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Change!

Change!
By Bobby Bock
NAPS Southeast Area Vice President

Lately, the word “change” has been foremost in the vocabulary of NAPS and the Postal Service. At our recently completed national convention, the delegation elected several new board members. Jaime Elizondo was elected Southern Region vice president, Dwight Studdard was elected Central Gulf Area vice president, Pam Davis was elected Texas Area vice president, Ed Laster was elected Pioneer Area vice president and I was elected Southeast Area vice president. I appreciate the support of the Florida and Georgia delegations that have entrusted me with the task of representing them.

At the convention, we heard from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy whose main message was his vision for change in the Postal Service and implementation of his 10-year plan. Many of our members can recall when the Postal Service was in a growth mode and didn’t have enough facilities to process mail. We opened annexes and LDCs for specific product lines.

As you know, things have changed in the Postal Service. There are many locations where we have too much real estate and underused facilities. DeJoy focused on a key area when he used greater Atlanta as an example of where the Postal Service has to fully evaluate its facility capabilities, then match those capabilities with today’s service and volume requirements.

The plan to repurpose facilities to co-locate more operations includes housing more delivery units either in or nearby processing facilities to gain economies of scale. Our members in Atlanta listened to the PMG’s comments and understood the concepts he was espousing.

Much work lies ahead to transform operations while we use those operations to process and deliver mail every day. It’s sort of building a lane while you are flying it—it’s difficult, but we do it all the time. We have the same issues with facilities in Florida. As the mail mix changes, so, too, does the way we process and deliver mail need to change.

NAPS has a choice to either be part of this change by fully participating and providing input and feedback on these proposed changes or deciding to stand on the sidelines and let someone else make all the decisions. In my role as your area vice president, I plan on making sure NAPS is at the table for any changes that will affect our members.