POSTMASTER HAPPENINGS - 3 DIGIT MEETINGS AND UPCOMING EVENTS !

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...................................... LEAGUE EVENTS................................

COMING EVENTS - PLAN NOW TO ATTEND ONE OR ALL!

LEAGUE OF POSTMASTERS 40TH FORUM
Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, Arlington, VA
January 30 - February 2,2010

LEAGUE OF POSTMASTERS STATE CONVENTION - APRIL 22-25,2010
Quality Hotel and Convention Center in Hastings, NE
Details forthcoming - dates have been changed - days are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
An informal gathering (nothing scheduled ) for sharing
on Thursday night preceding convention. Sunday afternoon will he PMR Training!
Don 't miss out on the networking and training the "Education Organization "offers
We are the National League of Postmasters!

National League of Postmasters Convention -July 18 - 22, 2010
in San Diego, California - Plan a family vacation - prior to or immediately following the convention

CLICK ON RECENT 3 DIGIT MEETING(ABOVE) FOR INFO FROM BEATRICE MEETING

688-689 3 digit meeting 09/16/09

by Tony Bals, Postmaster Palmer, NE

 

 I attended a League meeting last night in Hastings and thought I would share some of the information with you.  Ed Goforth and Doug Streeter were in attendance and gave presentations.

Ed presented a bleak outlook for the USPS.  HQ believes that our mail volumes will continue to fall this FY and next, but will level out by 2011.  They do not believe the volumes will rebound.  Commercial mailers have already stated they will not mail at the record volumes as they have in the past.  There is a hiring freeze on for all career employees, which includes postmaster positions, and he believes this will continue for some time.  So the details will continue until the district receives permission to fill these vacant PM jobs.
  1. Money Order Control Log.  If you are an eMoves office, you are no longer required to maintain a money order control log (see attached).  You must run an adding machine tape for each individual copy of the 1412, but a tape is not required for the unit copy.  You can opt to print the daily money order report for eMoves if you wish.

2)      Scanning Arrival at Unit.  You are required to scan all mail pieces (parcels, flats, and letters) that have a numbered label as arrival at unit.  This includes but not limited to:  Express, delivery confirmation, signature confirmation, insured (blue & black), certified, and registered.  Basically, if it has a scanable label….scan it!  The arrival at unit scan should be done before you scan your distribution barcodes.  Any mail pieces discovered in the mail stream after the fact should still be scanned.  All arrival at unit scanned items must be scanned as delivered or attempted the same day.
3)      UPS Drop Shipments.  If you receive UPS drop shipments, you only scan 1 item as “DC/EVS Arrive”.  You may scan all items as arrival at unit, but it’s not required.  All UPS drops must be delivered/attempted the same as accepted, or the next working day depending on the time of arrival.
4)      Mail Delivery.  All mail should be boxed in the following order:  Express, priority, parcel post, 1st class, periodicals, and standard.  If you must curtail mail, you start at the bottom with Standard mail and work up.  That’s not a mistype….Ed says we should never curtail parcel post and it should be delivered before 1st class.  Go figure on that one! L  Tubs with green lids contain “some” first class mail and must be worked the same day as arrival.  White tub lids contain standard mail and could be curtailed if necessary.  If you find newspapers or first class mail in a tub with a white lid, notify the plant so they can fix the problem.
5)      Distribution/Box Up Scans.  Both scans must be done daily.  A late scan is better then no scan, even if that scan comes 7 hours late.  If you are late scanning, do not email Ed.  He stated that if he wants to know why, he will contact you.   If you miss a scan…..pray….then be prepared to tell him why. J  Verify that all scans are present before you cradle the scanner!  Verify the time in your scanner, don’t use any other time device to determine when you should scan.
6)      PFP Core reviews.  During mid-year our core requirements were changed to reflect scanning accuracy of box up scans.  As of last night, Ed did not have a “standard” level of performance.  Meaning he has not determined how many late/missing scans you are allowed and how that breaks out.  He did state that he was using the available data from February to end of FY.  So if you had really bad scans in Oct-Jan, no need to bring that up. J

PAST 3 DIGIT MEETING 

 Article and photos by

Postmaster Bruce Ritter  

Clatonia , NE   68328

On Tuesday, March 24th the 683/684 area had a 3 digit meeting. Once again, we had it at the beautiful, historic Hotel Wilber in Wilber, Ne. The topic was size/shape based pricing and Dim weight pricing. The presenter was Linda Van Ooyen, Mailing Standards Specialist from Lincoln, Ne. Linda presented a wealth of knowledge to us, such as:

1). A letter is ALWAYS a letter. It never goes up to a large envelope (flat) because of a rigid insert, clasp... If it fits in the template and through the slot, it's a letter-it just becomes a non-machinable letter, if it's rigid, has a clasp, has the address in the wrong direction...

2). To get the business mailing discounts, flats must not be too floppy-they are measured for their "droop". Because of this, many newspapers have changed to a smaller size.

3). New mailing standards will require magazines to put the delivery address in standardized locations. If you take the magazine, and hold it with the bound edge (spine) to the right, the address will have to be in the top half to get any discount.

4). The new prices will simplify Parcel Post prices. They will eliminate inter and intra BMC, consolidating Parcel Post into one table on the price charts, and I believe I heard they will be eliminating the non-machinable surcharge, too.

5.) In the left column of the blue page of the internet, there is an entry for Postal Explorer. Click on that and you go to a webpage that has quick links to a myriad of helpful information. There are links to click on for calculating the postage price of a mailpiece, which will figure the Dim rate for you in the left column, click on price calculator, retail/single piece. There is a link to the quick service guides, which among other items has a chart of all the old Nondenominated postage stamps so when someone says "how much is this stamp with the tophat and the letter H worth?" you can find out quickly (.33). In the middle column just click on the words quick service guides and scroll down till you see Nondenominated Postage

As usual, the meal was excellent, and we all had a good time and learned useful information.