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LET’S GET UNITED
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Share the message and collective voice of North Dakota United
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By Kelly Hagen United Voices Editor
Welcome back to school for another great year, NDU crew! This issue of United Voices is our special Back to School edition, but it’s also dedicated to membership in North Dakota United, too. And so I wanted to take a moment to tell all of (N.D.)YOU about what it means to be North Dakota United.
The title of our magazine, United Voices, is a kind of mission statement. We hope to combine all of the voices of our 11,500 members statewide into one so loud, so powerful, it cannot go unheard. But we can’t do it without you! So, I have an ask to make of you.
Every issue of United Voices is intended to be structured as a portrait of what and who we are as North Dakota United. You’ll read stories about our members, see their faces and learn about the jobs they do for all of us, day in and day out. You get perspectives from our leaders: President Nick Archuleta, Vice Presidents Gary Feist and Karen Christensen, and the president of NDU-Retired, Nancy Peterson.
North Dakota United is family. What makes our union truly unique is how many North Dakotans are eligible for membership. We represent all public employees, including city, county and state workers, K-12 school staff and teachers, university faculty and staff, as well as college students of education and retired public employees, too. You’re probably already a member of North Dakota United, or you wouldn’t be receiving this magazine in the mail. But, additionally, you have friends and family who are eligible to join our union, too!
In this issue, we are giving you our recommendations for the upcoming elections. The process of determining which candidates will receive our endorsement is meticulous and research-based. We base our decisions on voting records, candidate interviews and surveys. We don’t care at all whether there is an “R,” a “D” or even an “I” behind their name on the ballot. What matters is where they stand on the issues that matter most to our union.
Just look around you, at the people closest to you, and you’ll be surprised by how many of your peers work for the public. Maybe your wife works for Dickinson State University, or your aunt works for Human Services? Perhaps your sister-in-law is a teacher? Your best friend drives a snow plow for DOT?
Additionally, in this issue, you will notice that two of our stories contain promos to visit our website, www.ndunited.org, to view video news stories to go along with the printed word. This is exciting for us at NDU, that we can provide our members’ stories through multimedia. We can dive deeper inside those stories here in the pages of United Voices, but you get even more details by checking out video on our website or listening to our podcast, The Cutting Ed, which is available to listen to anytime at www. ndunited.org/thecuttinged, or on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play or anywhere you get your favorite podcasts.
ndunited.org
Share your copy of United Voices with those people who are eligible to join your union! If you don’t want to part with your paper copy, check out our website at www.ndunited.org/unitedvoices for the full catalog of electronic versions, which can be easily shared through e-mail or social media. And then send them to our website, www.ndunited.org/join, for more information on how they can get United, too! North Dakota United is YOU. Every one of our members, every educator, every public employee, every student, every citizen we serve. We are North Dakota. Now let’s get United!
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