NEWS

September 20, 2011

September 15, 2011

Below is a link to the First Publication of the Proposed Code Changes for the Pennsylvania Branch of the National League of Postmasters.

Please send questions, suggestions, or comments to: timburke18411@gmail.com

Click to download the Proposed Code Changes

April 8, 2011

An off-the-clock informational and training session is being offered by the Pennsylvania Branch of the National League of Postmasters to all Postmasters and OICs. 

The following topics will be discussed:

·        Delivery Unit Optimization (DUO) and Form 150,

·        Post Office Suspensions and Closures,

·        pending significant Legislative changes and

·        Adverse Action updates

DUO is a national program where all routes are moved from one delivery unit to another and the losing office is immediately downgraded. Both city and rural delivery offices may be optimized and Postmasters and OICs should become familiar with the DUO process and their office's PS Form 150. All three districts in Pennsylvania have begun this process, with some offices already completed.  

Because of the difficulty to secure Postmaster replacements, two days of identical training will be offered.

Dates:    Monday, May 16, 2011 and Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tentative Agenda (both days):   

8:30 am - 9:00 am         Registration

9:00 am - 11:00 pm       DUO and Form 150

11:00 am – 12:00 pm    Post Office Suspensions and Closures

12:00 pm -1:00 pm        Lunch (PROVIDED)

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm        Legislative Changes

2:30 pm – 4:00 pm        Adverse Action updates

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm        Discussion

Place: Comfort Inn, 699 Rodi Road , Pittsburgh , PA 15235

 Contact Tim Burke at: timburke18411@gmail.com and confirm which training session you will be attending.

There is no charge for this important training.  Lunch will be provided.

Tim Burke
Postmaster
Dalton, PA 18414

timburke18411@gmail.com
(570) 563-1550
(570) 563-1550 (fax)

February 10, 2011

September 26, 2010

Click on the http link to hear the message from Mark Strong.

To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add support@dialmycalls.com to your address book. 402-519-3688 Has Sent You A Message! September 25th 2010 You have a voice message sent from "402-519-3688". To listen the message please click the following link and press the play button: http://www.dialmycalls.com/message/12299324/DC1125596/ If you have already received this message to your phone, you may disregard this email. The sender requested it to be sent to both your phone & email to ensure that you recieve it. This message was sent via DialMyCalls, which allows you to record a message and send it out to a list of phone numbers instantly. Try us out free today to see why thousands of businesses and individuals use DialMyCalls to make their life a bit easier. For more information or to try our free service visit us at www.DialMyCalls.com. You’re receiving this newsletter because you're a member of DialMyCalls Please don't reply directly to this email. For further assistance contact our Support Department. You may opt-out of any of our future newsletters by clicking the following link - Unsubscribe.

September 17, 2010

Click to download the DUO letter from Anthony Vegiliante. 

September 16, 2010

Click to download The League Editor's Newsletter.

Western PA quarterly management meeting

Sept 2, 2010

Robert Rutkosky—Manager, Human Resources

1.  SICK LEAVE—The district is having a good year.  YTD is 3.97%  (#2 in the   Eastern Area) with a plan is 3.85%.  The district is $2 million under SPLY in sick leave usage.

2.      I & I RATE—The district is above SPLY but is #2 in the Eastern Area.

3.      MVA—The target is 7 MVAs/million miles driven.  The district is above the target due to the bad weather last winter but is #2 in the Eastern Area. 

4.      VOE—In Q3 of this year the index score was 57.1 & the response rate was 53.  Although these figures are still too low, these figures are the highest for the year & the trend is showing improvement.  The district has shown improvement in 7 of the 8 dimensions in Q3. 

Jane Rahenhamp—Manager, Marketing

1.      REVENUE--The district is $1.7 million over plan but -$11.1 million under                                                                     SPLY

2.      RETAIL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (MYSTERY SHOPPER)—The district has an actual score of 87.2% with a target of 90.7%.  The big focus is “wait time in line” and the perfect transaction.  The district is having a telecom with offices that failed the shops plus a Retail Review Team is going into offices after a failed shop to help suggest improvements. 

3.      SOX COMPLIANCE—The district has 14 BMEUs that generate over $1 million each.  Compliance is mandatory.

4.      EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM—The district has generated $4.9 million in sales from the Business Connect program.  The Carrier Connect & Rural Reach programs have not been generating the revenue as expected.

George Lippert—Manager, Finance

            Function          ranking in Area to plan              to SPLY

                 F1               #4                    5.88%                -11.11%

                 F2B             #1                    0.23%                  -5.54%

                 F4                #1                    0.73%                -11.24%

                 TOE             #1                    0.18%                  -3.86% 

            Financially the district is performing very well to plan & SPLY

            FY 2011 Work hour targets to FY 2010

                        F1            -9.9%

                        F2B            -4.4%

                        F4            -6.9%

                        Total            -4.2%   (-721,487 hours)

Kim—Operations Support

1.      The district will be re-evaluating 33 SWCs with the outcome of a possibility of losing 15-16 supervisors.

2.      Nationwide the Postal Service is partnering with Office Depot.  The Postal Service will set up a mini contract station in Office Depot stores.  The Office Depot employee will service their customers with our postal products & supplies.  A postal carrier will come by at the end of the day, pick up all mail to be sent out for the day & the carrier will scan a barcode similar to a collection box barcode.  Nationwide, there will be 1083 Office Depot stores participating in this program and the Western PA district will have 7 stores participating. 

3.      Special rural mail count—On September 17, 2010, there will be a count in 4 offices due to DPS impacts.

Charles       McCreadie—District Manager

1.      DELIVERY UNIT OPTIMIZATION (DUO)—The district will take full advantage of the DUO.  Plans are to close many finance stations.  There are 65 offices that are on the list to be part of the DUO.  Offices targeted will have 10 routes or less.  The first situation will be moving the 4 city routes out of Farrell PO & put them into either the Sharon or Hermitage office.  The Farrell office will remain open with a postmaster, window clerks & a box section. 

2.      The Postal Service will begin selling greeting cards in the lobbies.  The envelopes will have an indicia and an intelligent mail barcode on them.  Once the envelope is processed through mail processing, the indicia will be recorded & the greeting card company will pay the postage. 

3.      An FSS machine is due to be put into the Pittsburgh L&DC beginning in January 2011 & be fully operational by May 2011. 

4.      FIVE-DAY DELIVERY—Charlie believes this initiative has not met its time.  It will happen sometime in the future but probably not in FY 2011. 

5.      Finally Charlie said NO OFFICES would be closed in the Western PA district although DUO will take place.  He places a lot of respect on the title of “POSTMASTER”. 

Submitted by Darrell Pusateri—Retired Postmaster

July 31, 2010

Postmasters/OICs,

We received the attached today from Postal HQ.  They are immediately freezing all positions at Districts, Areas and HQ.  It's my guess that there is another round of District consolidations, or possibly Area consolidations coming very shortly.  Stay tuned for more information as it comes up.

We have not yet determined if this change in policy affects field vacancies, as they have still been posting and filling level 18 and above Postmaster vacancies, and lower level ones by an exception process.  However, neither of our NC districts has yet to get any exceptions approved by Cap Metro, we were hoping that we could get the new AVP to move on some of these.  We will still attempt that depending on what happens with this freeze.

The LEAGUE will keep you posted.

Jack

Jack Jameson

Executive Vice President

National League of Postmasters

Click to view the letter from Headquarters

May 28, 2010

May 10, 2010

NEW FERS SICK LEAVE RULING IN EFFECT

CHANGES TO FERS EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT ANNUITIES

There’s good news for retiring FERS employees.

The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2010 allows employees to add accrued unused sick leave hours to their total service in computing FERS annuity.

For employees who retire between Oct. 28, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2013, 50 percent of accrued unused sick leave hours will be added to their total service. For employees retiring after Dec. 31, 2013, 100 percent of accrued unused sick leave hours will be added to their total service. This new rule permits the counting of accrued unused sick leave only to calculate an annuity. Sick leave hours are not counted in determining an employee’s eligibility to retire.

The NDAA also changed the rule for FERS employees who took refunds of their retirement contributions and have been re-employed under FERS. With the new ruling, employees have the opportunity to pay back the refunded amount, plus interest. The redeposit will allow credit for the service for both determining eligibility to retire and annuity calculation. Survivors of death-in-service employees also may make this deposit.

For eligible employees, the Annuity Estimate Letter accompanying the recent semi-annual estimates provides a detailed explanation of this new ruling.

May 7, 2010

April 30, 2010

Dear Leaguers, 

Hope all is well.  For those of you who have already had your conventions, great jobs; I’ve heard only good about the training and networking that have been provided.  For those of you who have not had your conventions, you’ve still got time to register to attend.  Plenty of work has gone into making your convention a very effective instrument to help make you a better Postmaster.  All of the conventions that I have been able to attend had tremendous support from their district in providing training and information.  Most of you have been tremendously innovative in providing information about things outside of the Postal Service; those things that would help you to cope with your jobs and that would improve your health.  So far, your conventions have been very positive experiences!

 Right now, issues are not moving very rapidly legislatively regarding those things that affect the Postal Service.  Hearings are being conducted on 5 day delivery, etc.  A number of entities are reviewing numbers that claim that the Postal Service has overpaid into Civil Service retirement to the tune of $75 billion.  Those results have not come out yet, and it will be interesting to see whether or not the results of those new studies will match up with the numbers provided by the Office of Inspector General Report.  Thus far, there has not been a bill introduced that will address this issue.  Apparently, there has been some opposition by some employee groups to transferring any overpayment monies, if they do indeed exist, to offset the Postal Service’s obligation to prefund future retiree health benefits.  I’ll share more on this as more information come out, and most certainly, I will pass on information regarding any bills that would help the Postal Service with the obligation to prefund health benefits.

 In the meantime, be sure to continue to write your letters regarding our Postmaster issues.  Again, guidelines for this important effort can be found under “Legislation” on the League website at, www.postmasters.org.  the more you support and share this effort, the greater chance we will have to see some positive changes for Postmasters.

 On a more personal and League family note, Past National Vice President Garry Williams from Arkansas is recovering from a heart procedure.  Garry has been a strong leader for the League for decades and many of you count Garry and his wife Janice as friends.  You can write Garry at:

                                1649 Hwy 223N

                                Viola, AR 72583.

Don’t forget to make your travel plans, make your hotel reservations, and do your registration for our up-coming National Convention in beautiful San Diego CA.  This is a tremendous family vacation destination with scores of things for Postmasters and their families to do outside of the convention itself.  The California Branch has made it a goal to help put on a powerhouse convention and plans are being made to provide you with lots of training, lots of entertainment, plenty of good food, and gobs of super networking with your fellow Postmasters.  There is a 99% chance that the weather will be fabulous.  The Charles Lindbergh Airport is easy to fly into with some great fare deals. The convention planners have put together some very special tours that you can access on our website, and with a golf course right next to our convention hotel, this year’s golf tournament will be close and will give just about anybody a chance to be on a winning team.  So, go to our website for more information on the convention to sign up for tours, to register, and to reserve your room at the beautiful Town and Country Hotel!

As we move deeper into spring, be sure to take some time to take a breath to enjoy this great time of year!

Respectfully,

Charley Mapa

President

April 18, 2010

March 26, 2010

League Leaders, 

I’ve attached a Power Point Presentation that I received some weeks ago from Dean Granholm.  Likely, many of you are receiving questions from your branch members asking when, where, what, and how the Reports reduction will take place.  As I wrote yesterday, the target date is June 1.  This is a big initiative and it will take some time to implement.  There is a large amount of communication that has to happen; apparently not all district managers have been told what they have to do.  There are programming issues to be addressed.  Even though the redundant reports are supposed to go away, there are other reports that will be done on your computer.  Any report asking for information available through data already existing in a Postal Service data base is supposed to go away.  This is a huge undertaking; remember these reports and logs have been accumulating for years.  Many districts live and die by them.  They are going to have to live without them.

 Please take some time to go through the Power Point.  It identifies the logs and types of logs being considered.  I’ve been asked several times by Postmasters how the PS expects to enforce the cutback.  After June 1^st all of you will see which reports and logs have gone away or have been moved to the computer.  If you still see redundant reports or paper logs, you need to notify your district, and send them on to me.  Mr. Granholm has asked that the association presidents become the watchdogs for the process.  Any new report has to be cleared through Postal Headquarters.  The best way that we can insure that the reports and logs go away and stay away is to prove to the Postal Service that they were never needed in the first place and they don’t need to be reintroduced.  The degree to which this succeeds depends a lot on how we Postmasters make it work.  I’ve copied below the letter from Dean Granholm to the Report reduction committee.  Have a great Weekend!

 Respectfully,

 Charley Mapa

March 26, 2010

Link to 5 Day Delivery Information

March 25, 2010

News Update

 Two days ago, we sent out and posted news on the Redundant Report Committee progress.  In that report we stated that the process will be in place by April 1.  We have received word from Dean Granholm, VP of Delivery and Post Office Operations that, because of the need to change a wide variety of computer applications and to properly communicate the changes, the target date for implementation is June 1.  This is no small undertaking.  I must say, however, that the process has already begun!  Some districts are reacting very quickly to the new requirements and are already weeding out most reports and logs.  This does not take away a Postmaster’s responsibility to make sure that the tasks covered by the reports and logs are completed on time.  Again, many thanks to DPMG Pat Donahoe, Dean Granholm and his staff, and the LEAGUE and NAPUS Postmasters who worked hard to get this long over due process in place.

 Respectfully,

 Charley Mapa

March 23, 2010

Dear Leaguers,

 As most of you know by now, over a year ago, at our 2009 National Legislative Forum, Pat Donahoe promised League Postmasters that he would do away with wasteful, redundant logs and reports.  Soon after that event, I contacted Mr. Donahoe and suggested a committee of Postmasters to work as a Redundant Reports team.  He told me to go ahead and put a team together. I selected Bill Donaldson, Postmaster of Canton OH to head up the committee and picked at least one Postmaster to serve from each Area.  Andrea Cammer, Janie Holder, Norma Powell, Diane McCoy, Melinda Milone, Denise Owen, Keith Kopp, Kelly Strong and Roberta Stevens-Simmons all volunteered to work as part of this special committee.  When I submitted these names to Mr. Donahoe, I suggested to him that he appoint a like number of Napus Postmasters to serve with our Leaguers.  The first committee telecons went well with Pat Donahoe personally participating in the process.  Every report or log nationwide was identified.  Eventually, Bill Donaldson and his committee submitted their report on the logs and reports.  Things heated up at Postal Headquarters and nothing happened for a while.  I emailed Mr. Donahoe to ask what was going on with the progress of the committee.  He answered from an airport to let me know that he’d just left a meeting with Mike Daley who suggested that the entire report process go wireless.  Little did I know at the time that that idea had been tendered by Norma Powell, already part of the committee!  Mr. Donahoe was especially pleased with that suggestion.  I inquired a couple of months later about the committee’s progress.  At that time Mr. Donahoe told me that he had assigned the effort’s completion to his new Vice President of Delivery and Post Office Operations, Dean Granholm.  My heart dropped; not only had the process stopped, but responsibility had been passed on.

 In February, the management association presidents were invited to meet with Mr. Granholm regarding the Redundant reports.  By then, more than a year had elapsed since the Legislative Forum in which the effort was born.  I felt sure that all Mr. Granholm would do would tell us the Postal Service had given up the effort as too complicated.  I was quite surprised when we did finally meet.  Dean Granholm told us that he too was a little skeptical when he was assigned to take over the process.  He said he quickly changed his mind when he saw that there were 42 daily or weekly logs or checklists required by Areas and districts!  Additionally, there were as many as 12 other local reports required.  He also realized, to his dismay, that many of the required reports originated from him working in his old capacity in the Western Area!

 Rather than go through the entire list of reports examined, I’ll just talk about the results of all the studies.  Mr. Granholm’s team eliminated reports and logs that asked for information already available from existing USPS data sources as well as items duplicated on different reports.  He suggested a single “All Clear” scan a day to signify that the Postmaster had done his job and all tasks were performed that day.  Zero Bundle Investigation reports would be eliminated and replaced with an electronic report.  3-M and Missent Mail reports would be moved to WEB.  Districts and Areas would be required to use electronic data resources to extract all data possible.  The gathering of any information not already available passively that an Area might consider essential, must but be approved by Postal Headquarters.  The program is expected to rolled out by, appropriately, April Fool’s Day!

 This is fantastic news, and if it works as envisioned, the effort will greatly reduce the burden on Postmasters and supervisors!  Besides greatly reducing the huge number of reports, the requirement will be for every possible reporting to be done electronically.  Over the next month or so, Areas and districts will spend time weaning themselves of so many reports and logs upon which they have become dependent.  Already I’ve heard of a district that has cancelled much of the required reporting for its smaller offices.  Thank you so much Pat Donahoe for being true to your word on this very important issue.  Thank you to Dean Granholm and your Headquarters crew in furthering this process.  Many thanks to Bill Donaldson for heading up the committee effort and to League and Napus Postmasters who helped identify the offending reports.  And finally, thank you to that League Postmaster (you know who you are) who had the courage to challenge Pat Donahoe on this issue over a year ago at our National Legislative Forum!  We expect to see good things come from this very positive effort!

 Respectfully,

 Charley Mapa

President, National League of Postmasters

March 20, 2010

TO:                  National Executive Board           

                        Area Coordinators

                        Branch Presidents

FROM: Charles W. Mapa, President

 DATE: March 17, 2010

 SUBJECT:       2010 Nominations for Leadership Award

 I am requesting nominations for the 2010 Leadership Award. This award recognizes dedication and superior LEAGUE accomplishments by a member within their Branch during the past year (Convention to Convention). Please submit your candidate by June 1st.

 The Leadership Award differs from the Postmaster of the Year Award in that it is based only on LEAGUE work within the Branch during the past year. It does not consider LEAGUE activities prior to the past year, or any Postal and community accomplishments.

 Attached is the nomination form. If you have a nomination, please complete the form and return it to me no later than June 1st.

 Thank you.

 Charley Mapa

 Click to download the Nomination Form

March 19, 2010

Dear Leaguer Leaders,

 Attached is the account of our last consultative meeting with representatives of the Postal Service.  It is a big file, but we did address  lot of your issues.  Not all of our issues were resolved, but we will continue to engage the Postal Service to get them resolved.  The League works hard to put meaningful, up-to-date issue on our consultative agenda.  It is gratifying to see that Postmasters everywhere will benefit from the League’s efforts as indicated below.  While all of the issues that you’ve sent us to discuss are important, I would ask you to pay special attention to a few that might have impact now or very soon.

  Item 5 discusses the credit applied for lost rural routes.  With the DUR (delivery unit relocation; districts pulling rural routes out of one office and placing them in another office)  process happening in some districts, mostly in the Great Lakes Area, we’ve seen some districts not properly applying credit to losing offices for these rural routes.  According to the form 150, these losing office should be receiving 30% credit for lost routes on line 8 of the form 150.  Because of the confusing language on the form, some districts are omitting this credit.  If you have lost routes to this process, make sure that you are properly given credit on your office’s form 150.  Proper crediting may bump your office level up a notch.  The League is pleased that we’ve been able to get Postmasters proper credit for their routes.  Also, pay close attention to item 5.  This, once finalized, may impact the pay of Exempt Postmasters working more than 50% of their workweek performing non-exempt tasks.  Many of you have contacted me about the BMEU training as indicated in item 12.  While the training discussed there should have been completed already, some of you who have received it have told me that you don’t feel sufficiently trained.  We will readdress that issue.

 Our next consultative session with Postal Headquarters will happen in mid-July.  It is not too early to start to get your issues to us.

 It appears that in response to our taking the issue of filling Postmaster vacancies to Congress, many districts are starting to fill all Postmaster vacancies.  As your branch leaders, I’m asking you to make contact with the OICs in the post offices covered by your branch.  Do your best to sign these OICs as members if they are not already members and offer to help them with their eCareers profiles.  By next Tuesday we will have posted some eCareers guidelines on the League webpage to which you can refer these OICs and any other prospective applicants.  We lost many active League members to last year’s early outs; this will give us a golden opportunity to build up our membership ranks.  If you need membership resources, you may contact us here at League Headquarters.  You may also rely on Linda Rumney and our National Membership Committee for assistance.

 You may also want to go to our website this weekend to register for our National Convention in San Diego.  Registrations are already up over last year as Postmasters are looking forward to attending the convention in one of America’s most beautiful and welcoming cities.  Your participation will only make the convention that much better.

 Tomorrow is the first day of Spring!  Take some time off to refresh yourselves.

 Respectfully,

 Charley Mapa

President, League of Postmasters

Click to download the January Consultative 

March 2, 2010

A MESSAGE FROM PMG JACK POTTER
‘ENVISIONING AMERICA’S FUTURE POSTAL SERVICE’

Hello, thank you for joining me to discuss a very important topic — the future of the United States Postal Service. It’s a conversation that that I’ve been having with our largest customers, with Congress, with the people who talk about the Postal Service on TV, on the radio, on the web and in the papers. I’ve also been talking to the leaders of the organizations that represent you — the unions and the management associations.

Today, I want to talk to you because without you, there is no Postal Service. You brought our performance to incredible levels — during one of the toughest periods we’ve ever faced. I want you to know how much I appreciate that, and how much it means to our customers.

From talking to so many of you directly, I know you have a lot of questions about the future. I want to give you some of those answers and share our plans for the future. You’re going to be hearing quite a bit about the Postal Service over the next few weeks. That’s why I wanted you to hear it straight from me. I’m telling you the same things I’m telling everybody else.

Let’s begin with a little level setting. Our business is in crisis, like so many others are these days. One of the biggest problems is the economy. With jobs disappearing and money tight, families and businesses pulled back on spending. That includes spending on the mail. I’m sure you’ve heard that things have improved a little bit in some parts of the economy. But we haven’t seen that in the mail we’re handling. Volume continues to decline.

Major advancements in technology have given people more communications choices than ever — and they keep expanding, with things like smart phones and new tablet computers. Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a shift from hard copy communication to electronic. And its not just mail, it’s books, it’s newspapers, and magazines. Even music and movies are moving on-line. The reality is that more and more information is going to move electronically in the future.

In just four years, we’ve seen our volume fall from a record 213 billion pieces to the 168 billion we expect this year.

That means for every five pieces of mail we handled in 2006, we’ll only handle four this year. That’s a drop of 20 percent. We’ve looked at this data from every angle possible going forward and even brought in outside experts to help develop a forecast.

Their conclusions are very sobering. Mail volume is not going to come back.

Over the next ten years, volume is projected to decline gradually by over another 20 billion pieces of mail.

What makes this projection worse is the expected future mix of mail.

We expect First-Class Mail to decline by 30 billion pieces with modest growth in advertising mail.

This means that we will have less revenue per piece as the mix changes.

And after losing $11.7 billion over the last three years, if we don’t address our fundamental challenges, we’re going to see those losses continue to grow. In 2020, just ten years from now, we can lose $33 billion — and that’s just for that one year!

Obviously, we can’t go on this way. That means we have to change the way we do business now and keep changing with the times. Our health as an organization isn’t based on mail volume alone — it’s based on our ability to adapt to the changes in how our customers use the mail.

That’s going to take some focused planning and some very hard work. But I think we’re ready. I know we can do it. Here’s the plan.

We’re going to start with costs.

We’re asking Congress to restructure our payments for retiree health benefits. Right now, they cost us more than five-and-a-half billion dollars a year. That’s a payment we just can’t afford.

And we can make this change without taking a penny away from your benefits.

We’re asking Congress to change the law so we can change delivery frequency to five days. That’ll save us more than $3 billion a year. Many of our customers — from the biggest businesses to the family next door — have told us they support this change. In fact, they’d prefer it to raising prices or going back to a taxpayer subsidy for the Postal Service.

We’re going to bring new flexibility to managing our traditional retail network — focusing on expanding access and helping customers do more business with us through new and existing channels and retail partners. We can’t live with a retail network built for the 20th century. We have to construct a network that suits the 21st Century. It’s all about making it easier than ever for customers to choose the Postal Service.

We’re working to bring new pricing flexibility to all our products. Smarter pricing — pricing that makes our products more attractive — will help us grow some categories and help us manage our mail volume challenges. And we do intend to use exigent pricing as a tool to help close a portion of the gap.

We want to make sure we’ve got the right people in the right place at the right time — and have the flexibility to deal with the changes in demand in the coming years. That’ll make us more efficient, by making sure we’re serving our customers when they need us and where they need us. We’ll be focusing on this during the upcoming rounds of collective bargaining.

And finally, we want to assure that the legal and regulatory processes enable these changes — changes which are vital to the future health of the Postal Service. The law and regulation must enable us to fulfill our mission of affordable universal service to the American public.

Given the magnitude of the challenge facing the Postal Service, no single element of this plan can close the gap we are facing. The plan works because it is balanced and reasonable. Everyone must be part of the solution.

It’s a simple plan. But it makes sense and it can and will work.

Here’s what I’m asking you to do to help.

First, stay focused on the basics. You know what they are:

Keep service strong.

Help us find ways to pull costs out of the system.

Treat customers the same way you like to be treated as a customer — that’ll keep them with us.

Look for new ways to grow the business — no matter where you work or what you do. No one knows our customers better than you do. We all have a role in this. The more we do, the more stability we can bring to mail volume, and the more we can influence our bottom line.

And most important of all, don’t get discouraged. We have a lot to offer. And 168 billion pieces is still a lot of mail. Customers trust us. They appreciate our value. With a positive attitude, with the determination I know you have, we can get ahead of this. And we will succeed. 

February 28, 2010

February 24, 2010

Dear League leaders, 

I’m writing you to encourage you to get the message out to your branch members on a few issues.  You can best do this by having 3-digit meetings on the issues.  So far, over the last two weeks, we’ve had great response to these 3-digit meeting where they’ve been conducted.  These don’t have to be elaborate affairs, just events to get Postmasters together.  These are very important issues. 

eRecourse

 The first issue is on eRecourse.  I had past National Executive Vice President, Mark Strong put together a Power Point Presentation complete with speaker notes on that process.  We’ve got to get every Postmaster who received lower scores on their Core this year over last year, or every Postmaster who believes that he or she was scored significantly lower this year than his/her performance indicated.  What good will filing eRecourse do, you may ask.  First of all, the Postal Service perverted the PFP process by having higher level managers go in to lower scores in a wholesale manner.  The right thing to do is to file a recourse.  While some may be reluctant to do this because they are afraid of retribution by their districts, I must say that if everybody filed, there will be no such retribution.  Last year we were quite successful with eRecourse.  If this (the lowering of scores) is investigated outside the Postal Service, the Postal Service need only say that they had a process in place for managers to seek recourse, if they (PMs and Supervisors) did not take advantage of the process, then shame on them, it is not the fault of the Postal Service.  You might even consider this a small protest.  Imagine the impact of tens of thousands of Postmasters and supervisors filing for recourse because their scores were unjustifiably lowered.  You really do need to push to get your Postmasters and supervisors to file through this process. The process is simple and I have attached the Power Point Presentation that you can use for 3-digit meetings.  Be sure to look for the speakers notes at the bottom of the presentation for your use in presenting eRecourse. This subject has a lot of draw for Postmasters; in California, some Postmasters traveled 2 hours to get this.  Look the presentation over; I’m sure that you’ll agree that it is a good short valuable presentation.  If you can’t reach your Postmasters via 3-digit meetings, you might consider a telecom with Postmasters in your area.

Power Point for the eRecourse Process

 Letters to Congress

 The second issue, of course, is our letter writing campaign.  This is an excellent subject to include in your 3-digit meetings.  Everything you need to present on this subject in on the League website under Legislative Agenda.  We may be seeing some positive effects of our taking Postmasters issues to Congress as it appears that the Postal Service may soon be posting vacant Postmaster positions that they had indicated would not be posted.  You know the rest of the Postmaster issues; they are your issues and you’ve got a great opportunity to get Postmasters and OICs on board with them at your 3-digit meetings.  Don’t forget to invite your PMRs to these meetings.  In many cases, they will be selected as Postmasters once the positions are filled.

 Membership

 Perhaps more than any other method, these 3-digit meetings are a great draw toward membership.  When Postmasters, OICs and PMRs see what you are doing for them at the local level, they are very likely to want to become part of your efforts to educate them and represent them.  Pay special attention right now to sign those OICs.  They are lined up to become Postmasters, and if you sign them now and continue to provide for them locally, they will continue to be members of the League.  Continual growth to membership is essential to the health of the League, and each of you can make a big difference toward that end.

 I appreciate all that you do for Postmasters and for the League.  All of the challenges that Postmasters face are opportunities for you to serve Postmasters in your branch.  We have developed, and continue to develop, the resources that allow us to call ourselves the “Education Organization”.   I encourage you to take advantage of these resources.  Postmasters all across the country will benefit from your efforts!

 Respectfully,

 Charley Mapa, President

League of Postmasters

February  4, 2010

January 31, 2010

Subject: League Forum

This looks to be an historic Forum as the focus is on stress, and working conditions for postmasters. Bob Brinkman spoke this morning, as well as past and present members of the board.

If things are as tough for you in your offices, please join this grassroots movement, by going to

http://www.facebook.com/l/cd155;www.postmasters.org/legislation/agenda/

Your thoughts/reactions are invited here on facebook.

internet is iffy here, as is the snow/weather, but will try to update as soon as possible...

Sunny

January 29. 2010

The National League of Postmasters takes their issues to Congress.

The letter to Postmaster General Potter informing him of the League actions.

The letter to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

House and Senate Committees List receiving Postmaster letter and White Page.

Action Alert - Abuse of Postmasters & Inefficient and Ineffective Post Office Management Practices

LEAGUE White Paper - Postmaster Hours and Post Office Management Practices

January 21, 2010

Leaguers, 

This just received from Lee Olohan at Postal Headquarters.  Pleas pass the word.

 Charley Mapa, President, NLPM

  All,   

As you know, vacant level EAS-17 Supervisor Customer Services and level EAS-17  Supervisor Distribution Operations positions were posted for a single posting period beginning December 29, 2009 through January 13, 2010 in accordance with the attached memo from Mangala Gandhi to the Area and District HR Managers.  

 The  volume of employees using the system during the last hours of the 15 day cycle caused slow performance issues.  We had double the number of concurrent users (4000) than we ever had before.  It is very cost prohibitive to improve the technology to handle these very infrequent circumstances.  We all need to continuously encourage users to not wait until the last minute and to apply earlier in the cycle.   I know you've communicated that message to your members, and we certainly do appreciate your effort. 

The postings will be re-opened Thursday, January 21 beginning at 12:01 AM CST through Sunday, January 24 at 5:00 PM CST.  Please encourage potential applicants to submit their applications as soon as possible as part of the extended process and point out the limited window of opportunity.

Employees who have already submitted an application(s) and received confirmation  need  not  reapply and will not be able to re-submit."

Please call me if you have questions are need additional information.

January 11, 2010

January 6, 2010

October 8, 2009

Dear Leaguers,

Recently your National Board met and decided that the League would no longer support the VOE survey. While the intent behind the survey may be good, the fact of the matter is that the work situation for Postmasters continues to deteriorate. In so many districts dignity and respect for PMs have ceased to exist. The Postal Service deliberately does not staff in order to pile workhours on to Postmasters. Reports and logs continue to proliferate, thereby stretching a long day into a longer day. Discipline for trivial reasons continues and micromanagement reduces Postmasters to mindless robots. You may not be suffering personally from any of these situations, but thousands of Postmasters nationwide are. I urge you, in support of Postmasters everywhere, to simply not fill out the survey. This is one report that you are not required to complete. Please spread the word; the more of us who refuse to participate, the louder our voice of the employee will be.

Respectfully,

Charley Mapa

President

National League of Postmasters

5904 Richmond Hwy Ste 500

Alexandria VA 22303

703.329.4550

September 25, 2009

League Legislative Report: H.R. 22 Passes the House Again,

Embedded in this Year's Continuing Resolution.

Robert Brinkmann League Legislative Counsel

Alexandria, VA, September 25, 2009 -- Every year, if all the appropriations bills are not passed by the end of the fiscal year, a Continuing Resolution to continue the funding of the government is necessary in order to keep the government open until all the appropriations bills are passed. Such a resolution is necessary this year, and the language of H.R. 22 was added to it. That continuing resolution was in turn attached to the Legislative Appropriations bill which passed the House this morning 217-190, largely along party lines.

H.R. 22 had previously passed the House, but with less than a week remaining in the fiscal year, Senate passage did not look good. Consequently, the House leadership with the concurrence of the Senate Leadership, as well as the League and other postal groups, decided to attach H.R. 22 to the continuing resolution, since that measure must pass Congress before the end of the fiscal year. This morning, the CR was added to the one appropriations bill that has passed both the House and Senate-the Legislative Appropriations bill-and that measure passed the House.

The measure will now go to the Senate, where the CR must pass before the end of the fiscal year. Senator Colburn of Oklahoma is expected to attempt to block passage of the H.R. 22 provisions.

September 15, 2009

H.R. 22 Passes House as One Year Bill. 

Yesterday, September 15, 2009, H.R. 22 was amended to provide one year of relief to the Postal Service and then passed the House of Representatives 388 to 32.  The amendment taking H.R. 22 to a one year bill was necessary to avoid a multibillion dollar “score” that the Congressional budget office had given the original H.R. 22, despite the fact that the bill was designed not to score and no taxpayer monies were involved.  Members of the National League of Postmasters have been working the bill very hard for months, urging the House to pass it. 

Bob Brinkmann, League legislative counsel, call the passage of the bill “an extremely important development to help the Postal Service through this economic crisis, without spending any taxpayer monies.” 

H.R. 22 now goes to the Senate where the Senate can take it up.  The Senate has its own bill, S 1507, which would provide similar multi-year relief to the Postal Service.  When the bill was passed out of Committee, however, a very controversial amendment was added as a “poison pill” to kill the bill.  The Senate bill also has a substantial “score.”  Whether the Senate will take up its own bill , or whether it will adopt the House bill is unknown at this point.

 Given that legislation must pass before the end of September, it is expected that the National League of Postmasters and other postal employee groups will be urging the Senate to adopt the House bill. 

 Frank J. Augustosky

Director

National League of Postmasters

5904 Richmond Hwy. Suite 500

Alexandria, VA 22303-1864
703-329-4550 ext 16
faugustosky@postmasters.

June 3, 2009

EAS Vacancy Package Closings -  Policy Update

March 17, 2009

NUMBER OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES BY UNION CODE - FEBRUARY 2008 & 2009  PP 05

BACK

Last updated: 09/20/2011 08:25:27 PM