Letter Writers Alliance

Penny Farthing Post

I often get asked what will the members of the Letter Writers Alliance do if the postal service is ever abolished. My response is always to detail exactly why that will never happen, but I do think that if postal armeggedon were upon us, members and other mail lovers would turn hyper local. For an example of a local post, check out Graham Eccles {see the dashing gentleman above}.

Mr. Eccles is a writer and poet in Cornwall. He is also the main operator of the Penny Farthing Post. There are "post offices" in local shops around town and he does three pick-ups and deliveries a day. A letter posted early in the day can arrive at its destination on the same day it was sent, like the city delivery system of old! "I want to encourage the younger generation to love the written word. Everyone's growing up with huge thumbs from texting but receiving a letter is special." You can see him in action in this clip from the BBC.

Well done, Mr. Eccles! You have our stamp of approval as it were. The first L.W.A. member to send me documentation of using the Penny Farthing Post gets an Inkling. Do you know of any other local posts? Please leave a comment if you do!

P.S. Additional thanks to member Cheyenne for the first tip on this.

P.P.S. Quote from the Guardian article linked in the post.

 

U.S. Stamp Rate Increase and Stamp Releases

On January 22nd, it will cost one whole penny more to mail letters to any location in the United States. That's right, a mere 45 cents to send something anwhere in the U.S. It's still a great deal.

Highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing, effective Jan. 22, 2012, include:

• Letters (1 oz.): 1-cent increase to 45 cents
• Letters additional ounces: unchanged at 20 cents
• Postcards: 3-cent increase to 32 cents
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.): 5-cent increase to 85 cents.
• Letters to other international destinations: 7-cent increase to $1.05

Look at that, it's still less than a dollar to send things to Canada and Mexico and just a dollar and a nickel to send a letter anywhere in the world! Anywhere! In! The! World! It's just amazing.

Also amazing are the stamps released today and this year so far. That's one good thing about a rate increase; you seem to get a lot of new stamps along with it.

The Spectrum Eagle

New Mexico Statehood

Aloha Shirts

Glacier National Park

Wedding Cake {re-release with new pricing}

Weather Vanes

Baltimore Checkerspot

Birds of Prey

Dogs at Work

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Click on the stamp names to be taken to Beyond the Perf, the official blog of U.S. stamp releases, for more information about each stamp.

The "Going Postal" Blog

L.W.A. member and my penpal Katherine sent me a link to this awesome blog run by Evan Kalish called "Going Postal". What he does is visit post offices and tells you about them. He's visited over 2,773 of them according to his sidebar. It's a postal voyeurs dream. I know what I'm doing with my time off from the day job; reading his archive! Here are some of my favorites.

Holiday Shipping Visual From Last Year

{Click the links for a larger view.}

Thanks to the lovely folks at Zen Desk (via Gizmodo), let’s take a look at just what the USPS has to do at Christmas.  Last year, the USPS expected to take in and sort 800 million letters and packages (up from the typical 559 million on a regular day).  That is a lot of mail!

 

{Ashley is our Rhode Island-based L.W.A. correspondent.}

Holiday Shipping Dates from the U.S.P.S.

{Poster from the Bristish Postal Museum & Archive Flickr}

Some dates to keep in mind in order for your holiday mailings to arrive on schedule. A detailed list for military and international mail is at the U.S.P.S. website.

First-Class Mail® Service	Dec. 20
Priority Mail® Service	Dec. 21
Express Mail® Service	Dec. 22
Parcel Post® Service	Dec. 15

Stamp Increase Announced

{Creative Commons image on Flickr from ManoRegejimas}

It came down the wires yesterday that postal rates in the U.S. are due to increase in 2012. Here's the skinny from the Postal Reporter at the Postal News Blog:

"Prices for most Postal Service mailing services will change on January 22, 2012. Mailing services includes First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, Periodicals, Package Services and Extra Services. Prices for shipping services will also change on January 22. We will provide customers the new shipping services prices later this fall.

While actual percentage price increases for various products and services varies, the overall average price increase across all mailing services is capped by law at 2.1 percent, the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

FIRST-CLASS MAIL HIGHLIGHTS:

• Letters (1 oz.) 1-cent increase to 45 cents. This is the first increase in the price of a First-Class Mail stamp since May 2009.
• Single-piece letters additional ounce rate unchanged at 20 cents.
• Postcards 3-cent increase to 32 cents
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) 5-cent increase to 85 cents
• Letters to other international destinations 7-cent increase to $1.05
• The second ounce will be free for First-Class Mail Presort pieces weighing between one and two ounces.

ADDITIONAL PRICE ADJUSTMENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• The price increase for Standard Mail Letters is slightly below the overall average at less
  than 1.9 percent
• A new 3-month pricing option will be available to rent PO Boxes for people on the move and others that need a PO Box for a shorter time period.
• Delivery Confirmation will be free for several parcel products as the Postal Service continues to make tracking an integral component of parcels mailed at commercial rates.

The new prices were filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission on Oct. 18, 2011. The Commission has 45 days to review the prices to verify they comply with the overall 2.1 percent price cap for each class of mail. The new prices will go into effect on Jan. 22, 2012."

The extra penny makes me shrug. I am A-OK with an extra penny. The additional 3 cents for postcards and additional 7 cents for international {other than Canada and Mexico} is a bit more painful. However, I am prepared to make these truly minute adjustments to keep sending and receiving my letters. How about you?

The Case of the Missing Mailboxes

Reposted from my INtangible blog. The article also states that, sigh, "With online banking and e-mail, the only letters left in the big blue boxes are wedding invitations and the occasional birthday card from Grandma." Prove them wrong, people! Prove them wrong!

Save the Post Office!

Eagle-eyed members Barb A. and Alice S. sent me separate links to some similar sites and news stories involving the impending closures of many post offices.

Alice S. sent a link to this New York Times story on how the closure of one tiny little post office can effect an entire community. Barb sent us this link to Save the Post Office. Run by Steve Hutkins, a regular guy who just likes his local post office, and he doesn’t want to see post offices being closed. His website provides information about the post office closings and the things citizens can do to save their post office when it ends up on the closure list. He's put together a handy action list called Send the Love to help give people like those in North Hoosick the tools to stand up for their beloved P.O.  As letter-writers, there's something you can do too; if you feel strongly about something, remember you can write a letter. In this case, it helps in more ways than one.

 

Postage Increase in Effect

Just a friendly reminder that, while the First Class mail stamp rate for the first ounce remains unchanged, some prices have increased with the U.S.P.S. as of yesterday, April 17th.

* First-Class letter additional ounces increased to 20 cents
* Postcards cost 29 cents
* Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) increased to 80 cents
* Letters to other international destinations (1 oz.) will remain unchanged at 98 cents

Who's in Charge Here?

It's a brand new year and that means brand new stamps! Yippee skippy. I'm excited for stamp releases this year including Alan Shepard, Mark Twain and Owney the Postal Dog. But who gets to choose what we see as stamps? And how do they choose them?

The U.S.P.S. has what it calls the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee. The members are appointed by the Postmaster General. They meet quarterly to review the stamp proposals with regard to a "breadth of judgment and depth of experience in various areas that influence subject matter, character and beauty of postage stamps." From all the eligible proposals, about 20 commemorative designs are selected for production each year.

There are twelve general criteria that a proposal has to meet to be considered by the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee. You can read them in full at the above link, but the major points are that it has be American or American-related, if it's a person, they have to have been deceased for 5 years, and if it's an institution or event, they only celebrate those things at 50 year anniversaries. If you have a stamp proposal for them, you have to submit it in writing to:

Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee
    c/o Stamp Development
    U.S. Postal Service
    1735 North Lynn St., Suite 5013
    Arlington, VA 22209-6432

If it meets the criteria, it goes on the agenda for the next meeting of the C.S.A.C. You should get started now though, they recommend submitting things 3 years in advance!

P.S. If you want to know more about the stamps being released this year, there's an article at Postal News for you.

P.P.S. And, of course, we'll let you know whenever they release a new stamp!