Palm-Mensa

How the Newsletter is Mailed

most recently updated TUE 24 JUN 2003

This page describes, in checklist form, how the monthly Palm Beach County Mensa newsletter is created and mailed.

The Editor collects information from contributors and creates the newsletter.
The newsletter is taken to a copy center like Kinko's, Office Depot, etc., where it is copied and folded.
In order to send the mailing out at the reduced, bulk rates, you must ensure that there is sufficient funding in the account maintained for the group at the post office. You can check the account balance by calling the automated attendant on the Permit Account Balance Inquiry System (PABIS). Instructions for checking this system have been provided to the Editor, Circulation Manager and the LocSec. If sufficient funds are not available, you need to get a check from the Treasurer and take or send it to the post office to add to the account.
Later in this process, the newsletter mailing will be sorted and placed into USPS mailing trays. You need five trays for each mailing (usually, but sometimes it's just four) and can pick up the one-foot trays at the bulk mail center.
When the newsletters are returned from copying, the local member or corporate label and the closure label is affixed to each copy. There are two types of labels; those received from the national office and those generated locally. The labels are already sorted, and they must be applied to newsletters as they appear on the label sheets in order to preserve the sort order. Local labels are used to provide newsletters to locally recognized prospects, members of other Florida groups that don't appear in the corporate labels, etc.
The mailing is then sorted into two segments; one where the labels have bar codes and the other that doesn't.

The non-bar-coded newsletters are then divided into three groups; those having zips beginning with 334, those beginning with 349 and the third group consists of those with all other zips.

The bar-coded ones are then divided into two groups; those with zip beginning with 334 and 349 and the second group consists of all other zips.
The five sub-groupings of newsletters are placed into 1-foot mailing trays that were obtained at the post office bulk mail entry unit. A pictorial representation of the information in this step and in step 4 above, can be seen here. The contents of each box are counted and the results are recorded on PS Form 3602-R.
The person who is conducting the mailing then fills out post office form PS Form 3602-R and the Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) certification form that is provided from the national Mensa office. A page that describes these forms and shows samples, can be seen here.
The mailing is delivered to the bulk mail entry unit at the post office on Summit Boulevard in West Palm Beach. When you arrive at the office, you must sign in on the clipboard that can be found on the counter.
When the post office completes the mailing, they will send a receipt to the Circulation Manager. This form is then forwarded on to the Treasurer for permanent retention.