Reach Out to New EAS Professionals to Join
By Jimmy Warden
NAPS Secretary/Treasurer
We all know the saying, “The early bird catches the worm!” Or, as my grandsons tell me, “Grandpa, you snooze, you lose!” Especially when I ask them where they got that cake or ice cream! When I hear these sayings, I think of our members. Or, shall I say, nonmembers. NAPS Headquarters has received some calls from branches asking if we can get a listing of all USPS training classes and career conferences that will be held in the upcoming year. As you should be aware, I have been sending out an EAS promotion report every two weeks to Executive Board members, who then send these reports to their respective branches.
I also have started receiving the promotion report for postmasters and send it out to the Executive Board for distribution to their respective branches, as well. I will be receiving and sending out the postmaster report monthly. These are two separate reports that every branch should be receiving. Why two separate reports, you ask? Because they are generated by two different individuals.
When you receive these large reports, you need to drill down to your respective district; it's easy to do. Follow these steps:
This will show you all the promotions in your district in Customer Service. If there were promotions within your respective Mail Processing or Logistics area, you also will need to select them. These usually are located near your district. Should your district, Mail Processing or Logistics area not appear in the pay period report, that means there were no promotions for that respective pay period.
By using these reports, you now have become the early bird or, as my grandsons would say, you are not snoozing! The EAS reports show you who has received a promotion that took effect that very same pay period. Before sending out this report, a member of our staff—Allison or Emily—annotates on the report whether they already are a member.
All branches should be contacting these individuals listed as not being members. These individuals all are in the first week of their new assignments. Some branches send a letter of congratulations to those listed who already are members.
We should not be waiting for a supervisor training class or Postmaster Essentials class to speak to prospective supervisors and postmasters about joining our association. These training classes take place months after new assignments have begun. These two reports give us the upper hand in increasing our membership and should be given priority when received.
Going back to career conferences, supervisor and Postmaster Essentials training classes, we strongly urge local branches to reach out to their district manager of Employee Development. If you have difficulty contacting them, reach out to your respective NAPS area vice president. Ask them for help in making a request to be notified when career conferences and training sessions will be held and, if possible, could you have a few minutes to speak to the attendees.
I know I just said not to wait for training classes to speak to new supervisors. It still would be a good practice, though, to follow up with anyone who may be in the class who had not joined NAPS previously. It also gives you an opportunity to hear from those who already are members should they have a concern or question.
Ask them how are they doing in their new position as it has been a few months now. In regard to career conferences, ask the manager of Employee Development if NAPS can partner by having a table with information at the conference. At the many conferences I attended as New York Area vice president, I was given time to speak to all the attendees and encourage them to better themselves in their careers.
We have great talent among the craft and managerial ranks. We need these employees to take the next step and use their knowledge and skills to make the Postal Service a better place in which to work.
I have included the charts Emily put together to show you membership is increasing and acknowledge the efforts by the areas and top-10 states. Some members have had concerns, but they were looking only at the percentage of membership. The reason our percentage has not had a major increase based on the number of new members is because the number of nonmembers has increased.
A year ago, there were approximately 2,800 vacant supervisor positions. In October 2022, the number of vacant supervisor positions dropped to approximately 1,200, with approximately 750 of those positions in eCareer. Vacant positions are being filled. We need to contact these new supervisors and postmasters (using the promotion reports) to inform them of the benefits of joining NAPS.
The opportunity is there right in front of us! We need you, the local branches, to reach out to these new EAS professionals.
I’m also asking the NAPS Executive Board to play a part in this initiative. Although many already do, I need regional and area vice presidents to look at the promotion reports and reach out to their respective branches to ensure prospective members are being contacted.
Remember: “The early bird catches the worm!” Or as my grandsons say, “You snooze, you lose!” Increasing membership demonstrates leadership.
