatsApp. If people want to learn more or work with her, they should contact Kacey Carpenter, who will be supervising her.
Oregon Labor Chapter Representatives
We have three union members working with the Oregon AFL-CIO as chapter representatives. We look forward to reports from their work.
- Michael Funke, Oregon NWU chapter representative to the Central Oregon Labor Chapter.
- Elissa Edge, Oregon NWU chapter representative to Cascades to Coast Central Labor Chapter (which was established from the merger of the Lin-Benton-Lincoln Central Labor Chapter with the Marion-Polk-Central Labor Chapter).
- Fernando E. Gapasin, Oregon NWU chapter representative to the Southern Oregon Labor Chapter. (March 2026)
Delegate Assembly Elections
Our current delegates, whose terms have expired, are Bob Rossi, Jim Smith, Shane Burley, Marty Hart-Landsberg, Lura Frazey (Alternate). The national union will be organizing elections for new delegates soon. If members want to run for the position, they need to demonstrate an on-going relationship with our chapter. Please feel free to contact current delegates to learn more about the responsibilities.
Table at Willamette Writers Meeting
We will be talking to writers and letting them know about the work our union is doing at the Willamette Writers meeting, Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Portland, July 31, 5-7pm. Several members have already committed to attend, the more the merrier!
Next Steps
How do we encourage more members to attend our meetings? How do we grow the chapter? Jim Smith proposes we discuss this at the next meeting.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be September 13, 2026 at 4:00 pm