The scope and content of this collection is heavily influenced by the fact that historically, NWU Local 3 has been a member, rather than staff, driven organization. For the first five years, for example, there were no paid staff. And until 1995 the "union office" was located in various members' homes. Therefore, the bulk of Local 3's work was done by a volunteer steering committee aided by other committees, ad hoc and on-going. For the most part, records were kept by the individual members who did the work.

The bulk of the records comprising this collection were saved by Celeste MacLeod, Bruce Hartford, and a few of the paid Coordinators, possibly Janet Jacobs. The collection gives a good idea of the union's activities but is particularly reflective of the work done by these individuals. There appear to be some gaps, particularly in grievance handling and trade group activity.

Local 3 attempted to organize freelancers employed by the Chronicle and Examiner between 1987 and 1990 and this effort is documented in the Organizing Campaigns Series. The NWU Conferences, Workshops, Events Series contains material from some of Local 3's well-attended events, including its annual writers' conferences (1988-1991) and the Prose to Poetry evening (1994).

Some of the union's activities at the National level are documented. While these documents are primarily in the Delegates Assembly and National Executive Board Series, evidence of National operations may be found throughout the collection, particularly in those files kept by Local 3 members who held national office or attended national events.

Finally, the Publications Series contains a somewhat complete run of Local 3's and the National's newsletters (Bay Area Writer, later Hear Say, and the American Writer).