July 2001

POSTMASTERS, MANAGERS, AND SUPERVISORS

SUBJECT: Publicity Kit -Good News Recognition Program

Postal Service employees are always making important contributions to the communities in which they work and live. Hardly a day goes by without a Postal Service employee coming to the rescue of someone trapped in a fire, getting help for heart attack or stroke victims, feeding the hungry by sponsoring food drives, or reaching out to the underprivileged during the holidays.

These good deeds lead to the kind of news everyone likes to read - human-interest stories. But many of them fail to appear because editors and reporters never hear what happened or they learn about it so late that it's no longer news.

That's a shame, because when people in the community know you or know about you and your employees, they are more likely to appreciate the service they receive. Moreover, if they have a complaint, they are less likely to air it with civic leaders or the media.

To help you spread the word about the many positive things our employees do for their communities, we're enclosing the Public Affairs and Communications Good News Recognition Program guidelines. Along with this mid-year reminder, we've also prepared an updated publicity kit designed especially for postmasters, managers, and supervisors. This kit is full of materials to help you get your message of community involvement to members of community organizations and your local press.

The kit includes:
Program guidelines.
Submission tips.
Submitting news clips.
Suggestions for generating publicity.
Ways to notify the media.
Sample fact sheet.
Talking points for a speech to be given to a community group.
Submission cover sheet.

The Postal Service has established a reputation as one of the finest postal systems in the world. Credit for this goes to our employees who, day in and day out, deliver the mail and a whole lot more to their customers and their community. We encourage you to use the materials in this kit as often as you can. When you do, you will enhance the standing of your Post Office within your community and tell all employees how proud we are of the "everyone, everywhere" attitudes they display every day.

David L. Solomon
Acting Chief Operating Officer and
Executive Vice President

Deborah K. Willhite
Senior Vice President
Government Relations
and Public Policy

Publicity Kit starts on page 3.