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There Still Is Much to Accomplish

There Still Is Much to Accomplish
By Ivan D. Butts
NAPS National President

Hello, my NAPS brothers and sisters. This is my first column post our 68th National Convention held at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.

I am honored to have had the opportunity to serve as chair of our convention and am thankful to all who attended. To Tomica Duplessis and her entire host team, I could not have had a more incredible group of leaders with whom to partner in putting on the first national convention over which I presided. Tomica’s leadership was so critical to the tremendous success of our convention that nothing could ever repay the debt of gratitude I owe her and her group.

We initiated some new processes to ensure our association runs smoothly and efficiently at future NAPS conventions. We have seen the expansion of our new registration process introduced at the 2022 LTS.

In New Orleans, our Credentials & Registration Committee members were able to focus more on hospitality in our registration area. I am looking forward to making our registration area even more engaging for first-time convention attendees and our veterans who gather in the registration area to meet and greet friends from around the country.

We also addressed, on the fly, our process for moving consideration of a resolution to conclusion at our conventions. I thank David Hommerson, NAPS Branch 130, and other local and state convention parliamentary leaders for generously sharing their views and thoughts to create a process that ended years of resolution confusion. Often, we were left not knowing if a “yes” was a “no” or a “no” was a “yes.”

We went down a hard road to get to a new process, but it will be well worth our efforts for all future conventions as we got the new process moving. Again, thanks to all, especially our convention parliamentarian, Dr. Bruce Bishop. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Unfortunately, the weeks following our convention became extremely concerning for me as we began receiving reports of delegates testing positive for COVID. Although we do not have a total number of how many individuals tested positive, it far exceeded any amount I had imagined.

Most of the symptoms we heard about were mild. One more severe case, which I learned about via Facebook from a family member, has recovered. I am thankful the continued impact of the virus did not further dampen our convention fellowship or impact the work of NAPS.

Now, back to work. At our successful convention, we set a course for the next two years with an Executive Board that will assist the resident officers. As of the writing of this column, we still have a court case moving forward toward disclosure and depositions, while still addressing possibilities for resolution.

You no doubt have heard me state that the one constant thing we have in the USPS is change. The latest is a new S&DC process that looks more like the old, failed DUO process. We will continue to work legislatively to address concerns for the future of America’s mail service.

We also have New Supervisor Program (NSP) training that looks to disenfranchise NAPS at the local level by moving the initial, two-week training to a USPS Headquarters function. Supported by our 25-member Executive Board, we will continue to work toward moving NAPS’ engagement in the first two weeks to a NAPS Headquarters-level function.

We still are struggling with a failing onboarding process that hampers operations by the stiff neck we must continually place before the USPS leadership to change the mentality that refuses to listen to the voices of the very leaders who must keep America’s mail moving. Of course, we also look to begin discussions with the USPS on various pay issues leading to a new pay agreement.

I am proud of what we have accomplished, but I know there still is much to do. I am humbled by this opportunity to serve NAPS members as we continue to pursue more. I am honored to continue serving as national president of our great association.

In solidarity…