STABLE RATES. Some good financial news may help USPS keep postage rates stable until 2006, two years longer than anticipated. PMG Jack Potter told the Board of Governors yesterday that USPS has met much more of its financial obligation to the Civil Service Retirement System than the government thought, thanks to a new analysis by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Federal legislation will be required to implement the results of this new analysis, but the findings have the potential to allow USPS to hold postage rates at their current level until 2006.

These new findings will have no impact on current postal employee retirement contributions, nor on future benefits. There will be no effect on current CSRS postal retiree annuities.

"All these positive financial outcomes for our ratepayers depend on statutory change," said Potter. He indicated that OPM has drafted such legislative change and sent it to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He believes the Bush Administration will support the change, and OMB, OPM and Treasury have offered their support to brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

SPEEDY SERVICE. POS ONE is more than just a state-of-the-art cash register system for USPS. The system is expected to reduce customer waiting time at counters by 10 percent on average while providing a fully integrated network for accounting, marketing, payroll and sales.

Point-of-sale - POS ONE - retail terminals will be deployed at post offices that bring in more than 90% of retail revenue. Once deployment is completed by mid-2005, there will be 63,588 POS ONE terminals at 15,015 post offices.

"POS ONE plays a major role in reaching our goals of improving customer service and ensuring that our employees have the tools they need to efficiently and easily provide postal services to our customers," said Henry Pankey, vice president for Delivery and Retail. "Retail associates receive consistent information on a daily basis to keep them up-to-date on corporate direction, promotions, and new product and service offerings, as well as keeping them abreast of immediate changes in policies. POS ONE eliminates the need for a separate machine to process credit and debit card authorizations."

COUNSEL HONORED. USPS General Counsel Mary Anne Gibbons was honored by Catholic University last month as an outstanding alumnus. Gibbons was recognized for her work at the Postal Service, her service to the Catholic University Law School and her work in the Washington, DC, community.