USPSNEWS@WORK

Help deliver the gift of life: Become a bone marrow donor volunteer

Sign up to become a marrow donor. You could save a life.

• Each year, more than 30,000 children and adults in this country are diagnosed with leukemia, aplastic anemia, various forms of cancer and other blood- related diseases. For more than 22,000 of them, their only hope for life is a marrow transplant.

• In 1997, the Marrow Foundation asked the Postal Service to help expand the National Marrow Donor Registry. The Postal Service is America's most ethnically diverse employer and has a tradition of helping the communities we serve.

• The Postal Service and 3M Corporation, are cosponsors of the "Delivering the Gift of Life" campaign. The campaign's mission is to make marrow transplants available to patients of all racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

• Almost 12,000 Postal Service employees have joined the Donor Registry so far. Most importantly, 25 have made a gift of their life-saving bone marrow.

• Currently, there aren't enough marrow donor volunteers listed in the registry. Patients of African- American or diverse ancestry are especially in need of donors. Of the 4.8 million potential donors listed on the National Registry, less than a fourth are African- American or of diverse descent.

• The marrow donor campaign includes these districts this year: Albuquerque, Alabama, Baltimore, Caribbean, Central New Jersey, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Gateway, Greensboro, Honolulu, Houston, Long Beach, Louisiana, New York, Northern New Jersey, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Richmond, Rio Grande, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, South Georgia, South Florida, Triboro, Van Nuys, Capital Metro, and New York Metro Area offices.

CSRS legislation moves ahead with strong support in House, Senate

Legislation to correct the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) fund overpayment matter has been voted out of the appropriate committees in both the House and Senate with strong bipartisan support. The votes bring

the Postal Service a step closer to stabilizing rates for customers.

• In a statement USPS noted, "Full Congressional consideration and passage of this bill is important to any business that uses the mail.

• "It will keep the Postal Service from overpaying into CSRS, thereby allowing postage rates to remain unchanged until 2006."

• Without it, USPS said, the price of postage would be needlessly inflated and put USPS's financial future at risk. Postal Service ratepayers would ultimately be forced to overpay into CSRS by $78 billion.

• Stable postage rates also would be a big boost to the bottom line of businesses that depend on the mail. And, more than 100 mailing industry representatives have voiced their support for this legislation.

Brentwood fumigation meets "no growth" standard: Renovations expected to begin

The lengthy and thorough process used in December to exterminate anthrax spores at Washington, DC's, Curseen and Morris (formerly Brentwood) P&DC has met all standards established for the fumigation process.

• USPS Engineering VP Tom Day announced the results at the March Board of Governors meeting.

• The Postal Service's goal was to see no growth of anthrax spores. Day said that the results of thousands of environmental samples taken at the facility since it was treated with chlorine dioxide gas have met that standard.

• This was confirmed by Dr. Vincent Nathan of DC's Department of Health and co-chair of the independent Environmental Clearance Committee (ECC) established to review the test results following the decontamination.

• "I'm very pleased by the results," said Day. "USPS worked extremely hard to identify the best technology and processes to decontaminate the Curseen and Morris P&DC. These efforts were worth it. The safety of our employees and the people we serve demands no less."

USPSNEWS@WORK

• Day said that USPS expects to soon have an official okay from the ECC that will confirm the success of the fumigation and allow USPS to move to the next step - renovation of the facility.

• As contract workers begin the renovation process, environmental samples will continue to be gathered, Day said. Those samples will be evaluated by the ECC once the building is renovated and before a final clearance is given to reoccupy the building, Day said.

Partners for progress: USPS, Hallmark join forces to offer customers added convenience

The Postal Service and Hallmark Gold Crown Stores are joining forces to serve their mutual customers better.

• Hallmark stores sell cards and gifts. USPS sells stamps and mailing services. Customers can now do their shopping and shipping at the same location.

• "USPS and Hallmark Gold Crown are highly respected brands that customers know and trust," said Chief Marketing Officer Anita Bizzotto. "This partnership is about expanding access, increasing customer convenience and generating new revenue," - important Transformation Plan strategies.

• Selected Hallmark Gold Crown stores will offer postage stamps, special services and package services. Customers can send cards, letters and packages by First-Class MailŪ and Priority MailŪ services up to 20 pounds.

• Special services offered include Certified Mail, Insured Mail, Return Receipt, Delivery ConfirmationTM and Signature ConfirmationTM service. USPS employees will collect mail from the stores each day.

• The partnership began Feb. 1 with 79 Hallmark Gold Crown stores offering USPS products and services. On March 1, 174 additional stores joined the fold. More stores will be offering services as the year goes on.

USPS wins crisis management award

The Postal Service has won PRWeek's coveted Crisis Management Campaign of the Year 2003 award for successfully managing communication during the anthrax crisis. PMG Jack Potter accepted the award at a ceremony in New York. "The challenge," PRWeek said, "was to restore confidence and trust" in USPS. "The campaign," PRWeek said, "was a resounding success."

File your taxes. April 15 is fast approaching.

The IRS appreciates our timely delivery of tax forms to the American public. It also reminds Postal Service employees to comply with filing tax returns and paying any balances owed.

• While the federal employee compliance rate is higher than that of the general public, there's always room for improvement.

• What's more, section 661.66 of the ELM says "an employee must pay each just financial obligation in a proper and timely manner, especially one imposed by law, such as federal, state or local taxes." Need help? Go to www.irs.gov.

New semipostal this fall

The Postal Service will issue the Stop Family Violence stamp this fall. Priced at 45 cents, it will be the third semipostal stamp issued by the Postal Service.

• The first two - the Breast Cancer Research stamp and the Heroes of 2001 stamp - have raised millions for the two causes.

• Funds from the Stop Family Violence semipostal, minus the price of postage and administrative costs, will be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. The stamp design will be unveiled later this year.

Administrative Services

NEW MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTION

MI AS-860-2003-2, Data Stewardship: Data Sharing Roles and Responsibilities

MI AS-860-2003-2, Data Stewardship: Data Sharing Roles and Responsibilities, establishes the Postal Service's policy for defining the roles and responsibilities for protecting the integrity of corporate data - whether captured and maintained manually or by information systems - and ensuring that such data can be shared across the enterprise. This instruction applies to all business and technology organizations that create or use Postal Service corporate data.

Data is critical to the success of the Postal Service and must be shared across organization boundaries as much as possible. To support this requirement, each business area that has source data must provide a responsible organization or individual to develop standards and usage rules that will ensure data integrity and, at the same time, permit data to be shared as widely as possible.

This MI replaces MI AS 830-93-4, Data Stewardship, and MI AS 830-93-8, Coordinating Access to Data from National Information Systems.

MI AS-860-2003-2 is available on the Postal Service PolicyNet Web site at http://blue.usps.gov/cpim; click on MIs.

- Enterprise Architecture and Standards
Information Technology, 3-20-03

Customer Relations

Mail Alert

The mailings below will be deposited in the near future. Offices should honor the requested delivery dates. Mailers wishing to participate in these alerts, for mailings of 1 million pieces or more, should contact Business Service Network Integration at 703-292-4041 at least 1 month preceding the requested delivery dates. The Postal Service also offers electronic Mail Alerts via ADVANCE. For more information, see the ADVANCE Notification & Tracking System Technical Guide on the Internet at http://www.ribbs.usps.gov/files/advance/ADVTECH.PDF or contact the National Customer Support Center at 800-458-3181.