POSTAL SERVICE MOVES TO YEARLY NATIONAL POSTAL FORUM

The U.S. Postal Service is moving to a once-a-year National Postal Forum (NPF) in order to strengthen and enhance the content of programming offered to customers and those in the mailing industry.

This means the Spring 2004 NPF — scheduled for May in Seattle, WA — will be canceled so organizational planning can focus on developing new program content and workshops that provide more value, to more people, in a more efficient way. The next NPF will occur in September 2004, in Washington, DC.

In announcing the decision, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President Anita J. Bizzotto said, “This change is an outgrowth of the Transformation Plan, where we envision a continuous search for new and better ways to conduct business and to make events, such as the NPF, more meaningful for customers.” The Transformation Plan is a blueprint designed and created by the Postal Service to successfully carry out its long-standing mission of providing affordable universal service. It can be found on www.usps.com.

At the Fall 2004 Forum, there will be summit events and symposiums covering topics important to customers in businesses of all sizes within the mailing industry. The symposiums will contain content and value for the complete spectrum of corporate-level executives, from Marketing and business-decision makers to mail room managers.

In addition, there will be new workshops and event tracks highlighting the many ways mail can bring solutions to 21st century business needs. Improved workshops will focus on using the mail efficiently and better integrate postal Sales, Marketing and Operations staff into forum activities to help customers take advantage of what they learn.

The National Postal Forum (NPF) is a not-for-profit educational corporation, established in 1968 by a group of major postal customers and mailers who were committed to an ongoing partnership with the Postal Service. The Forum’s goal, then as now, has been to provide education to business mailers and communication and feedback between the U.S. Postal Service and its business customers for a more responsive and efficient mail communications system.

Since the first meeting in 1968, the format and frequency of Forum meetings each year have undergone a number of changes, varying from annual Forums to regionally-focused Forums meeting up to five times per year. National Postal Forums since 1990 have been held twice a year at various locations throughout the United States.

The NPF and the U.S. Postal Service work closely together as partners to provide the most comprehensive and educational platform possible for meeting the needs of the mailing industry.

NEW BUSINESS MODEL NEEDED

USPS agrees with many Commission recommendations

Transformation is moving forward, but USPS needs a new business model to meet the challenges of the 21st century, said Postmaster General Jack Potter in testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

Potter was commenting on recommendations made by the President’s Commission on the Postal Service. Many of them, said the PMG, were “consistent with strategies that we are already pursuing as part of our transformation efforts.”

USPS agrees with the Commission’s recommendation that a new business model is needed, said Potter. The current one “is becoming increasingly disconnected from today’s reality. It is outdated and inflexible,” he said.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) Comptroller General David Walker, who also testified, concurred: “The GAO agrees with the President’s Commission that now is the time to modernize the nation’s postal laws rather than waiting until a financial crisis occurs that limits congressional options.”

CSRS Legislation

Potter also said that recently passed Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) legislation will help USPS hold rates steady until 2006, but the new law presents some “very definite challenges.” By shifting military retirement benefits for USPS employees from the Treasury to the Postal Service, postal ratepayers will be saddled with an additional $27 billion in costs. “We agree with the President’s Commission that the Postal Service shouldn’t be responsible for military service costs,” said the PMG.

Potter also called for the elimination of an “escrow” account that would be established for CSRS “savings” beginning in 2006, because it could result in postage rates rising more than necessary.

Other recommendations

USPS agrees with many other recommendations made by the Commission, said Potter, including preserving the letter and mailbox monopolies, rate flexibility, a better collective bargaining process, more operational flexibility, pursuing strategic private sector partnerships and increased use of intelligent mail, among others.

The Postal Service has reservations about some recommendations, said Potter. A proposed governing board wouldn’t have the same bipartisan oversight that’s enjoyed by the current Board of Governors, he said. The recommended Postal Regulatory Board would have much broader powers than the current Postal Rate Commission. Potter said there should be “a clear line between what is appropriately a managerial function within the oversight of the Governors or Directors, what is a regulatory function committed to the regulator, and what is a public policy function reserved to the nation’s lawmakers.”

“The mail is today — and will remain for many years to come — a critical element of our nation’s infrastructure,” said Potter. To read the PMG’s testimony, go to: http://www.usps.com/communications/news/speeches/2003/sp03_pmg1105.pdf.

MOVING MILITARY MAIL

New process improves tracking

Getting mail to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces can be a challenging task. Factor in some far-flung locations, a mobile population and some rough terrain, and the challenges might seem daunting. But the mail still goes through. And now, tracking the receipt of that mail just got a whole lot easier.

USPS and the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) have developed a new way for the U.S. military to record receipt of mail inexpensively and easily, at any military location or embassy worldwide — even aboard ships at sea. The folks at Intelligent Mail, Planning and Standards, International Network Operations and International Business Information Technology, along with the MPSA, worked hard to make it happen.

The new system uses hand scanners and Internet communication to record arrival of mail bags and trays containing military mail. Prior to that, USPS relied on data passed to it from the military on a complex and expensive communications network that used outdated equipment.

Field testing is under way now, with deployment scheduled later this month for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The Navy is testing shipboard compliance and is expected to begin deployment as early as next month.