2012 Price Change Presentation
Posted on January 25, 2012
Filed Under: Presentation/Program Materials
Greetings from Carolyn Slocum
Posted on January 25, 2012
Usherwood Office Technology, Industry Co-Chair
I would like to thank everyone for making our first membership session of 2012 a great success. Regardless of the inclement weather, we had over 58 members in attendance. Mark Dahlstrom, Senior Plant Manager, Albany District, presented a very compelling story for the state of the US Postal Service and its challenges and strategies to continue to provide valued services at competitive prices.
If you were unable to attend our Membership Session on January 12 reviewing operational changes and the new postage rates increases effective January 22, you may want to take advantage of the PowerPoint presentation link provided herein.
One of the most exciting new tools the US Postal Service released on January 23 is called the Intelligent Mail Small Business tool. This tool will offer small and medium sized customers to process a database of up to 9,000 addresses to produce Intelligent Mail Barcodes on their labels or envelopes. Often times a business mailing has less than the minimum quantity of 500 First-Class letters to qualify for postal discounts. However, now the opportunity to utilize the Intelligent Mail Small Business tool to apply a valid IMB, the processing speed and accuracy of delivery of that letter will be improved. For the addresses that can’t be assigned an IMB, a customer may want to inquire as to the quality and completeness of the address and improve their database for future mailings.
It is innovative new ideas and tools like this that demonstrate to postal customers that the US Postal Service is making aggressive strides to promote efficient and cost effective processing while supporting customers’ initiatives to improve delivery of their business critical communications.
Please don’t hesitate to let us hear from you on ways that your Capital Region Postal Customer Council can help make information and training for your business more available. Send inquires to:
CRPCC
US Postal Service
30 Karner Road
Albany, NY 12288
Respectfully,
Carolyn Slocum,
CRPCC Industry Co-Chair
Filed Under: Home
SAVE THE DATE! CRPCC Golf Tournament – June 1, 2012
Posted on December 8, 2011
Be sure to mark your calendar and save the date for the CRPCC 7th Annual Golf Tournament at Eagle Crest Golf Club on Friday, June 1, 2012. Tee off 8:30 a.m.
Filed Under: Events
New and updated network optimization information for mailers is now available on the Postal Service’s “Information for Mailers” web page.
Posted on November 3, 2011
A second set of FAQs specifically for mailers, and a new document containing more information related to each of the facility study sites announced September 15, 2011, were recently posted on the Postal Service’s “Information for Mailers” web page at http://about.usps.com/news/facility-studies/welcome.htm. In addition, navigation to this page from the about.usps.com home page was simplified — now, just click on the “Mailer information” link under the heading “Our Organization” (next to the photo of a postal facility) and you’re there! This new and updated information is also available on the Business Mail Acceptance (BMA) page of RIBBS.
The new set of FAQs contains 49 *new* questions-and-answers based upon ongoing meetings and discussions with mailers; these FAQs supplement the initial set of FAQs posted in September. The new “Consolidated Information on Facility Study Sites” document contains additional information on all 252 sites selected for Area Mail Processing studies. Mailers can use this list to find each selected study site’s name, city, state, ZIP Code, and drop site key; the gaining site’s (or sites’) name(s), city, state, ZIP Code and drop site key; the road mileage figure reflecting the distance between study and gaining sites, and, in some cases, additional comments on individual sites.
We hope you will find these new materials helpful and informative. As always, please contact us if you have questions, comments or concerns, and let us know if there is specific information you would like to see posted on the “Information for Mailers” page.
Filed Under: Communications
Innovations in Direct Mail
Posted on November 2, 2011
If you missed our exciting “Innovations in Direct Mail” seminar on November 15th, or just want to view the presentations again, please select one of the attachments below.
Filed Under: Presentation/Program Materials, Uncategorized
In Home Delivery Dates Letter from Susan LaChance, USPS HQ
Posted on November 1, 2011
Filed Under: Uncategorized
Looking for a Mail Service Provider?
Posted on June 26, 2011
The Mailing Industry Product Guide can be found at:
www.mailingindustryproductguide.com
Filed Under: Communications
Smart Mailer Presentation
Posted on May 17, 2011
View a presentation on Smart Mailing.
Filed Under: Presentation/Program Materials
Join CRPCC today!
Posted on May 15, 2010
Become a CRPCC member to improve the profitability of your business through greater mailing efficiency. Share ideas and build associations while learning the latest in postal services, rates and regulations.
View the Join/Enroll page for more information.
Filed Under: Home
Introduction to Database Design
Posted on November 2, 2009
A database can be a powerful tool when designed correctly and efficiently. An efficient database can be applied in many different ways, with little or no alterations in the actual data itself.
Why use a table?
The difference between a block style database and a table-based database is: the table-based database has data can be sorted, altered and retrieved.
Plan Your Database Before Creating
The first step in creating your database scheme (whether it be in Excel, Access, or any other table-based database software) is to make a list of the different categories of information that needs to be stored in the database. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be creating a database to be used for direct mailing purposes.
Take into Consideration
If you were to hand-write an address block on an envelope, you would include a name, address, and city, state, zip. When creating a database however, you have to take into consideration all of the possible extra pieces of data that may or may not be included with each record in the database. In other words, a table-based database allows the flexibility to expand records to include additional data if needed.
Getting Started
First, each record should have a unique identifier assigned to it. In our case, we will use an incremental number, starting from 1, up to however many records in the database.
Form a Contact Block
A “Contact Block” is a group of columns in a database. To create a Contact Block, label the columns in your database according to the data type. For example, enter ”Company Name” for the first column, “First Name” for the second column, “Middle Initial” for the third column, “Last Name” for the fourth column, and “Title” for the sixth column. These columns may be all you need to have a well organized Contact Block, but you can name them differently to best fit your database.
Form an Address Block
The same method applies: take into consideration of any combinations of addresses, suites, apartments, or any other needed data, when creating and labeling your fields. We will use a basic address block consisting of: Address1, Address2, Address3, City, State, and Zip. This will be more than enough to cover most of the United states, and can be easily upgraded to an International database by adding a Country Field, and a Country Zip Code field (just remember to use one or the other to keep the database efficient).
Done!
At this point you have a well-formed database that will keep your direct mailing lists efficient and organized. As most databases do, you should consider a few miscellaneous fields at the end. We recommend 3 extra fields for future notes (or perhaps phone number, or email address). Use your judgement if this information is appropriate for your database.
Filed Under: Presentation/Program Materials
