Letter Writers Alliance

Rules for Letter Writing?

A post on the Crane & Co. blog, sent me to the site of Michael Kovacs. Mr. Kovacs is fond, it seems, of posting lists of rules in regards to correspondence. For the most part, it seems good advice. Here is his list of 10 rules for letter writing.

1. Write letters.
2. Letters are a conversation in slow motion between two people. Treat it as such.
3. No one HAS to write back. If they do, it is a gift. Respect it as such.
4. No one can tell you how to write. Conversely, you are not allowed to tell anyone how they should be writing you.
5. Write letters.
6. You must make the choice between what you choose more: content or presentation.
7. If someone does not write back, send a postcard asking how they are doing and if they got the letter. If there is no reply, respect the silence and keep going on with life.
8. To quote Charles Bukowski, as the spirit wanes, the form rises. You are not obliged to follow any strict form in personal letter writing. If you wish to do so fine, but that is a personal choice.
9. Unless otherwise stated or understood, letters are between the sender and reader. Respect that privacy.
10. Oh yeah, did I mention WRITE LETTERS!

I agree with all but #6. I think a letter can be beautiful on the outside and the inside. There doesn't need to be an either/or equation to it. (It's also written oddly; so I may be misinterpreting it.) What do you guys think? Have any additions or refutations to make to this list? Let us know in the comments.

Address Book Management

As you might expect, in running a letter writing organization, I have acquired a large amount of pen pals. This is great! It also means that my address book can be a messy place, and can be tricky to keep up-to-date.

First, I keep a paper address book. I like the physicality of it. Sure, it takes a little teeny bit longer to find an address than it would if I kept a digital book, but that is not enough to get me to switch. I use pencil for the entries. It makes it easy to update. I had a previous book in my college years which swiftly ran out of room where I'd have to cross out inked addresses and write in a new one. (Mind you, I enjoyed seeing the record of places people had been, but it wasn't really helpful as a reference tool after a while.) I keep small Post-It notes of the address on top of the address entry. That way, if I finish and seal a letter, I can stick the Post-It note on it until I'm ready to properly address and mail art-ify the envelope.

 

 

 

Because I do get a lot of mail, entry into my address book is not immediate. I don't add anyone until the third letter I've received from them. No one (until now) knows that I do that, but I consider it something pretty special, to get added to book.  The act of writing things in is very important to me.

I also erase entries. Don't be shocked. I'll tell you why. When I do my holiday cards, I make a point to write to everyone who has an entry in the book. After I've finished a card, I place a rubber stamp next to the entry with a FriXion stamp. As the months go by, when I get a letter back, I erase the stamp. (That's the magic of the FriXion stamps. They are erasable.) If, by June, I haven't gotten a letter in return, then the whole entry gets erased. You have to write a letter to get a letter. It works both ways. Plus, there's only so much room in my book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the system I've developed that works for me. I'd love to hear about your system in our comments!

Wedding Invite Tips from the U.S.P.S.

While I was tending the counter at Greer, a young woman inquired if we sold stamps or not. Why yes, we do, was our reply. Then she wanted to know if we had a hundred to sell her. Well, we didn't, but it did prompt us to ask what she was mailing. She pulled out a small card and proceeded to tell us that the UPS Store she went to told her that it would cost additional postage to mail.

Now, I send a lot of mail and I'm pretty familiar with the regulations. I could not figure out why the staff at that mailer would have told her that. I measured it and it was well within the minimum size requirements for First Class mailing. We then directed her to the nearest Post Office. That's the thing, if you have a question, especially about your super-special mail, you really should ask the source. My suggestion is to go on off-hours and, if you can, to less urban locations for the best luck. 

The U.S.P.S. blog recently posted this handy little form on their site for quick reference. They also recommend checking with your local P.O. if you have questions. Congratulations and happy wedding mailings, everyone! (Also, the chart is fine reference for any mailing, not just wedding related ones.)

 

People & Places to write letters to

Month of Letters is winding down to its last week. Are you running out of people to write to? Check out this awesome list member Olivia (of Uncle Art) came up with.

Girls Love Mail (girlslovemail.com)
Gives the gift of hand-written letters to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.

More Love Letters (moreloveletters.squarespace.com)
Send a love letter to someone who needs it.

Send Something to a Stranger (sendsomething.net)
Add your name to the database and exchange mail with strangers.

Love for the Elderly (www.lovefortheelderly.org/write-a-letter.html)
Write to a senior citizen! (Olivia had a list of Illinois senior centers, but I consolidated that suggestion into this national organization.)

Lastly, why not take inspiration from Sarah Coyne and write to a National or State Park Ranger?

National Handwriting Day

It's tomorrow, January 23rd! I like that we have such a thing. To encourage you to handwrite a letter or two or twelve today, here's a little video of a pep talk I gave about handwriting prior to our workshop at the West Town Library in Chicago last October.

Eagle-eyes may have spotted the URL written on the white board for IAMPETH. That's the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting. It is the best resource for handwriting that I have found on the Internet. Make some printouts of their old booklets and get yourself some tracing paper. I think you'll be amazed what a little "cheating" and some practice can do for your script. There's also the Campaign for Cursive and the Society for Italic Handwriting if you find yourself hungry for more handwritten fun. Found a great site for handwriting we should know about? Share your own tips and tricks in the comments.

 -Donovan

Address Book Maintenance

The New Year is an excellent time to review the status of one's address book. This year, I decided to use my holiday cards as a litmus test for the addresses I had on file. Everyone in the book got a card or postcard. I haven't counted yet, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 200. I am expecting to get a number of NIXIEs returned.

A NIXIE is what the Postal Service calls a piece of "undeliverable as addressed" mail. It's even printed on the light yellow labels they slap over the address when they send it back to you. I decided that if I get a NIXIE, then that address in my book gets erased. I make an exception for the addresses of the deceased. Those, I outline in a black ink frame. It's my way of making a small memorial. And yes, sometimes the P.O. will tell you if someone is deceased; they have a special stamp for it and everything.

I have already started erasing. What's more, I have also decided that if I haven't heard from you in over a year and you don't respond to my holiday card by February, I will also erase your spot in the address book. (Mind you, this is my personal address book; this is in NO WAY a call for every member to write to me for fear of losing membership.) It's easy to get back in. Just write me back! You have to send a letter to get a letter. That's the mantra.

That's what I'm doing as part of my New Year's tending of the writing desk. How about you? Any resolutions to write back more, buy better stamps, send less or more mail? Share with us in the comments. We love to hear about other processes of letter writing and clever ideas.

~Donovan

Postable

(Fantastic address book photo at right by moarplease on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.)

I have heard nothing but good things about Postable. It's an online way to collect addresses from your contacts. They simply follow your link and add their information to your book. Your addresses remain private and you can share your own address with other Postable accounts. Also, if you have your info in your Postable account and you update it, it will automatically update with all of the other Postable accounts it is linked to. You can also export your contacts as a CSV file to easily make mailing labels or what have you.

Here at Headquarters, we've decided to give it a whirl. I haven't mentioned it here before now, because, frankly, I was suspicious. It seemed too good. While we don't have the capital to do mass mailings right now, if you'd like us to have your address, you can deposit it on our Postable account. Click here to add your info to our contacts. (<- Updated the link. It should be working now.)

Do you use Postable? Tell us what you think in the comments!

International Response Coupon (IRC)

Due to the Initiative Response project, we get a lot of questions about IRCs (International Response Coupons) Firstly, look above - this is what an IRC looks like. Now lets get down to what it is:

WHAT: An IRC is a coupon that can be redeemed for first class international postage.

WHERE: You can purchased or redeem and IRC at any post office within a country that is part of the Universal Postal Union. (List of countries here.)

WHY: If you are a non-US resident, you don't have access to US stamps. An IRC steps in to help you with that. If you are requested to send an SASE to a country outside your own, an ICR acts as your "stamps" to get the SASE back to you.

HOW: Ask your postal clerk for an IRC. Mail the IRC with your self-address envelope and that is it! It will magically come back to you with the proper postage needed to be mailed from the country you sent it to.

Above is what a IRC from Australia looks like. It is indistinguishable from IRCs from other countries, except for the fact that is says the country of origin on it. Some countries do not imprint the origin place on the coupon. When a member sends us one of these, I go to our post office and trade it for a first class international stamp, seen below the IRC in the photo.

So, if you are an international LWA member and want to participate in the Initiative Response project here is what you need to include with your request:

- An IRC and a self-addressed envelope.
- A money order or US$ with the total amount for the Initiatives you request
- A note letting us know which Initiative(s) you want to participate in and your member #

More than one Initiative can be sent back to you in one SASE, so no worries about including more than one SASE/IRC for multiple Initiatives.

You can read more about IRCs here and here. We are also happy to answer any other questions you have on IRCs ourselves! We hope this clarifies things for our international members and helps them participate in overseas postal projects!