Posted on 03/18/2013 2:55:15 AM PDT by Libloather
Four hundred U.S. Postal Service executives are heading to San Francisco next month for workshops, meetings — and a dance party.
And a golf tournament. And a dinner event.
That’s according to a report by KTVU, which found 400 USPS staffers, including the postmaster general, are set to attend the four-day National Postal Forum in March at the Moscone Center in California.
The trip is expected to cost the flailing agency — which is pushing to stop Saturday letter delivery due to revenue issues — more than $2 million, KTVU reports. An estimated $220,000 is going to spent on exhibit space, according to the news agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Private companies can go on strike, or go out of business. When you forbid them from doing so, they become quasi-government agencies like it is now. I would almost prefer to make it all gov. like it was for 160+ years, and get them out of the junk mail business. It might still atrophy, but it would still have a role.
BTW, USPS already has thousands of employees all over the country who can easily be called upon to provide support services at the National Postal Forum meetings ~ at no more cost than would ordinarily be paid for their salaries.
What we need is information about how many employees need to travel to the conference and how many are already there.
San Fran this time of year is OUT OF SEASON!
If the USPS doesn’t fix their tracking system, they’re going to lose the rest of their package shipping business.
I’ve attended a few of these and they’re not “lavish” at all. We usually stayed at chain motels (the cheap paces filled up first) and ate mostly at the local dives. We had to pay an entrance fee and pay for our own hotel and meals and there were corporate sponsored/paid events like golf but to say it was lavish was be a major exaggeration.
I don’t think people understand how low key these things actually are. DMA and postal people are about as boring as they come. I tried to start a riot and nobody wanted to join.
Seriously, it was a great way to get familiar with the latest and greatest innovations and discuss the future with actual people that are most familiar with the industry.
But I can understand why people would prejudge, especially since the USPS is in such dire straits.
disgusting...more money thrown at this inept managed dept,,and less service...like the schools...
Please understand, I’m sure you do, that the American people KNOW that the postal workers are hard working, dedicated and loyal. It’s your managers from the very top down who are incompetent.
ROmney would have cleaned things up. Let UPS, FED EX take it over, and employ all of you. The service will be great... prices will drop... etc.
How many gov’t agencies are totally over priced and worthless right now... ?
Dept of Energy, Education, Commerce, etc etc.....
Our country in the 50s truly was prosperous and every level...WE’re hostage to mediocrity and cronyism....
I pray that we will hit rock bottom in the next few years to unveil the waste and incompetency of our federal govt. Senators being elected by the people was NEVER intended...The states are the laboratories for excellence.
I turned the TV News off a year ago, during LENT and haven’t watched it but a few times since, and haven’t missed a thing. Not a thing.
Someone please stop the madness in DC. Freeze the checkbook.
Do you mean the tracking system that reports the package pickup two days after shipment, reports the delivery the day after arrival, and reports nothing in between?
Your check is in the mail...
No, I mean the tracking system that never reports the delivery at all.
I tend to agree on holding the meetings in less expensive venues.
I tend to support the idea of having the meeting however. The concept of continental uniformity is pretty much blather. There are regional differences producing regional specific problems. The chance to mingle is the chance to increase understanding.
They are having an exhibit hall. This means the meeting is in some way akin to a trade show where you meet vendors eyeball to eyeball and get the latest info and convey gripes. It is very hard to place a value on such opportunity.
It is cool for those in a rut that never permits travel and interaction to bitch about costs. It is more difficult to convey understanding of the concept that meetings are not total boondoggles meant only for entertainment. The cost benefit ratio is conceptual and to a large extent not measureable with precision.
A government that can’t find $45 B in waste when spending 100 times that amount can’t be bothered to find a few packages here and there.
I wish the USPS would shut down already! It’s a completely useless anachronism that has become the poster child for inadequacy.
Your points are good—so why hold an expensive convention in California? Hold it in a USPS warehouse somewhere in the middle of the country, thus making it cheaper and easier for everyone to get there.
Hold it in Topeka.
STOP THE MADNESS!!!!! DEMOCRATS think they are SO MUCH BETTER than anyone elese and they KNOW NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO THEM!!
-——so why hold an expensive convention in California?-——
I of course don’t know but would guess the meetings are moved around. East Coast last year, west coast this year.
I would also guess they got a good price from the host relative to other hosts there about.
Topeka would probably less expensive however.
It wouldn't matter how much they took in, they would STILL spend more than they have.
They could be driving Ferrari's to deliver the mail and still complain it wasn't enough. They are parasites, plain and simple.
“They do not return junk mail. Junk mail is just that. Junk.”
I’m surprised that environmentalists, who have us driving around in tiny deathtraps, have not been able to stop junk mail in the name of saving the trees killed to make it.
As I understand it your postal service is only allowed to raise rates in line with inflation.
Unfortunately they are pinned to an artificial index that woefully underestimates actual inflation - this is one of the reasons why the USPS is going under.
But of course there is a deal of over-management, overgenerous pension provision and so forth as well.
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