When you attend AFGE’s conferences and see those gorgeously designed banners, flyers, rally signs, and other digital or printed materials, understand that the team that makes it happen is AFGE’s Service Department!
For decades the Service Department has been our union’s go-to for graphic design, printing, and mailing needs.
Every day, the department works with locals, councils, districts, and national staff to create beautiful products to help them organize new members, train activists, bargain contracts, educate members and lawmakers.
Every election season, it’s the Service Department that sends out mailings to our members to keep them informed of the candidates that value and support government workers.
The five-person department is run by Tim Colbert, who has been working at AFGE for 37 years. Colbert said some of the most requested services are design and production of local letterhead, lunch and learn templates, business cards, PowerPoint presentations, flyers, various publications, and mailings.
What people may not know about the department, however, is that it saves AFGE members a ton of money. Take business cards for example. A box of 500 union-made business cards costs AFGE members only $25, which is the same cost as a box of 250 cards at FedEx. No wonder 40% of the department’s work is printing business cards. Besides affordable printing rates, all the graphic design work for various products is free.
Colbert said the team members are dedicated and passionate about their work and care deeply about the union. Even though there are just five of them, they carry out their daily operation effectively and efficiently while meeting tight deadlines on various projects and have constantly delivered quality goods and services to our AFGE members.
“We take pride in the work that we do,” he added. “Serving our AFGE members is our number goal, and the work we do for them should be a direct reflection of that. We aim high to produce the very best goods and services that we can for our AFGE members.”
Need help with your design, printing, or mailing needs?
Click here to submit a service request and see a full list of the services the department provides.
Have a question for our printers or designers? Contact [email protected].
