The Postal Service's focus on the customer emphasizes ease of use, greater access, and product offerings that offer value and respond to customer needs. New features, including hold mail, change of address, insurance online, Click-N-Ship, Carrier Pickup, and electronic return receipts made usps.com, the online Post Office, more popular than ever. Several customer contact points were streamlined to make it easier for commercial customers to do business with the Postal Service. These include a redesigned Direct Mail Web site, a new Business Service Network self-service feature, and electronic postage statement submission.

The introduction of Priority Mail flat-rate boxes, in two convenient sizes, enhances the utility of this expedited service for consumers and small businesses. Premium Forwarding Service makes it possible for customers temporarily away from their permanent address to receive all of their mail, quickly, at their temporary location. Global Express Mail service was enhanced, in cooperation with five Pacific rim postal administrations, to provide date-certain guaranteed service to China, Hong Kong, Australia, Korea, and Japan.

With the launch of Business Connect, postmasters and station managers in communities from coast to coast are meeting with local business customers and introducing them to direct mail opportunities and a suite of package services. They are building on research that demonstrates the unique advantages of mail for customer acquisition, customer relationship management, and business enhancement. In addition, the debut of Deliver magazine has helped marketing and advertising professionals rediscover the power and value that direct mail brings to integrated advertising programs.

2. BOARD OF GOVERNORS

As the governing body of the U.S. Postal Service, the 11-member Board of Governors has responsibilities comparable to a board of directors of a publicly held corporation. The Board is composed of nine Governors appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. The other two members of the Board are the Postmaster General and the Deputy Postmaster General. The Governors appoint the Postmaster General, who serves at their pleasure without a specific term of office. The Governors, together with the Postmaster General, appoint the Deputy Postmaster General.

The Board meets on a schedule that it establishes annually. The Chairman and Vice Chairman are elected at the annual meeting in January.

The Board directs the exercise of power of the Postal Service. It establishes policies, basic objectives, and long-range goals for the Postal Service in accordance with title 39 of the U.S. Code. Except for those powers specifically vested in the Governors, the Board may delegate the authority vested in it by statute to the Postmaster General under such terms, conditions, and limitations, including the power of re-delegation, as it deems desirable. The Governors are authorized to establish reasonable and equitable classes of mail and reasonable and equitable rates of postage and fees for postal services. By statute the Governors alone decide how to respond to recommended decisions of the Postal Rate Commission on postal rate and mail classification changes. The Governors may approve, allow under protest, reject, or by unanimous written decision in certain circumstances, modify recommended Postal Rate Commission decisions.

Government Fiscal Year 2005 began on October 1, 2004, and ended September 30, 2005. The Board held meetings in each month except October, March, and July. Each scheduled meeting consisted of two sessions with one session being closed to the public and one session open to the public in accord with the provisions of the Government in the Sunshine Act. Altogether, there were 12 days of regularly scheduled meetings in 2005. Six of these meetings were held in Washington, D.C. The three meetings not held in Washington, D.C. were: February 2005 in Sarasota, Florida; May 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia; and August 2005 in Newport Beach, California. In addition to the scheduled meetings, the Board held three special meetings on March 25, March 31, and July 15, 2005. These meetings were held in Washington, D.C. by telephone conference call.