August 2, 2013

  Letter from Louie 

 

The Devil is in the Details
Louis Atkins

Louis Atkins

 

 

 

This week, NAPS continued its discussion with the USPS NPA Team regarding FY 2014 Pay for Performance (PFP). One of our primary focuses has been to address how the indicators and goals are composed and when the field will receive them.

 

The key objective of Pay for Performance is to promote excellence in leadership and to change behavior in a positive manner across the workforce. It is a common practice in the corporate world to reward employees who conduct their duties in an exceptional fashion. However, in order to meet or even exceed standards, employees must understand what is asked of them.

 

In past years, there had been a delay in USPS providing EAS employees the measurements and indicators used to evaluate employee performance. This harms both the service and the workforce as it prevents employees from maximizing what they earn through the evaluation process but also adversely affects overall unit morale due to poor communication of overall objectives.

 

However, there is change in the air for our members.  We are working aggressively with the USPS to try and have the FY2014 PFP goals to the field by the start of the new fiscal year.

 

NAPS resident officers are reviewing the indicators and their weights to ensure they are fair and equitable to our members; and providing respective feedback to the Postal Service.  In addition, our goal is to ensure members have the ability to be compensated for improved performance.  If we can get the PFP process implemented by the start of the new FY, we can be well on our way to developing a system that accomplishes all of its intended NPA objectives.

 

However, last week, much of our attention was centered on Capitol Hill for the markup of Chairman Issa's Postal Reform law, a bill that while an improvement over previous efforts, still left a lot to be desired. It is absolutely essential that the Postal Service be given the ability to stand on its own by protecting service standards and expanding into new business areas. Without comprehensive common sense postal reform, issues like PFP won't matter because the very survival of the Postal Service itself will come into question. 

Brian's Scoop

  

Make Room for Members! 

 

  

Brian Wagner

 

 

The title of my August 2013 article in The Postal Supervisor magazine is "Motivating Membership".  

Did you have psychic powers that enabled you to know what was in the article before it came out? Here's the scoop. 

 

Since July 1st, the number of 1187's received have skyrocketed in volume. To put it bluntly, Jovan, our membership coordinator, was shocked to see the number of 1187's received-approximately 165.  These are great numbers for one month and our membership has done an outstanding job getting newly promoted supervisors to join NAPS. NAPS HQ encourages you to stay motivated and keep the monthly momentum going.

 

That brings me to my August Postal Supervisor article. When you read it you will know that NAPS has initiated a new membership drive not only to get more members actively involved by promoting membership, but entire branches.  

 

By the number of 1187's received in July, you didn't need a new NAPS membership initiative to motivate you to increase membership; just your desire to give back to NAPS.

 

Well, we have already published our membership initiative but here is a little hint about our new initiative. 

 

Starting June 1, 2013 through May 31, 2014, NAPS will randomly draw the name of a NAPS member who sponsored a new member during that particular month. The monthly winning sponsor will receive a $25 PNC Visa/NAPS gift card. This is in addition to the regular $25 gift card the sponsor receives for signing up a new member. Our June winner was sponsor Sharon Guydon of Branch 80, Oklahoma City. 

 

Be advised, we will start each month new; there will be no rollover 1187s. However, there is no limit on the number of times you can win the monthly drawing. The goal is to keep you motivated in signing up new members until the end of May 2014.

 

In addition, NAPS will take all the 1187s received during the contest period and conduct a Grand Prize drawing for a lucky sponsor. Not only does the Grand Prize winner win big, so does their branch.

 

Want to know what the winners get?  Well, get motivated and read your Postal Supervisor magazine. 

 

It will not be necessary for me to give you a hint about my ice cream flavor of the week recommendation, it is -- Kahlua Fudge Brownie.   


 
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Quote of the Issue!  

 

     
                            -Colin Powell
  Jay's Notes

 Setting the Stage 
for Postal Reform
   
Jay New
Jay Killackey

 

 

 

In late July, competing bills from Government Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings were presented in the committee. Issa's HR 2748 and Cummings' HR 2690 were debated at length for most of the day. The end result was a vote on party lines approving Issa's version of Postal Reform.

 

This sets the stage for Issa's bill to get ready to head to the floor of the House of Representatives for debate and vote. During the month of August, the House is on a "well deserved' vacation (LOL). During this time when Members are in their home districts, NAPS members need to be contacting their elected representatives to get your point across about what you want in Postal Reform.

 

Do you think that health care prefunding requirements need to be changed?  Do you think that postal customers should pay a premium to have mail delivered to their doors? Do you think that we should have the Postal Service run by five executives for a short period to make significant changes in the USPS business model?  Do you agree that overnight First Class Mail delivery should be eliminated? Do you think that NDCBU's will work in urban locations? How about five-day delivery?  These are some of the provisions of Issa's bill that your elected officials will be considering when they come back from their "vacation".

 

Before we can attempt to educate Members of Congress, we have to take a short tutorial so that we are up on the issues ourselves. We've made it easy for you to get up to speed on the issues. On our NAPS website is our analysis of both Issa's HR 2478 and Cummings' HR 2690, point-by-point.

 

In the next week, NAPS headquarters will be developing communications to every Member of Congress outlining our position on what we believe will constitute true postal reform. You will be able to visit our Legislative Center to send a personal message to your elected officials to educate them on your position for Postal Reform. This is not a time to just sit idly by when your future is being debated in the Congress. Take a few minutes today to visit our NAPS website and get politically involved. 

Seth's Slant

 

 Social Media at Work!

Seth

Seth Lennon

 

 

 

During my last couple of columns, I have gone into detail about the social media tools that NAPS Headquarters has integrated into its communication toolbox. However, it is completely understandable for one to ask "What kind of value do all of these tools truly bring?"; especially considering that NAPS has a comprehensive website and a full-color, multi-page magazine. Recent events have served to demonstrate the value of our social media apparatus and how it fills in the gaps in our information distribution network.

 

Over the course of the last two weeks, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform debated, marked up and moved Postal Reform legislation through the committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives. Considering the importance of this legislation, NAPS wanted to ensure that our members knew all the facts and understood the gravity of what was happening on Capitol Hill.

 

Facebook and Twitter were used extensively in the lead-up to the hearing and markup to distribute media stories regarding Postal Reform.  This social media also directed members to our website to review NAPS' analysis of Chairman Darrell Issa's Postal Reform proposal and the counterproposal offered by Ranking Member Elijah Cummings.

 

However, our social media protocol did not end when the hearing began. A vast number of our members were unable to watch the hearing due to work or personal obligations. Therefore, NAPS took steps to relay vital information to our membership. From Twitter, NAPS "live tweeted" both the hearing and the markup, meaning that NAPS tweeted highlights and key statements from the hearing as well as re-tweeting statements from lawmakers own Twitter feeds. 

 

These tools are only going to grow in importance, especially considering that the Senate will soon begin debating their own version of Postal Reform followed by House and Senate leaders potentially conferencing in order to arrive at a final bill. NAPS will continue to use all of its communication tools to fully inform our members to be effective legislative advocates.