"Irises" damaged in mail

[Ron Killingsworth <retmiagt@gmail.com>]

I mail out about 400 copies of the "Fleur de Lis", the quarterly 
publication of SLI.  When I first took over the job some three or four 
years ago I had complaints from the members in Australia and New Zealand 
about the newsletter arriving beaten up.  I started placing all the 
"outside the US" orders in envelopes.  This is an additional cost and 
does take some additional time.  I have never had a complaint from any 
members within the USofA.  The newsletter is mailed from the local PO 
and is mailed without any wrapping or stickers to prevent the newsletter 
from opening during transit.  The outside cover is the mailing medium.
The Army's way of fixing a problem experienced by a few people was 
always to implement a solution for the entire organization. Needless to 
say those who were not the problem or having problems resented such a 
solution.
I think we should solicit input from any and all members who have 
received damaged copies of "Irises".  I suggest we then have the 
secretary write a letter to the USPS setting forth the locations that 
have experienced problems and request they take corrective action.
We could then try to find a solution for those few members experiencing 
problems without solving a non-existent problem for the whole membership.
My first solution would be to encourage those having continual problems 
with damaged issues to consider electronic membership.  I know this will 
not be a solution to all of them, some simply like to have a hard copy 
of the publication.  They should also file an official complaint at the 
local post office.
I have no knowledge of who actually applies the addresses and mails 
"Irises" out to the members.  I notice that the "franking" on the back 
indicates that it is mailed from several locations.  I therefore have no 
way of knowing how difficult it would be for the "mailing facility" to 
identify, remove and special treat certain copies.  I suspect it would 
be costly.

Let's solicit more information from the members on this subject.  If it 
is a small percentage, then the current system seems to be working.  If 
more are experiencing the problem and just not previously reporting it, 
then perhaps we need to find a better solution; however, a solution for 
the few, not the entire organization.

Ron Killingsworth

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