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Cambridge Postal Advisory Committee
Aug. 4th, 2003 12:11 pmI have been a member of the Cambridge Postal Advisory Committee for about three years. As some readers know, I tend to volunteer for such things (Cambridge Library Expansion, Cambridge Civic Association, Cambridge Lavender Alliance, Cambridge Election technology, Lavender Country and Folk Dancers, Lavender Dance Legacy are all in various stages of activity). It keeps me out of trouble (actually gets me into trouble since I try to push the envelope in all these things) and is somewhat fun as well.
About six of us meet once a month with the Cambridge Postmaster. The Postmaster gives us an informal report of things going on. These have usually been usually crises such as the Anthrax thing, an impending strike several years ago, severe budget cuts because of declining revenue leading to multiple staff reassigments, loss of leases on rental facilities, terrible contractor doing main post office renovarion). Of course we can't do anything about this stuff but it is interesting to find out how things work.
( Sorting Facility )
The next part of the meeting is consumer oriented where we talk about various issues. I usually bring up at least one lobby service related item (continuously broken/empty stamp machines, bad signage, philitetic bulletin board that has an "ad" for getting passports and nothing about stamps, junk all over the floor, etc.). We have gotten some improvements. For example the stamp vending machine problem was caused by the assignment of the key to only one person for accountability purposes so if it was empty or jammed it could only be fixed by that person who if sick or on vacation or at night .... It turns out by my pressing this issue at several meetings it was discovered that this accountability issue wasn't real and multiple people could have the key so it is much better now.
Several months ago I raised the messiness of the Inman Square post office issue. This is a crowded, not very much used office whose appearance is awful. Plastered with informationless signs and pseudo-ads, a "laundry hamper" in the lobby holding packages because there isn't room in the back, boxes of forms strewn about, etc. They fixed it up a bit (found a better hamper, removed some of the signs) but it wasn't very good. So for last weeks meeting I brought in some photographs and made a bigger deal about this. The current acting PostMaster said he would deal with some of this.
( Graffiti (mostly on mail boxes) removal is a constant topic - but here is the graffiti on the side of the building and the door )
( Door signage is another issue - here is this front door and the Gloucester PO front door )
( The inside is pretty messy - although some of the mess was cleaned up )
About six of us meet once a month with the Cambridge Postmaster. The Postmaster gives us an informal report of things going on. These have usually been usually crises such as the Anthrax thing, an impending strike several years ago, severe budget cuts because of declining revenue leading to multiple staff reassigments, loss of leases on rental facilities, terrible contractor doing main post office renovarion). Of course we can't do anything about this stuff but it is interesting to find out how things work.
( Sorting Facility )
The next part of the meeting is consumer oriented where we talk about various issues. I usually bring up at least one lobby service related item (continuously broken/empty stamp machines, bad signage, philitetic bulletin board that has an "ad" for getting passports and nothing about stamps, junk all over the floor, etc.). We have gotten some improvements. For example the stamp vending machine problem was caused by the assignment of the key to only one person for accountability purposes so if it was empty or jammed it could only be fixed by that person who if sick or on vacation or at night .... It turns out by my pressing this issue at several meetings it was discovered that this accountability issue wasn't real and multiple people could have the key so it is much better now.
Several months ago I raised the messiness of the Inman Square post office issue. This is a crowded, not very much used office whose appearance is awful. Plastered with informationless signs and pseudo-ads, a "laundry hamper" in the lobby holding packages because there isn't room in the back, boxes of forms strewn about, etc. They fixed it up a bit (found a better hamper, removed some of the signs) but it wasn't very good. So for last weeks meeting I brought in some photographs and made a bigger deal about this. The current acting PostMaster said he would deal with some of this.
( Graffiti (mostly on mail boxes) removal is a constant topic - but here is the graffiti on the side of the building and the door )
( Door signage is another issue - here is this front door and the Gloucester PO front door )
( The inside is pretty messy - although some of the mess was cleaned up )
