January 18, 2013 

 Letter from Louie 

 

Moving the Postal Service Forward!

Louis Atkins

Louis Atkins

 

 

Earlier this week, the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service directed management to begin acceleration of their cost-cutting and consolidation measures in light of the fact that there seems to be little movement of postal reform measures through Congress. The Postal Service has projected that it will be out of operating funds sometime in October and while earlier predictions of fiscal disaster have come and gone quietly, it is obvious to all that the Postal Service is in trouble.

 

While the Postal Service is in a compromised position financially, I do have to echo the sentiments of Postal Regulatory Chairperson Ruth Goldway. Ms. Goldway urged the Postal Service not to act in a way that compromises the ability of the USPS to serve the American public. However, we need the Congress to act and act now on these important issues. While the fights on sequestration and the debt ceiling are taking center stage, the short and long term fiscal health of the Postal Service is a national priority, whether Congress believes so or not. The Postal Service has begun to pivot and adjust its business model by being more proactive in the parcel market and embracing Every Door Direct Mail. While these changes should make the Postal Service more competitive in the marketplace, we need Congress to step in and fulfill their explicit Constitutional obligation and give the USPS the ability to stand on its own two feet.

 

We have discussed all of the forces that are tugging at the USPS- a burdensome Retiree Health Benefit prefunding mandate, years of overpaying into Civil Service Retiree accounts and a lack of autonomy when it comes to making choices on products and services. We have discussed these issues non-stop for years. Now, it is time for NAPS and the rest of the Postal Community to stand up and move the discussion forward. While our LTS is still a little over two months away, we are not waiting until April to tackle this issue. Over the next couple of months, we will be talking with our members in the field on how they can start engaging their lawmakers and make them understand that the health of one of America's most trusted and relied-upon public entities is not a political football to be punted around on the cable news networks, but a national treasure that must be preserved and allowed to fulfill its mandate.


 NAPSHQ2U Special 

 

A Hero's Story
Trayer
Kevin Trayer

 

 

 

NAPS would like to recognize one of our own for a feat of heroism that ended up saving the life of a fellow Postal employee. While he would say that he was not a hero, we at NAPS Headquarters suggest otherwise. While overseeing activities at the Kalamazoo MPO on January 3rd, Michiana Area Vice President Kevin Trayer was alerted that one of his employees was suffering a medical emergency. Upon arriving on the scene and noticing that the employee was not breathing nor did he have a pulse, Kevin immediately began administering CPR and continued until local authorities arrived. The employee was taken to the hospital and after extensive care and observation was released a few days later.

 

Next time you see Kevin at a NAPS function, be sure to recognize him for stepping up and being there when it counted most. 

Brian's Scoop

  

Highlight NAPS Highlife

 

 

Brian Wagner

 

 

One thing that has been highlighted over the past few weeks is how tough the flu season will be this winter.  

 

Please take care of yourself and your family as you focus on getting through this flu year. One of the highlights that NAPS is focusing on this year is posting more branch events and activities on our website-www.naps.org. Here is the scoop!

 

On the homepage of the NAPS website there is a section called NAPS Highlights. We encourage branches or members to email a brief paragraph or story and if possible a high-quality digital picture of their branch event so NAPS can post it on our website to share with the entire membership.

 

An event or activity could be anything from a branch installation, retirement dinner, holiday meeting, visiting a local Congressional office, SPAC fundraising, a branch training session, or a postal official speaking at a regular meeting, just to name a few. By featuring activities and events, not only do we recognize branches for their contributions to the organization; but it may provide other branches with ideas on how to gain more member participation.   

 

With more branch activity comes the opportunity to sign up more new members. You may have noticed that the NAPS Highlights section has some dated events.  Unfortunately, we have not received any new branch stories to share, but we know branches and their members are very active.  

 

Therefore, if your branch would like to share some highlights of the NAPS highlife, please email me at [email protected] with your story and picture.

 

As you submit your NAPS highlight, I would like to "highlight" my ice cream flavor of the week recommendation-Pistachio

Call the toll-free NAPS hotline:
1-877-667-NAPS
 
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SPAC Alert 

 

Have you donated to SPAC? 

 

Visit our Legislative Center's SPAC section  at www.naps.org to learn the many ways  to donate, including how to make a recurring contribution via your USPS paycheck or through your OPM retirement allotment. 

 

You can also click here to make a secure contribution via credit card.

 


2013 Legislative Training Seminar

 

As we enter 2013, it's time to start thinking about the upcoming Legislative Training Seminar. Information for the seminar can be found here

 

Registration:

Click here to download a paper form;

 

Online registration available here.

Make your room reservations here.

 

  

Quote of the Issue!  

 

Great moments are born from great opportunities.  

  

 -Herb Brooks

 Jay's Notes
 
Connect-2013
Jay New
Jay Killackey

 

 

 

Connect - 2013 is our theme for this year's Legislative Training Seminar. But, it needs to be more than just a theme for a three-day event. It is our intention to drive an initiative to connect all of our members with their respective Members of Congress in 2013.

 

Here's some statistics for you to think about: around 80% of all eligible EAS employees are members of NAPS. Of our current 28,000 active and retired members, only around 11% are registered to go on our website and less than 25% of our members are receiving this NAPSHQ2U bi-weekly electronic newsletter.

 

When we want to get the attention of Members of Congress to the plight of the Postal Service or to support something that the Congress "might" do to help, we need the help of our greatest lobbying resource; YOU!

 

If you are getting this email you are connected with NAPS. If you are on our website, you can use our Legislative Center to send emails and connect with your Member of Congress. We need your help to lobby Members of Congress to let them know that their continued neglect of the Postal Service's financial problems cannot continue.

 

The USPS Board of Governors has issued a statement that, due to Congressional legislative inactivity, they will be forced to accelerate cost reductions and consolidations of the distribution network. This is not good news as we are trying to win over new customers and increase our share of the burgeoning package market. Cutting infrastructure is counter-intuitive to building a greater market share of the package market, but that's just what the Postal Service will do without legislative intervention.     

 

We need your help to get the attention of the 75% of our members who aren't getting this newsletter to join with the rest of us and become more politically active in this year where political activism will be the only thing that will move postal legislation and ultimately save the Postal Service. 

Seth's Slant

 

All the News that's Fit to Read

Seth

Seth Lennon

 

 

 

Every morning when I arrive at work, Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee in tow, I want to know what has transpired overnight and in the early morning. Like millions of other Americans, I have a few selected bookmarks that I lean on for my various areas of interests, both personal and professional. With everything going on with the Postal Service and the Federal workforce, it is important to know where you can turn when you need information.  The mainstream national press has been addressing the USPS' core issues with greater frequency over the last few years. However, these outlets often transmit information that is either dated and already well known and understood to those in the Postal community or it has been slanted to serve a particular point of view.

 

For our members who are already in the weeds and surrounded by the nuance of everything, it becomes more important to become more selective of what news sources are available. A great leaping off point are the Federal workforce trade publications- the best known of which is the Federal Times

 

Federal Times has always done a great job of providing a more detail-oriented approach of those issues facing both our retired and active members. In addition, lesser known publications such as Government Executive, Federal Computer Week and Government Computer News have taken a key interest on technical matters of the USPS that would be of keen interest to Postal employees.

 

If you don't know where to go to find these sources, you have options. Just run the publication titles through a Google search or check out our Facebook page on NAPS.org where we cite these sources regularly when an item of interest to our members is published.