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 One Beltway Center |
President's MessageMarch 18,2008 Dear Leaguers, Our 2008 League of Postmasters Legislative Forum is over and, again, by all accounts, it was quite eventful and successful! The Forum essentially began on Friday when John Difalco, our Adverse Action Attorney, and our more seasoned Adverse Action Counselors, devoted the entire day to training counselors and counselor hopefuls on how to handle cases where League members face discipline. Unfortunately, some Postmasters continue to do things that will get them into trouble. That does not seem to have changed. What does seem to be changing is that, more and more, discipline is being used by districts to (supposedly) motivate Postmasters. Subsequently, discipline is being imposed for the most trivial of offenses, from poor Mystery Shops by our employees to missed scans by our employees. It was very gratifying to see so many Postmasters, our Adverse Action Counselors, at the training, ready to go to bat for fellow Postmasters. In spite of rural route counts, severe staffing shortages and some reluctant District managers, Leaguers from all over our country gathered to take part in this exercise of our democratic freedom. Our sessions began on Sunday morning, as always, with our worship service. This was soon followed by Bill Krejci, Kathy Yager and our excellent Legislative Committee, hosting the Legislative workshop. Bob Brinkmann, our Legislative Consultant brought us up-to-date on current issues of concern to Leaguers. By the end of the workshop, we were well prepared to travel to Congress to make our voices heard! Sunday’s workshops were very well attended (some standing room only!) and the Postal Service’s Revenue Ready Room was available with fresh, solid ideas to help Postmasters increase their post office revenues. Our Membership and Effective Service Workshop was dynamite! Membership Chair Marge Oehlke, Advisor Linda Rumney, and the National Membership Committee did a bang-up job in showing the critical importance of membership and in presenting our new membership program. We were all then awed by the great training products presented by Effective Service Chair Debi Chapman-Hermann, Advisor Dixie Bentley and the National Effective Service Committee. The training packages that they put together are professionally done and are now available to Postmasters. Perhaps the most amazing part of what the committee accomplished and continues to accomplish is that they are all volunteers! The League can rightly proclaim, “We are the Education Organization.” We topped the day off with our Auxiliary and Retirees’ auction accompanied by good music and lots of tasty snacks. Our auctioneer was top-rate and he was ably assisted by the entire National Executive Board. After National Chaplain, Gallian Fulton invoked the Almighty’s blessings on our event, Postmaster Sharon Garris (Wingate, NC) regaled us with her beautiful rendition of our National Anthem. She then had us all on our feet singing together with her, “God Bless America.” As promised, PMG Jack Potter spoke to us about the necessity of Revenue Generation and assured us that, in spite of the financial losses the Postal Service has suffered in the last few months, he is certain that with each of us, from PMG to Postmaster to carrier, pitching in to do his part, the Postal Service will end the year in good shape. Deputy Postmaster General Pat Donahoe showed us some of the direction in which the Postal Service is going, and expressed his thanks to the management associations, including the League, for meeting with him monthly to be briefed on postal trends and to share our concerns with him. We value this time with him and are pleased that he has often been willing to act quickly on many of our issues. Anita Bizzotto, the USPS’ Chief Marketing Officer, was on hand to present, with Pat Donahoe, Growth Awards to deserving League Postmasters (20 members of the League were among a total of 43 winners.) Ben Cooper, from Mail Moves America, a coalition of mailing industry interests and postal groups, provided insights on how we all need to work together to protect the mail. Marie Therese Dominquez, VP of Government Relations, after being escorted to the podium by a proud group of Leaguers from her home state of New Mexico, spoke to us about issues including Do Not Mail legislation on the state level and Vote by Mail bills in Congress that would affect the Postal Service and each one of us if passed and implemented. She thanked the League for its efforts to support the Postal Service on these very important issues. Adverse Action Attorney John DiFalco lectured us on the importance of staying out of trouble, but, perhaps he was most eloquent at his speech’s conclusion where he reminded us that there are more important things than our jobs and work. We must be very careful to take the time nurture the more important relationships with our family and friends. We were honored to have Representative Danny Davis speak to us about postal reform and the Postal Service operating under the new law. We were given excellent presentations from Postal Headquarters’ experts on Intelligent Mail and Customer Service Variance (CSV). Some Postmasters from the smaller post offices did not see how CSV affected them, but they will recognize the process soon enough when its sister, Small Office Variance (SOV), rolls out for them. Monday night found hundreds of Leaguers at our congressional reception in downtown Washington, D.C. The site of the reception was, appropriately, the National Postal Museum, where we were greeted by Allen Kane, director of the museum. Among our honored guests was Senator Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Tuesday morning, Leaguers rose before the sun to make their ways in teams of two, four and ten to visit their congressmen. Scores had never been before and the excitement of their first visit was something wonderful. Others were many time attendees who still felt empowered by the opportunity help make change by a visit to Congress. Tuesday afternoon became warmer and milder – a perfect afternoon for our annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. I was joined by fellow veterans John Olson from Minnesota, Bob Gingras from New Hampshire and Wayne Conner from West Virginia in the laying of the wreath. The wind blew briskly as my team made its way through down through the hushed crowd to the tomb with our wreath. Each of us was honored and humbled at this chance to take just a little time out of our busy Forum schedule pay tribute to all who served well in our country’s military. The finale to our Forum came at our Grande Banquet where we gathered to share good food, good entertainment, good music, and above all, good League fellowship. Adding to the dignity of our gathering was former Postmaster General Paul Carlin who was PMG 23 years ago, as I was just becoming a Postmaster. History shows that the Postal Service earned a tidy $479 million in the first quarter of his last year with us. You wonder how we did that before budgets, staffing shortages and micro-management! Our Leaguers then made their way home the next day to their post offices, route counts and their own beds, hopefully invigorated and energized to again tackle the challenges of being Postmasters. You can see from my account that if you were not there, you missed a lot! You can remedy that now by committing to yourself that you’ll be coming to Forum next year! Route counts have now been completed. With declining volume, it is expected that, due to the significant drop in mail volumes (I’ve had some Postmasters tell me that their volumes are down more than 30 percent!), thousands of rural routes will be reduced. On a positive note, and in light of the fact that there are just too few relief personnel to take over in the absence of Postmasters mandated to help with route counts, more Districts took advantage of the experience of our retired Postmasters. The League will be asking the Postal Service if there is a way for us to formalize this process so that all districts can take advantage of this good idea. One issue that we have repeatedly brought to the attention of Postal Headquarters is that of “hub office” Postmasters being further burdened with the task of delivering mail incorrectly dispatched by the plants. It is one thing to do the right thing in getting guaranteed Express mail home in time, it is quite another to ask Postmasters to spend hours and many dollars in miles to deliver a small handful of letters or a single piece of Priority Mail chasing a number on a report at the District. Perhaps it would be more palatable if Postmasters could transfer the hours used to the offending plant, as there are no additional hours budgeted to the post offices for this practice. Because most of the hub office Postmasters are FLSA exempt, many districts think nothing of tossing a few more hours on the backs of already burdened Postmasters. Add to the mix the fact that many Postmasters may not be insured in their privately owned vehicles as they perform official postal business in them. After many, many months we (League, Napus and Naps) still don’t have a response from Postal Headquarters to our request to get our managers insured in their POVs. Deputy PMG Pat Donahoe agrees that we need to be able to use common sense in deciding when to deliver misdirected mail. It seems that in many Districts, common sense just ain’t so common. Almost every day I hear from exempt Postmasters working 10 and more hours every day and forced to go into their post offices on weekends. Most often these Postmasters are understaffed and Districts are not motivated to get their hirings done. Dale Goff, president of Napus, and I have teamed up on this issue and many others in an effort to right this wrong. We have just about exhausted our possibilities at Postal Headquarters which pretty much has decided to do nothing about their problem. Mr. Goff and I know that there is a solution to this problem somewhere and we are committed to do what it takes to find that solution. I had a wonderful conversation in the Revenue Ready Room with Mario Madrid, Postmaster from Woodland Park, Colorado, a Growth Award winner and member of the Revenue Ready Room crew. Mario showed me how he has significantly increased his post office’s revenue by working with his community to educate it on eBay, Click-N-Ship and www.usps.com. He holds classroom seminars to show them how to work their eBay businesses using their computers. Listening to Mario, I found myself continually nodding my head as I had done many of the same things in my own community a few years ago. There are still many revenue opportunities out there for Postmasters. If the Postal Service would be more willing to provide resources, Postmasters would be more empowered and willing to go out and chase down revenue. Usps.com has a much improved and user-friendly home page (if you haven’t been there for a while it’s time to take a peek). Even though sometimes the Postal Service seems to have been highjacked by aliens, it is still our Postal Service, and it absolutely cannot be successful without our involvement. Forum is over; it’s time to start planning for our National Convention this summer in Louisville, Kentucky! Respectfully, Charley Mapa President, National League of Postmasters |
League EventsAugust 3 - 7, 2008 National League of Postmasters Convention Marriott Louisville Downtown January 31 - February 3, 2009 Crystal Gateway Marriott |
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