Capital Region Postal Customer Council Stamped as Nation's Best

Local Group Earns Three Gold Awards On Televised Postal Event

On the Post Office calendar, Wednesday was National Postal Customer Council Day.  But, it turned out to be the Capital Region's show.

More than 14,000 members of 200 Postal Customer Councils gathered in 139 different locations to participate in local workshops, to recognize outstanding service and individual achievement and to hear a live broadcast led by Postmaster General John Potter. 

By the end of the broadcast, the Postal Customer Council (PCC) for the Capital region has been recognized as the top "small market" mailers group in the nation.  It also earned gold awards for excellence in communications, education and overall performance.  

As is the practice with Postal Customer Councils, the Capital Region PCC has two co-chairs.  Representing the Postal Service is Albany Postmaster David Yanni.   Serving as the Industry Co-Chair is Ellie Alexander of Newkirk Products, Inc. in Albany.  

The group was cited for achievements such as a 9.5% increase in general members and a 20 percent growth in the executive board, creating two recognition programs to thank sponsors and members for support, offering 21 educational programs and producing an eight-page quarterly newsletter, “Capital Connections." 

The group also expanded its use of webinars and teleconferencing to encourage off-site participation in PCC programs, promoted panel discussions at training seminars to provide industry perspective on postal subject matter and created a customer-to-customer letter for members to hand to their customers to encourage membership with the PCC.

New York was well represented in the National PCC Day event, with both Buffalo and Greater New York sharing "large market" PCC of the Year honors.  The Capital Region was the sole recipient of "small market" honors.  Markets were determined by population and size of the host post office.  

Around the region, Postal Customer Councils in Central New York and the Mohawk Valley received bronze medals for overall excellence. Both also hosted mailer education events on National PCC Day and are in the Postal Service's Albany District.

In addition, the National PCC Day program also unveiled a blog for postal customer communications on postal issues.   

The site — http://2blogpcc.com/ — includes links to local PCC locations, to the Postal Service's Rapid Information Bulletin Board (RIBBS) and to the National PCC site — http://www.usps.com/nationalpcc/ — which includes workshops for use in PCC or industry settings, a roster of national speakers and certification programs, a how-to on PCC operations, and best practices from around the nation. 

The Postal Service’s Albany District reaches more than 3.5 million postal customers served by 720 Post Offices in an area that stretches from the Massachusetts and Canadian borders west to Waterloo and south to Binghamton.  Postal Customer Councils are active in the Capital Region, the Mohawk Valley, Central New York and in the Southern Tier. 

About Postal Customer Councils
The Postal Customer Council was established in 1961 to improve communications between USPS customers and managers. The organization has grown increasingly more important since the 1970s, when business mailing issues became a primary focus.

Today there are more than 200 local PCCs with approximately 100,000 members across the nation.

Regular meetings, education programs, mailer clinics and seminars keep members informed of developments.