NAPM 2011 Annual Meeting Highlights

A Panel on Full Service Intelligent Mail® which discussed:

  • How members could recover their investment in Full Service IMb.
  • The pros and cons of using you own MID or your Customer’s MID on Full Service IMb mailpieces.
  • The importance of participating in MTAC Workgroups (such as MTAC Workgroup 137) and User Groups (such as MTAC user Group 1 to understand Intelligent Mail and related topics such as PostalOne! and stay abreast of changes.
  • Ways members addressed problems they had encountered in the process of preparing form and qualifying to submit Full Service IMb mail including electronic documentation.

Presentations by

  • Jim Wilson, USPS Manager of Addressing and the National Customer Support Center on what would replace FASTforward® when the USPS sunsets that program in 2012 which included a review of the current pricing for NCOALink.  Mr. Wilson also provided a report on UAA mail and the USPS’s secure (mail) destruction program that is aimed a reducing the amount of UAA mail that must be returned to mailers.
  • Bob Galaher, Manager of Special Projects in Business Mail Acceptance who had just completed the task of developing an outline of where the USPS wanted to go with business mail acceptance process.  Fundamentally, it wants to leverage technology to provide a better, more consistent and predictable customer experience.  The goal is to streamline and automate the mail acceptance process while expanding access and make mailing more convenient.  These expected changes will dramatically impact postage payment systems eliminating the need for separate permits at each location where mail is entered and allow mailers to move money between accounts.
  • Two attorneys from LeClair/Ryan on employment law issues general and on the I-9 compliance process and how to be proactive and prepared for union attempts to organize your workforce.
  • Kevin Yost of Wolverine Solutions Group on the USPS Business Customer Gateway and securing MIDs for customers.
  • Mike Rule of Presort Solutions, Inc. on TEM (Test Environment for Mailers) through which mailers must pass to become qualified to submit Full Service IMb mailings.
  • Each of the major MLOCR vendors (Siemens, Bowe, Bell & Howell National Presort and Pitney Bowes) on how their system would implement Full Service IMb. 
  • Rhys Jones of Presort Solutions, Inc. on Getting the Most from MicroStrategy Reports provided by the USPS on Full Service IMb mailings.

Saturday morning was devoted to (1) a lengthy presentation by Kelly Lorchick and his associate in Business Mailer Support, Ken Penland, on the new national CAT/CET standards and on the CSA process, and (2) a smaller volume members sessions designed to address issues of particular concern to small volume presort bureaus.  The presentation by Kelly and Ken followed up on a series of one on one meetings that they had had the day before with members who wanted to discuss problem they were having with the CSA process or simply how they should approach that process.