Frequently Asked Questions

If you need a reason for joining NAPS, here are three: representation, information, and opportunity. Over 26,000 NAPS members have representation where it counts–at Postal Service Headquarters and on Capitol Hill. Whether the issue is pay, benefits, or working conditions, you have a qualified group of professional advocates working on your behalf, especially in times of real need. For approved cases, NAPS’ Disciplinary Defense Fund provides a trained advocate for members facing removal, reduction in grade, and postal financial indebtedness (Debt Collection Act).

From the EAS employee’s perspective, members also receive information on legislation, postal policy, and ways of achieving your career goals. Area training seminars are held on a variety of topics. Our annual legislative training seminar in Washington teaches grass roots legislative techniques and provides information on bills of interest to members.

Perhaps most important of all, NAPS members have the opportunity of becoming better informed and more efficient, while making the USPS a better place to work. NAPS exists to raise the standard of efficiency, to widen the field of opportunity and to improve the quality of the work environment for those members who make the Postal Service their career.

You may join NAPS by completing a Form 1187, authorizing dues withholding, and returning it to your local branch officer or to NAPS headquarters in Alexandria, VA. Be a part of a dynamic organization that works for you. Complete your Form 1187 today.

NAPS HQ will accept your Form 1187 submission at our office and then forward it to USPS HRSSC for dues-withholding. However, HRSSC requests that the forms be submitted by mail so that the member’s signature is original. Therefore, it is recommended that you submit your Form 1187 to NAPS HQ via mail. If you elect to submit important forms, requests or information to NAPS HQ via fax, please call our office to confirm that we have received your fax successfully.

Before submitting your Form 1187, it is important to review the information to make sure it is legible and accurate. Incomplete or illegible information may delay the successful processing of your membership application. If the local NAPS branch number, officer signature, or dues amount is missing, NAPS HQ will research this information and complete the missing fields as needed. However, if personal data is missing or illegible on the form (such as the member name & address, signature, or SSN#) and cannot be researched at our headquarters, our office will contact you and your local branch officers for assistance in completing the application. If for any reason a Form 1187 is returned to our office unprocessed from HRSSC, we will notify the member and local NAPS branch involved in order to complete the member application process.

NAPS HQ considers you a member of the organization after you and your branch officer or NAPS HQ has signed and dated your Form 1187. You may participate in local branch meetings and events as soon as you submit your application to your local branch or to NAPS HQ.

Once we receive your application at NAPS HQ, we enter your information into our NAPS membership database. We make a copy of your 1187 for our records and forward the original to HRSSC for processing. Once HRSSC has processed your 1187, your dues deductions will become active and your name will appear on the local branch membership reports. NAPS dues will be indicated on your USPS pay stub as Union Dues - S.

Soon after HRSSC has processed your Form 1187, a welcome packet will arrive in the mail from NAPS Headquarters. Your subscription to The Postal Supervisor magazine will also become active. Please inform NAPS Headquarters if your address changes so you may continue to receive your monthly magazine.

NAPS dues are noted on your paystub as Union Dues – S. If you see another letter besides “S” next to the deduction, this means that the dues are for another organization. If you have questions about your labor or management organization affiliation or dues, please call USPS Human Resources Shared Services Center (HRSSC) at: 1-877-477-3273.

You can find the contact information for local NAPS branch officers in the “Find Your Branch” section of our website.  For more information, please feel free to contact NAPS headquarters Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at: 703-836-9660 or napshq@naps.org.  We invite you to communicate with your local NAPS officers to learn about branch events, meetings, and representation. 

Local NAPS branch affiliation is based on your postal employee pay location finance number.  Member dues are determined individually by each local NAPS branch.  Branch dues per pay period may range between $6.00 to $15.00 per pay period.  Please call our office or a local NAPS representative to inquire about your branch affiliation or dues.  Your branch affiliation and dues per pay period may change if your USPS finance number changes.

NAPS members are automatically affiliated to a branch, local or state, based on their USPS finance number.  If a USPS finance # is not already affiliated with a local branch, then that office will be affiliated with the State branch per the NAPS National Constitution & Bylaws.

In most cases, the NAPS database affiliates members appropriately based on their USPS finance #.  Local NAPS branch officers review their monthly membership reports and contact will contract NAPS headquarters if changes or inquiries are needed.  For example, the name of an active branch member may disappear from the local membership report because they had a USPS finance # change that affiliated the member to a different NAPS branch. 

Sometimes a member’s office of physical domicile is different from their employing office.  If so, a member is eligible to fill out an Exception Form to request affiliation with the NAPS branch located in their domicile location.  The form must be submitted to the respective NAPS Area V.P., who will investigate the request and send it to NAPS HQ for concurrence by the entire Executive Board.  Exception Forms are available for download in the Members Only section of our website.  Please also see our FAQ on how to change your local branch affiliation.

If you have questions about your NAPS branch affiliation, please contact your local NAPS representative or NAPS headquarters at: 703-836-9660 or napshq@naps.org.  You may search for local NAPS branch contact information by state in the FIND YOUR BRANCH link at the top of our website.

If you are a NAPS member and have a change of address, or are not receiving The Postal Supervisor magazine, please send your address information to NAPS headquarters (napshq@naps.org) or to your local NAPS branch.  When contacting NAPS HQ, please include your full name, and if possible, branch and/or finance number, to make sure we can correctly identify your NAPS membership profile in the database.  Please feel free to supply your non-postal e-mail address and phone number as well, so that we may include this information in your member profile.  NAPS HQ does not sell or distribute your personal information to outside sources.  NAPS HQ relies on your important updates to keep our member information accurate.  Thank you in advance for your time and help in this matter.

You may submit your information to NAPS HQ by mail, email or fax. Our NAPS headquarters’ contact information is as follows: 
National Association of Postal Supervisors 
1727 King Street, Suite 400 
Alexandria, VA 22314-2753 
e:  napshq@naps.org
p: (703) 836-9660 
f:  (703) 836-9665

If you are an active dues-withholding NAPS member, please review our rule for Exceptions of Branch Affiliation, outlined in Article III, Section 6, of the NAPS Constitution & Bylaws: 
The Executive Board shall accept requests from members for branch affiliation exceptions in the following situations:

a) When members are affected by Postal Service initiated consolidations, and 
b) When a member’s office of physical domicile is different from his or her employing office.

In both cases, the member’s attendance and participation at branch meetings and activities would be hampered by physical distance.  The Area Vice President shall investigate said petitions by contact with the involved members branches and report said findings to the Executive Board for concurrence.

Active members may download the Exception Request Form from the Members Only section of our website.  You may also contact NAPS headquarters or your local NAPS officer to receive a copy of this form.  At the bottom of the form, you will see that approval is required from your Area Vice President before we may process your request in the member database at NAPS HQ.  You may submit your forms to NAPS HQ by any means of communication.  If your exception form is not signed by your Area Vice President, NAPS HQ will forward your request for review and approval as needed.  If your request is denied, you will be notified by mail the reason for the denial.

According to Article IV, Section 2 of the NAPS Constitution and Bylaws; Members of other offices in the vicinity may affiliate with a local branch by consent of the local branch.

For all regular dues-withholding members who move from one branch to another, your dues amount automatically adjusts through USPS payroll and NAPS cannot control this change. At the end of each month our system notifies USPS payroll to process any member dues changes as needed, according to USPS scheduling. When your local affiliation changes from one branch to another your dues are immediately directed to your new branch regardless of the deduction amount. No action is required on your part to also change your dues or the deduction amount.

You will see any dues change reflected on your paystub before it appears on the local branch membership report, since our reporting is done a month behind real-time. NAPS dues are noted on your paystub as Union Dues – S. If you see another letter besides “S” next to the deduction, this means that the dues are for another organization.

If you are a NAPS member in good standing at the time of your USPS retirement, you are eligible for Associate membership in NAPS. Complete a NAPS Form 1187-A, requesting the NAPS branch you wish to be affiliated. Have an officer of the branch sign and submit the 1187-A to NAPS HQ. Associate members pay dues directly to the branch they wish to affiliate, not directly to NAPS HQ, unless you want to be a Member-At-Large (MAL) and not affiliated with a specific branch. NAPS HQ will also accept a letter on Branch letterhead, instead of an 1187-A, notifying NAPS HQ of your request for Associate membership.

Before submitting your Form 1187-A, it is important to review the information to make sure it is legible and accurate. Incomplete or illegible information may delay the successful processing of your Associate membership application.

If you are recruiting a new NAPS member who is an active employee of the Postal Service, please include your personal information at the bottom of the Form 1187 of the member you are sponsoring. The Form 1187 includes a section, NAPS SPONSOR, at the end of the form to record your information as the recruiter. Please include your full name, branch number, and mailing address in the NAPS SPONSOR section. When NAPS HQ receives the Form 1187 of a new member, as the sponsor, you will receive a $25.00 check in the mail. Please allow up to 30-45 days to receive your sponsor award ($25 check).

You must be an active Regular or Associate member of NAPS in order to be credited as a NAPS recruiter. To be a sponsor, you do not have to be affiliated with the same branch where the new member is joining. Only one sponsor can be listed for each newly recruited NAPS member. If an employee is already a NAPS member, and a duplicate Form 1187 is submitted to our headquarters on their behalf, NAPS HQ cannot credit a second recruiter. If the NAPS SPONSOR section of the Form 1187 is left blank NAPS HQ understands that there was no local recruiter for the application. Executive Board members may be listed as NAPS SPONSORS, but will not receive a sponsor check. NAPS Sponsorship is not recorded or credited for the recruitment of new Associate members. On the Request for Associate Membership Form, there is no NAPS SPONSOR section.

Local NAPS members and officers are the best recruiters to guide and encourage fellow EAS employees to join our organization. If you would like to obtain NAPS recruiting materials, you may download them from the “Forms and Documents” section of the NAPS website. You will find the following recruitment items on our website: a recruitment letter to EAS employees from our NAPS HQ, the Form 1187 to join NAPS and the current NAPS Historical Sketch. You may also access a copy of the current or past issue of The Postal Supervisor magazine to print and place in your recruitment packet. Please feel free to contact our headquarters office at 703-836-9660 or napshq@naps.org to request these items to be mailed to your branch. Recruiting materials from our office are identical to the online materials, except you will receive a NAPS folder containing your recruitment materials to give to your potential new member.

NAPS HQ distributes a monthly USPS Non-Member report to local branch officers. This report is the USPS data of employees who are eligible to for NAPS membership. Generally these USPS reports are accurate and help NAPS representatives find and recruit new members who are eligible to join. Please contact NAPS HQ if you have questions about the names listed on your latest branch non-member report.

If you are going on active military duty, please inform your local NAPS branch officers or our headquarters.  With notification, NAPS HQ can adjust your member profile so that no Per Capita Tax will be deducted from the branch for your membership while you are away on active duty.  This special demarcation is only for active members who are on active military leave.  Please also tell your branch officers or NAPS HQ when you return from active duty, so that we may fully re-activate your NAPS member profile.

Active dues-withholding NAPS members must submit the PS Form 1188 to USPS HRSSC (Human Resources & Shared Services Center) in order to cancel their membership and stop automatic dues payroll deductions.  The form may be submitted at any time.  NAPS membership also ends automatically upon retirement or separation from the Postal Service. 

Please be advised that NAPS cannot cancel a member’s dues deductions. The member must do so through their USPS HRSSC Benefits office. You may obtain a blank Form 1188 from your Human Resources office or by going on the USPS Intranet Blue http://www.liteblue.usps.gov/ to: Resources, then Postal Forms, and then PS Form 1188. 

Postmasters are eligible to be members of NAPS. If you have changed to a position not eligible for representation by NAPS, you must write a note across the top of the 1188 form stating “Returned to craft, job title and effective date, no longer eligible for NAPS representation.  Cancel deductions immediately.”  The notation should be printed in large letters to stand out and preferably in a different color ink (such as red).  In this situation the HRSSC office should cancel the individual’s dues deductions immediately. However that is not a guarantee as NAPS membership may only be canceled twice during a calendar year either during the first full USPS pay period in March or September.

If you do not write across the top of the Form 1188, or you are still eligible for NAPS membership, the cancellation will not be processed until the first full pay period following either March 1 or September 1, whichever month most closely follows receipt of the 1188 at the USPS Shared Services Center in Greensboro.

The Form 1188 asks for the member’s NAPS anniversary date.  However, this information is not necessary in order to process the cancellation and the field may be left blank.  (The anniversary date is the day the employee originally signed their USPS Form 1187 to join NAPS.)  The member’s NAPS anniversary has no bearing on when their Form 1188 is processed by HRSSC.

The original Form 1188 is to be sent to HRSSC.  If you send NAPS HQ your original Form 1188 package, NAPS HQ will keep its respective copy and forward, as a courtesy, the remaining copies to USPS HRSSC Benefits Office at PO Box 970400, Greensboro, NC 27497-0400.  Additional information may be obtained by calling HRSSC at 1-877-477-3273, Option 5. NAPS HQ is not responsible for cancelling any active NAPS membership.  This is an HR function that requires action by the USPS employee, even if NAPS HQ receives the original Form 1188 at our office.