Thinking outside the post office box.

Sometimes, it never hurts to ask a silly question--the answer may even surprise you. Thanks to one such question, Milwaukee Recreation in Wisconsin now saves thousands of dollars in annual mailing costs. Like many recreation departments, they mail activity guides to all residential addresses in the city. Traditionally, they paid a mailing company to ink-jet the addresses onto their booklets. However, a question came to mind, "If we're sending our guides to every household, why are we paying someone to address the booklets?" The answer proved more fruitful than they realized. After a meeting with a United States Postal Service (USPS) customer service specialist, Milwaukee Recreation staff began using a mailing system called simplified addressing. This process enables them to bypass the mailing company and take their guides directly to the post office. By placing the phrase "ECRWSS Residential Customer" on the mailing panel of the activity guide, they significantly streamlined the entire distribution process.

For more information about the process, please contact Brian M. Hoffer, assistant recreation supervisor, at [phone], or e-mail him, [e-mail].