2022-23 Annual Reports
NRLCA STEWARD SYSTEM ANNUAL REPORTS – CORLCA REPRESENTATIVES
Greggie Byrd –CO/WY DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE (DR)
Hello Everyone. Last year I started my report with a bit of good news First, because we had a negotiated contract without the need to go to binding arbitration. Next, it looked like we were finally going to have a system in place so that routes could be better evaluated with information captured all year long. And finally, we were, (and as far as I know this year still are) fortunate in that we did not have any carriers killed in vehicle accidents on their mail route in this District for several years now. I will say again this year as I have said in the past, I always hope and pray that this truth ( no vehicular fatality) will be in my report each year that I am your District Representative and, even beyond the time that I serve in this position. This year I’m happy to report we are seeing a few more carriers stepping up to become local stewards. I am praying this trend continues to grow because We Need A lot More!
Now to what my DR’s life has really been like for the past Fiscal year. First, even though we have a negotiated contract with what seems to be clear and very explicit language, postal management violated any of the new negotiated contractual language as if it didn’t exist. It seems that whatever is within the pages of the collective bargaining agreement it's just words on a page. This has caused havoc not only for myself, my Steward team, and of course all of our carriers who have had a bad experience, but it has spilled over to our customers too which leads to some Congressional Leaders getting involved. Congress got involved because of issues like, carriers not getting their pay, staffing shortages, mail not being delivered for days, just to name a few of the reasons. Here is what some of the news outlets were reporting and not just in our District:
Sen. Bennet urges USPS to put savings toward reducing mail delivery delays
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado is urging the country’s top postal officials to keep in mind specific mail-delivery improvements as they work to incorporate savings from a federal reform bill into operations.
“As you plan for the cost savings and transparency measures from the Postal Service Reform Act, it is imperative that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) seize this opportunity to improve on-time deliveries, service, and operations,” Bennet, a Democrat, wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Michael Kubayanda.
“In Colorado, voters also rely on USPS to receive and return their mail-in ballots. It is therefore essential that USPS maintains its delivery standards and honors its commitment to serve every community. Beyond publicizing delivery data, as required by PSRA, meaningful infrastructure improvements at processing facilities and local Post Offices could also help reduce delays,” he wrote.
Bennet also called on DeJoy and Kubayanda to reduce barriers to delivery for communities that don’t have home delivery, which are often rural or remote. In September, USPS announced that people who live in Buena Vista, which does not have home delivery, will be able to get P.O. boxes for free starting in 2023.
Finally, Bennet urged the two to consider infrastructure investments to ease the strain caused by large e-commerce deliveries for companies like Amazon and Walmart. While those contracts between the companies and USPS bring in needed revenue, the increase in shipments can put stress on facilities and staff.
Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper, also a Colorado Democrat, voted for the Postal Service Reform Act, as did Democratic Reps. Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse and Ed Perlmutter. Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn voted against it.
Over in Camden, South Carolina, residents told CBS-affiliate News 19 on Dec. 13 that they've been dealing with regular delays for some time now. "For the past six months, I guess, maybe even more, we haven't been getting mail on a sometimes-daily basis," Camden resident Emily Volz told the news outlet. "When I called up there to ask, we don't even have a permanent driver for our route and was told because of the holidays they're not even gonna hire for our route yet."
In Wyoming
Cheyenne Post Offices Close Down After Amazon Dumps 13,000+ Packages Off & Allegedly Refuses To Deliver More than one postal worker told Cowboy State Daily the reason for the other post offices being closed was an unusually large number of packages dropped off by Amazon over the weekend.
“There were 110 pallets with an average of 120 packages each,” one postal worker said. He declined to be identified.
What’s more, Amazon drivers are not willing to deliver packages in Cheyenne after the recent blizzard until May 1, the postal worker said.
Cowboy State Daily tried to reach the Cheyenne Post Master as well, but no one would answer the phone at the Converse Avenue location. When visiting that location in person, Cowboy State Daily was told by a postal worker that requests for information have to be run through Wyoming’s official media person.
The worker also said it was unlikely anyone would explain the closures, and that the public didn’t need to know about the details — just that the closures were required for operational efficiency.
The USPS confirmed to News 19 that staffing challenges are still creating delivery problems for some areas like Camden. "Like many other businesses right now, the Postal Service in Camden is experiencing temporary staffing issues," the agency said.
USPS spokesperson Mark Lawrence also recently acknowledged to the LNP that a similar problem is resulting in delivery delays for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as well.
Then there was RRECS
As I have said to rural carriers across the country, while I believe the RRECS system is a better way of evaluating rural routes, I also know it was poorly implemented. Here are some of the things we must keep in mind. Rural delivery has evolved over the past 125 years, and so too has the method for calculating and adjusting the evaluated compensation applied to rural routes. Throughout the history of rural delivery, rural carriers have cherished and sought to protect the benefits of the evaluated method of compensation. The final product described in Dr. Martin Vega’s report is the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS). It represents the culmination of five and one-half years of joint efforts by the NRLCA and USPS, with oversight provided by Chairperson Martin-Vega and a panel of industrial engineering experts, to develop a new system for evaluating rural routes. The goal of these efforts was to create a system that was fair to both USPS and rural carriers. For USPS, this meant a system that resulted in efficient delivery on rural routes and was capable of responding flexibly to changing business conditions. For rural carriers, it meant a system that covered all work activities, set realistic standard times for completing each activity, resulted in time off incentives when carriers worked at an incentive pace, and provided equal incentive opportunity across rural routes, irrespective of specific route characteristics.
The inception of RRECS was codified in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) appended to the interest arbitration award issue by Jack Clarke on July 3, 2012. What was needed for our evaluation was a system of Time Standards that both parties could live with. What were those standards supposed to be? A standard is defined as the amount of time used by an experienced and motivated worker of normal skill and ability, working at a normal pace, to perform a specific task under specific conditions. It’s also understood to be the amount of time allotted to a single occurrence of a standardized work activity. The fifth area of carrier responsibilities under RRECS is to learn and follow changed work rules required by RRECS. For the most part, RRECS has no direct impact on how work activities are performed. RRECS is primarily designed to measure and fairly compensate carriers for work performed under current standard operating procedures (SOP). In a few instances, minor changes in SOPs were necessary to ensure that all carrier work activities are properly compensated, and that none are double counted. In the case of changed operating procedures, it is the USPS’s responsibility to issue new SOPs and train carriers as necessary.
I think the last sentence sums up the problem we are having right now,,,,Not Enough Training and Transparency!
This too caused Congress to get involved
Earlier this month, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter to DeJoy asking him to delay RRECS implementation, pointing to its “serious flaws.”
“Implementing RRECS in its current form will arbitrarily enact a pay cut for tens of thousands rural postal workers who still lack a formal dispute process and have a history of delayed back pay from the postal service,” the senators said. “Furthermore, USPS has withheld information about how RRECS has made its initial route evaluations.”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently told reporters the decision predated him, and the matter was out of his hands. “That was a negotiated process, an arbitrated process,” DeJoy said. “That was done a long time before I got here. And it's you know, it's unfortunate, but, I mean, it is what it is, and I didn't decide it.”
In April, Doug Tulino, the deputy postmaster general and USPS’ chief human resources officer, told rural letter carriers union the new system would go into effect in early May after a delay to allow for a “further review of the data underlying these new route evaluations.” Tulino also vowed to finalize an “alternate dispute resolution process” for employees. USPS acknowledged it may have to adjust some routes that become “overburdened or substandard,” but it will not do that until after it has some time to conduct analysis of the implementation.
Ladies and Gentlemen this has caused a lot of heartache and confusion across the country.
Labor Relations
Other Labor Relations issues continue to revolve around what you all have been hearing about for some time. They include but are not limited to, Carriers not being paid, not being able to get time off, and being harassed for the sake of getting numbers in places they don't belong. All of the NSS stewards have been continuing to provide assistance to carriers and local stewards by giving guidance on contractual verbiage as well as assisting them through the grievance / arbitration process.
I’m happy to report we as a NSS team were all involved in attending Conferences, Trainings, and National Convention last year. This allows my Assistants to network with other stewards and state officers to gauge the pulse of our craft nationwide. While my ADR’s couldn’t be at all of these events, the ones they were able to attend were educational for them.
I had to be involved in 2 MOU 25’s this past year and many Different types of Labor/ Management meetings. I have traveled about 30,000 miles to provide DFR ( Duty of Fair Representation) I have been involved in handling 70 plus grievance. About 40 PDI’s and to many phone calls to keep track of.
I may have more to add at State Convention
May God Continue to Bless us all!
Respectfully submitted,
Greggie Byrd
District Representative
Grievance Totals By User For 7/1/2022 - 5/26/2023
User BYRD, GREGGIE V Steward Position 1 District Representative District CO/WY – 800
Total PDIs 32 Individual Contract Total 36 Individual Discipline Total 16
Class Action Total 11 Step 1 – Open 15 Step 2 – Open 9 Step 1 – Closed 35
Step 2 – Closed 12 Step 3 – Appeals 4 Total Grievances 63
Mecom - ASSISTANT DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE (ADR)
This year was my first year as a Full Time ADR, and it was extremely productive. From July 2, 2022 to present, I have handled 105 grievances and 61 PDIs. To date, I was able to get $19811.55 in grievance payouts for carriers.
I attended my first National Convention in September, as a delegate, and was able to get the full experience of what it means to be a Union member.
I was part of one MOU 25 for the Longmont Station which resulted in getting management to address a hostile work environment that was being fostered by a supervisor there. I also attended two Labor Management Meetings with the District Manager, myself, and Greggie Byrd.
I have certified seven Local Stewards and conducted four Local Steward Enhancement Trainings this year.
I have also attended multiple District/State Booster and Board Meetings to get as much information to the membership as possible.
Moving into the rest of 2023 and 2024, my focus is getting carriers as much information with regards to RRECS as I can. It has been clear that local management isn’t getting carriers the information and training they need to make sure they are maximizing their route’s evaluation. We are also focusing on building up our Local Steward roster to be able to promote more Area Stewards to the District.
Lastly, I want to focus on Union membership. Stewards have always had the right to solicit membership into the Union, and it is important, now more than ever, that we get as many carriers to join the Union as possible to help with the transition to RRECS. I am planning to attend as many employee orientations as I can to educate new employees as to the benefits of becoming a Union member and using that membership to vote on important issues for upcoming Contract negotiations.
I want to thank the National Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve the membership, and I hope I can continue to do so as an ADR moving into 2024.
Theresa Mecom
Assistant District Rep, CO/WY
Stauffer - PART TIME ASSISTANT DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE (ADR)
This is my second full year as a PT ADR for the NRLCA working on the western slope of Colorado. Last year we dealt with Covid and the inability to hire. This year we continued fighting to get new carriers hired and ushered in the RRECS evaluations.
I filed 42 grievances, 36 that I closed at step 1. Seven of those were class action grievances. This year I started doing step 2 grievances and I closed 9 of those. Through the grievance process I was able to help carriers reclaim $16,832.57 back in lost wages. I assisted carriers with 17 PDI’s and conducted several labor management meetings. I had the opportunity to attend labor management meetings at the district level also.
Training new stewards and retraining local stewards has become something that I really enjoy. I have trained 2 new stewards with LSCT and retrained 2 existing local stewards with LSET. I was also involved with the dual training for the RRECS classes for management and stewards. During times that I had to travel, I stopped in offices and talked to carriers and managers about the RRECS when I was in their area. I have had the opportunity to mentor new stewards and to help them with their first grievances or two. I truly feel that the training and time we give the new stewards really shows in the files we get from them.
Going forward I hope to help carriers and stewards as we learn to navigate the new RRECS system and to hopefully ensure that the carriers understand what their responsibilities are, push managers to fulfill their responsibilities and make sure that this new system is fair.
Thank you for allowing me to work with and learn from a great District Representative, Greggie Byrd and a talented ADR like Theresa Mecom.
Amelia (Amy) Stauffer
CORLCA ANNUAL REPORTS OF ELECTED OFFICERS AND APPOINTEES
Aldridge - PRESIDENT
This is my annual report as President of the Colorado Rural Letter Carriers’ Association.
This is my second year of a two-year term as President. I attended the 2022 National Convention in Orlando in September as the national delegate from Colorado. The national office assigned me as a member of the Credentials I Committee, which required me to be in Florida a couple of days earlier than the rest of the delegation. Prior to that convention, I assigned positions as listed in the CORLCA Constitution (e.g., State Editor, State Historian).
I called five board meetings and presided over every one of them. The board again looked to return some of the members’ dues, since our financial position was still in the black. We decided once again to offer gift cards to our members and stewards.
I attended the Western States Conference held in San Diego, CA, in April. While there, I announced that Colorado will be hosting next year’s WSC in Cripple Creek. Tammy Smith has been the Convention Chair for years and has now been voted in as Vice-President of the Conference.
One of my duties as President is to hold district officers training for presidents and vice-presidents. Due to other circumstances, few officers attended the training. Because it’s an annual requirement to train district officers, I hosted l couple of Zoom meetings to host the training of our district presidents and vice-presidents.
I attended the booster meeting held in District 7. The meeting had a few members, whose main concerns were the progress of RRECS.
I created a committee to look at our 7 districts and directed them to consider realigning them, or possibly the elimination of the districts. Cortney Clark was the head of the committee and presented a recommendation that will be submitted to the members attending the convention in June.
The Department of Labor finally held an in-person training session on the financial paperwork required by labor unions to submit and when they are due. Part of the training that I attended they held on March 7 included an overview of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (L-MRDA).
I flew to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Colorado Senators and Congressmen as part of the Legislative Seminar. My Vice-President, George Halcomb, and I were able to visit 9 of the 10 of Colorado delegation’s staff face-to-face, with the last one requiring a Zoom meeting. Last year, not a single meeting included the Representative or Senator; we met with staff members only. This year, we were able to meet with two Congresswomen. Oddly, or maybe not so odd, the two were our newest representatives.
Finally, I look forward to presiding over this year’s state convention in Loveland and the completion of my two-year term as your President.
Halcomb - VICE PRESIDENT
So the end of 22-23 year and what has happened. Kind of an interesting twist in what was important in the last two years. First, it was being treated decent at the office, then it was getting time off, and now it is the mess that is RRECS. Not that the other two have gone away, but that is the way the wind is blowing.
What has the last year held for your Vice President? A lot of this stuff is not just as CO Vice President, but as head Gofer. That is my other job as spouse of the National Auxiliary President. I have made efforts to combine the two, so we can have different ideas as what to do and several times what not to do.
So the year started after the CO state meet. On the subject of the state meet, that was a real good convention that no one went too. Hopefully, the attendance will be better at this year’s. After CO, we went to AL to attend that convention. When you have several times as many people you can sure do a lot more things. Then off to WI for their convention. I was busy there as they needed some help with the Juniors and off to fun parks and pirate boat rides, before going back and doing business things. Next, we were off to MN, where the highlight for them at least, is that we were asked to dress like pirates for their banquet, but apparently this message was not passed on to members. So there were Lesa and me all dressed up, but none of the members were.
National was next. We got there a week early and did auxiliary stuff, until the others rolled in. Nice, but awkward at National, as we had three years work to do. With Lesa being elected National Auxiliary President, Ruby being National Juniors’ President and all the stuff for the members it was quite a blur. As if there wasn’t enough stuff to, I went to the National Retirement-Pioneer Club Meeting to see what it was about and left as the president.
In September, we went to the District 1 booster meeting. Then in October, we went to the Kansas Booster Meeting. In the beginning of November, Lesa had her first board meeting as president and time to do Gofer stuff.
On a break until after the holidays. The next thing was a trip to Texas in early January for SWAC. Two weeks later, a trip to Atlanta for SAC. We arrived a couple of days early for an auxiliary board meeting and more Gofer stuff. End of February and another Kansas Booster Meeting. In the end of February, we had our most important CO Board Meeting, as we decided on Western States Conference 2024.
In March, we have a 5 day auxiliary meeting in Grand Rapids, MI, at the site of this year’s National Convention. This gives me a chance to scope out the area for local food and entertainment, for when everyone arrives at this location. Then off to Eastern States in Portland, Maine.
Finally, we have Western States in San Diego in the middle of April. A week later we are in Kansas City for the David Heather and Clifford Dailing retirement party.
Beginning of May, it is off to Wichita, KS for Mid-States. Now, am off to DIA early tomorrow morning to go to the Legislative Seminar with the CO president in Washington, DC.
I did miss a couple of in person state board meetings, but did attend at least part of each of them online. A lot of the things I attended were not just for my job as Vice President, but for other things. I tried to use the time wisely and make connections and find out information that could help with our state.
Nix - SECRETARY-TREASURER
ATTENDANCE: I attended all called board meetings, but left the January 2023 meeting early to attend my grandson’s age 2 birthday party. I authored articles for all CORLCA papers, and provided the additional reports (financial, membership, election, etc.) required of the state S-T for the CORLCA paper.
I attended the 2022 NRLCA convention in Orlando, Florida as a delegate representing the state of Colorado. At the convention, I served on the Tellers’ Committee, which ended up being a lengthy process due to the number of ballots required for the election of NRLCA officers for us to count. This was the first national convention since 2019 and was welcome as these conventions are our opportunity to bring forward ideas (resolutions) from our membership to the national organization.
I did not choose to attend the 2023 Western States Conference in San Diego, even though I would like to have gone. My Mother passed away in February, which has necessitated my presence in other places, including a delayed memorial service at the end of March, etc.
Earlier in March I attended the District 2 annual spring meeting in Ft. Morgan as the CORLCA board representative. District 2, like the rest of the state, was anxious about the pending implementation of RRECs – how accurately mapping had been done, how numbers would be verified, etc.
CORLCA Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Les Hawkins and I attended the NRLCA S-T training held in Alexandria, VA in January 2023. This was the first training held since November of 2019, and was also the first training held with new NRLCA S-T Tommy Turner presiding. It was well attended, and was a very productive, well-prepared and well-presented training session. Of all the NRLCA trainings I have attended, the S-T trainings have always been the most thorough and informative.
ASSISTANCE: At the June 2022 convention I conducted S-T training for only 3 of our District Secretary-Treasurers. We have scheduled the District Officer training differently this year in the hope that more will be able to attend.
Again this year I assisted the District 6 S-T via telephone with the filing of the D6 LM report (which was filed timely), and attempted to assist her with the 990n. She ran into an obstacle and was unable to timely file the 990n, which complicates the process. I conferred with Rich Mozier at the NRLCA office about how to proceed and he has advised that D6 will now have to file the 990EZ, as they were not timely with the 990n. Failure to file the required 990 will eventually result in the loss of non-profit status to the District, so it is essential that it be filed ASAP. Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Les Hawkins attended the D6 spring meeting in February as the CORLCA board representative and agreed to provide assistance to D6 for the filing of their 990EZ.
NEW PROJECTS: As recommended by the CPA who has conducted the past few partial audit/agreed upon services reviews of CORLCA finances, I have started the process of creating a “job manual” for the CORLCA Secretary-Treasurer position. The first step has been to begin a calendar of annual responsibilities, month by month. My plan is for the second step to be a detailed “how-to” section with contact references, etc. for each duty. Some of these already exist as created by the NRLCA, and may only require some personalization for CORLCA, but others are specific to us and will need some detailed guidance. Our QuickBooks consultant was enthusiastic about helping me put together some primary guidelines for new QB users who, like me, may not be fluent in QB. We have already reviewed the chart of accounts with the objective of eliminating some of the unnecessary files developed over the years. This project will continue and hopefully will move forward more quickly as Assistant S-T Les Hawkins is able to take on more responsibilities, thus freeing me to spend more time on the manual.
ASST S-T BOARD POSITION: Unfortunately we have moved too slowly (in my opinion) with the training and development of the Asst S-T position. I take responsibility for this sluggishness. I was trying to be very frugal with membership funds, and so, since Les has long distances to travel, was only scheduling work sessions for a couple of hours prior to and/or after board meetings. I am now realizing that this is an error for many reasons. We recently had a full work day planned prior to the May board meeting, and when I explained the cash member renewal process to him and asked him to take care of it, we discovered that Les still did not have his union computer completely set up to be able to work efficiently with the NRLCA database. Hopefully we have now rectified that situation and we are scheduling more “work-days” so that he can get the hands-on experience he needs.
FINANCES: We were able to, again in December of 2022, provide Kroger gift cards to each CORLCA member, which we mailed along with the traditional calendars we send to members each December. Because of the consolidation of mailings, we were able to offer the cards without any additional postage expense, and due to the bulk purchase of gift cards, we were able to purchase the cards at a slightly reduced rate. In my opinion, we will not be able to continue this project in 2023, as we have successfully been able to return dues money to members through this project, but have now used up the majority of the excess money accumulated through COVID cancellations of events.
The board agreed to purchase one new CD in the amount of $25,000 to effectively utilize our remaining excess COVID funds. We believe we now have fully adequate reserve funds for the CORLCA.
As some of our existing CDs matured, we closed some and purchased replacements at a higher interest rate. One of our smaller existing CDs is actually the “left-over” funds from when CORLCA hosted the Western States Conference many years ago. That CD will soon be turned over to WSC Vice President Tammy Smith for use with the funding of our up-coming 2024 WSC to be hosted by CORLCA in Cripple Creek, CO.
RECRUITMENT: Recruitment of new members is always the responsibility of all of us, but is handled primarily by our Rural Carrier Academy trainers in Rural Carrier Academy training. However, it has been brought to our attention that since we are no longer sending someone to New Employee Orientation, we are missing a contact opportunity with new hires.
Toward that end, we are in the process of creating a CORLCA postcard to be handed out to the rural craft employees at orientation. The card will have a QR code leading to our website and our PowerPoint recruitment presentation so they can learn about our union via their smartphones prior to Rural Carrier Academy attendance.
MEMBERSHIP: Unfortunately, our membership is still down. However, we have seen an increase in calendar year 2023. It seems to relate to some amount of increased hiring, but with recent concerns over the implementation of RRECS, we don’t know what to expect.
The CORLCA board continues to try to provide strong support and up-to-date information for the rural craft, realizing that no matter what the future brings, it will always be in the best interest of rural craft employees to have a relationship with their union.
Respectfully submitted,
Dawn Michelle Nix, Secretary-Treasurer
Hawkins - ASSISTANT SECRETARY TREASURER REPORT
Les Hawkins
Assistant secretary treasurer
Gardner – EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
This year as your Executive Board Member, I have attended all scheduled and called board meetings. In 2022, I was one of the board members that attended the District 1 meeting as a Board Representative in Fort Collins and in 2023 I attended the
District 3 meeting in Centennial as the Board Representative.
I have written all articles required of me in the CORLCA paper, including additional articles for Western States Convention as well as the National Convention.
As motions were made during our Board Meetings, I have voted with the Colorado union body in mind. Whether voting for or against the motion.
I have listened to fellow employees concerns and brought those concerns to our Board Meetings. Following through by supplying responses to those that contacted me. I have stood up to all my responsibilities required of me being an executive board member.
Natalie Gardner
T. Smith – EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
I have attended all called board meetings. At these meetings I have participated and voted on items concerning the rural craft. I attended state convention and national convention. I was the board representative at District 1 meeting in Fort Collins. I have worked on getting a venue for the WSC 2024, again. The contract has been sent to CORLCA president for his signiture and to be returned to the Chamonix Casino and Hotel in Cripple Creek. Articles have been written for the paper after all regular meetings and each conference I attended. Thank you for allowing me to work for you.
Respectfully submitted
Tammy Smith
Executive Committee Member
Clark – EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
What a wild ride this year has been! It has been my privilege serving the rural carriers of Colorado for the last 2 years as an executive committeeman. This term has been interesting dealing with the tail end of COVID along with the year of RRECS. This was my first term serving on our state board. I attended all of our board meetings in full in person. I came and brought the voices of rural carriers from northern Colorado to our meetings from my side of the state. I also brought the RRECS topic up at all of our meetings because it has and will continue to be one of the most important topics we have right now. RRECS needs to be at the forefront of all of our minds at every meeting for the foreseeable future. I created a Facebook Group for our Colorado Rural Carrier members to join. It is still in its infancy stages but it exists for us to now utilize for our state getting meeting information out to members in addition to pointing people to our newsletter, website, and national website/app. This last year I attended District 3's fall booster meeting as our state board representative as well as District 7's spring meeting.
I attended the National Convention last September along with all of the members on the board. I know together we brought back a plethora of ideas and knowledge to continue moving our state and union forward to more positive change. I also spoke up for some of our resolutions to defend them on the floor at the convention.
A big part of what I did this last year was help plan our state convention, find a location and communicate with the board about details for it as well. I wrote all of the required articles for our newspaper. I hope you all read them and enjoyed them. I hope that I have helped some people write more resolutions and got the momentum rolling in some minds to create positive change for all of us.
I also helped with the committee for possible redistricting of our state. Since I have become an active member in our union years ago, I never understood why some areas of our state had more members than others. The committee looked into the number of rural carriers we have in each district as well as where rural carriers are at per office and will be presenting our ideas, findings and recommendations at this state convention.
I helped review our financial reports that were given to us at our board meetings along with the other board members.
One thing I have noticed now more than ever that this organization takes all of us working together. I know as a board member I feel as the term progressed we all worked together to communicate even more so. We all have a long ways to go and I still have many more ideas in my head for the future of our state and organization.
Hawkins - EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Les Hawkins,
Executive Committee Member
Hohn - EDITOR
The past year I have attended all but one of the board meetings; however, due to a lack of hiring at my office, I often missed the Saturday portion of the board meeting.
I edited, designed, created the layout, and mailed five issues of the Colorado Rural Letter Carrier paper to all CORLCA members in the past year—July, September/October, December, February, and May. I continuously worked with the state secretary-treasurer to keep up on changing addresses with our membership.
For the July 2022 issue of the paper, I mailed 1075 copies (-158 from 2021) to CORLCA membership (postage $531.13); September/October issue 2022, I mailed 1050 copies (-150 from 2021 – postage $519.36); December 2022, I mailed 1062 copies (-95 from 2021 – postage $505.45), February 2023, I mailed 1077 copies (-53 from 2022 – postage $554.25); and for the May 2023 issue I mailed right around 1081, (-28 from May 2022 – postage $556.30).
Following an error in the February issue that had the location to send officer nominations to as Loveland instead of Fort Collins, a postcard was mailed to all members to correct the error. Another postcard was mailed out in mid-May to all members to promote RRECS activity scan forums during the approaching state convention.
Our Membership is currently way down compared to 2022 and 2021, but has slowly started to grow in 2023; plus 31 members since October.
The CORLCA continues to maintain a very happy and successful relationship with Sunset Printing
Halcomb - HISTORIAN
So what was the year in history? This has been a monumental year in the rural craft and it would be interesting to know how it is looked back on many years from now. Is this a new beginning or the start of the end?
Who knows? Not me. However, not a lot has happened with the state history this year. We have gone through a lot of boxes filled with stuff and we have extra copies of many things. If any of you would like some vintage state or national magazines let me know and I will see to it that you get some. There will also be some interesting things brought to the state meet, this year, for you to look at.
We have to spend time with our history and that means our people from the past. I would like to mention a lady that I got to meet this year. Her name is Mildred Shell. Fifty years ago, her daughter was president of the NRLCA Juniors. Mrs. Shell is 103 years of age and is still going strong and doing well. If that is not enough, she has Rural Carrier Auto Insurance policy #1.
This photo is of Mildred, with National Auxiliary President, Lesa Routh-Halcomb.
Harrington - Chaplain
This year I have written articles for the CORLCA Newsletter. I have also sent condolence cards for the members, family and friends who have passed away.
We had a number of members who were suffering from illness or injuries and I also sent them “Get Well” or “Thinking of You” cards. I have spoken to a few of the carriers who have been having difficulties at work – hoping to encourage them. What a year it has been for problems at work!
I will continue to keep all of the members and their families in my thoughts and prayers.
Respectfully Submitted,
Anne Dee Harrington
CORLCA State Chaplain
Hawkins - PAC CHAIR
This has been quite a year. The closure of a worldwide pandemic and the implementation of RRECS. With that said, it seems like PAC has understandably taken a back seat. PAC numbers have decreased substantially from previous years simply because of the before mentioned issues. However, with the new normal we now face, now is the time to re-focus on getting the word out and educating our national leaders of the current issues we now face.
Respectfully submitted,
Les Hawkins , PAC Chair
P. Smith - NATIONAL GENERAL INSURANCE REP
To all the carriers whom have called at received quotes I Thank you for helping me get to the quotas.
I also want to give a special Thank you to the academy instructors for helping and sharing the information with the new hires.
We are doing a good A great job at getting money for the CC.O.R.L.C.A.E MAIL
Since July 1, 2022 to May 25, 2023, we have received $19,697.18 coming close to the last years $20,528.16.
This last year I have wrote an article for every paper.
I also attended the breakfast seminar at the 2022 national convention.
Pam Smith
Greggie Byrd –CO/WY DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE (DR)
Hello Everyone. Last year I started my report with a bit of good news First, because we had a negotiated contract without the need to go to binding arbitration. Next, it looked like we were finally going to have a system in place so that routes could be better evaluated with information captured all year long. And finally, we were, (and as far as I know this year still are) fortunate in that we did not have any carriers killed in vehicle accidents on their mail route in this District for several years now. I will say again this year as I have said in the past, I always hope and pray that this truth ( no vehicular fatality) will be in my report each year that I am your District Representative and, even beyond the time that I serve in this position. This year I’m happy to report we are seeing a few more carriers stepping up to become local stewards. I am praying this trend continues to grow because We Need A lot More!
Now to what my DR’s life has really been like for the past Fiscal year. First, even though we have a negotiated contract with what seems to be clear and very explicit language, postal management violated any of the new negotiated contractual language as if it didn’t exist. It seems that whatever is within the pages of the collective bargaining agreement it's just words on a page. This has caused havoc not only for myself, my Steward team, and of course all of our carriers who have had a bad experience, but it has spilled over to our customers too which leads to some Congressional Leaders getting involved. Congress got involved because of issues like, carriers not getting their pay, staffing shortages, mail not being delivered for days, just to name a few of the reasons. Here is what some of the news outlets were reporting and not just in our District:
Sen. Bennet urges USPS to put savings toward reducing mail delivery delays
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado is urging the country’s top postal officials to keep in mind specific mail-delivery improvements as they work to incorporate savings from a federal reform bill into operations.
“As you plan for the cost savings and transparency measures from the Postal Service Reform Act, it is imperative that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) seize this opportunity to improve on-time deliveries, service, and operations,” Bennet, a Democrat, wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Michael Kubayanda.
“In Colorado, voters also rely on USPS to receive and return their mail-in ballots. It is therefore essential that USPS maintains its delivery standards and honors its commitment to serve every community. Beyond publicizing delivery data, as required by PSRA, meaningful infrastructure improvements at processing facilities and local Post Offices could also help reduce delays,” he wrote.
Bennet also called on DeJoy and Kubayanda to reduce barriers to delivery for communities that don’t have home delivery, which are often rural or remote. In September, USPS announced that people who live in Buena Vista, which does not have home delivery, will be able to get P.O. boxes for free starting in 2023.
Finally, Bennet urged the two to consider infrastructure investments to ease the strain caused by large e-commerce deliveries for companies like Amazon and Walmart. While those contracts between the companies and USPS bring in needed revenue, the increase in shipments can put stress on facilities and staff.
Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper, also a Colorado Democrat, voted for the Postal Service Reform Act, as did Democratic Reps. Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse and Ed Perlmutter. Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn voted against it.
Over in Camden, South Carolina, residents told CBS-affiliate News 19 on Dec. 13 that they've been dealing with regular delays for some time now. "For the past six months, I guess, maybe even more, we haven't been getting mail on a sometimes-daily basis," Camden resident Emily Volz told the news outlet. "When I called up there to ask, we don't even have a permanent driver for our route and was told because of the holidays they're not even gonna hire for our route yet."
In Wyoming
Cheyenne Post Offices Close Down After Amazon Dumps 13,000+ Packages Off & Allegedly Refuses To Deliver More than one postal worker told Cowboy State Daily the reason for the other post offices being closed was an unusually large number of packages dropped off by Amazon over the weekend.
“There were 110 pallets with an average of 120 packages each,” one postal worker said. He declined to be identified.
What’s more, Amazon drivers are not willing to deliver packages in Cheyenne after the recent blizzard until May 1, the postal worker said.
Cowboy State Daily tried to reach the Cheyenne Post Master as well, but no one would answer the phone at the Converse Avenue location. When visiting that location in person, Cowboy State Daily was told by a postal worker that requests for information have to be run through Wyoming’s official media person.
The worker also said it was unlikely anyone would explain the closures, and that the public didn’t need to know about the details — just that the closures were required for operational efficiency.
The USPS confirmed to News 19 that staffing challenges are still creating delivery problems for some areas like Camden. "Like many other businesses right now, the Postal Service in Camden is experiencing temporary staffing issues," the agency said.
USPS spokesperson Mark Lawrence also recently acknowledged to the LNP that a similar problem is resulting in delivery delays for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as well.
Then there was RRECS
As I have said to rural carriers across the country, while I believe the RRECS system is a better way of evaluating rural routes, I also know it was poorly implemented. Here are some of the things we must keep in mind. Rural delivery has evolved over the past 125 years, and so too has the method for calculating and adjusting the evaluated compensation applied to rural routes. Throughout the history of rural delivery, rural carriers have cherished and sought to protect the benefits of the evaluated method of compensation. The final product described in Dr. Martin Vega’s report is the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS). It represents the culmination of five and one-half years of joint efforts by the NRLCA and USPS, with oversight provided by Chairperson Martin-Vega and a panel of industrial engineering experts, to develop a new system for evaluating rural routes. The goal of these efforts was to create a system that was fair to both USPS and rural carriers. For USPS, this meant a system that resulted in efficient delivery on rural routes and was capable of responding flexibly to changing business conditions. For rural carriers, it meant a system that covered all work activities, set realistic standard times for completing each activity, resulted in time off incentives when carriers worked at an incentive pace, and provided equal incentive opportunity across rural routes, irrespective of specific route characteristics.
The inception of RRECS was codified in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) appended to the interest arbitration award issue by Jack Clarke on July 3, 2012. What was needed for our evaluation was a system of Time Standards that both parties could live with. What were those standards supposed to be? A standard is defined as the amount of time used by an experienced and motivated worker of normal skill and ability, working at a normal pace, to perform a specific task under specific conditions. It’s also understood to be the amount of time allotted to a single occurrence of a standardized work activity. The fifth area of carrier responsibilities under RRECS is to learn and follow changed work rules required by RRECS. For the most part, RRECS has no direct impact on how work activities are performed. RRECS is primarily designed to measure and fairly compensate carriers for work performed under current standard operating procedures (SOP). In a few instances, minor changes in SOPs were necessary to ensure that all carrier work activities are properly compensated, and that none are double counted. In the case of changed operating procedures, it is the USPS’s responsibility to issue new SOPs and train carriers as necessary.
I think the last sentence sums up the problem we are having right now,,,,Not Enough Training and Transparency!
This too caused Congress to get involved
Earlier this month, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter to DeJoy asking him to delay RRECS implementation, pointing to its “serious flaws.”
“Implementing RRECS in its current form will arbitrarily enact a pay cut for tens of thousands rural postal workers who still lack a formal dispute process and have a history of delayed back pay from the postal service,” the senators said. “Furthermore, USPS has withheld information about how RRECS has made its initial route evaluations.”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently told reporters the decision predated him, and the matter was out of his hands. “That was a negotiated process, an arbitrated process,” DeJoy said. “That was done a long time before I got here. And it's you know, it's unfortunate, but, I mean, it is what it is, and I didn't decide it.”
In April, Doug Tulino, the deputy postmaster general and USPS’ chief human resources officer, told rural letter carriers union the new system would go into effect in early May after a delay to allow for a “further review of the data underlying these new route evaluations.” Tulino also vowed to finalize an “alternate dispute resolution process” for employees. USPS acknowledged it may have to adjust some routes that become “overburdened or substandard,” but it will not do that until after it has some time to conduct analysis of the implementation.
Ladies and Gentlemen this has caused a lot of heartache and confusion across the country.
Labor Relations
Other Labor Relations issues continue to revolve around what you all have been hearing about for some time. They include but are not limited to, Carriers not being paid, not being able to get time off, and being harassed for the sake of getting numbers in places they don't belong. All of the NSS stewards have been continuing to provide assistance to carriers and local stewards by giving guidance on contractual verbiage as well as assisting them through the grievance / arbitration process.
I’m happy to report we as a NSS team were all involved in attending Conferences, Trainings, and National Convention last year. This allows my Assistants to network with other stewards and state officers to gauge the pulse of our craft nationwide. While my ADR’s couldn’t be at all of these events, the ones they were able to attend were educational for them.
I had to be involved in 2 MOU 25’s this past year and many Different types of Labor/ Management meetings. I have traveled about 30,000 miles to provide DFR ( Duty of Fair Representation) I have been involved in handling 70 plus grievance. About 40 PDI’s and to many phone calls to keep track of.
I may have more to add at State Convention
May God Continue to Bless us all!
Respectfully submitted,
Greggie Byrd
District Representative
Grievance Totals By User For 7/1/2022 - 5/26/2023
User BYRD, GREGGIE V Steward Position 1 District Representative District CO/WY – 800
Total PDIs 32 Individual Contract Total 36 Individual Discipline Total 16
Class Action Total 11 Step 1 – Open 15 Step 2 – Open 9 Step 1 – Closed 35
Step 2 – Closed 12 Step 3 – Appeals 4 Total Grievances 63
Mecom - ASSISTANT DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE (ADR)
This year was my first year as a Full Time ADR, and it was extremely productive. From July 2, 2022 to present, I have handled 105 grievances and 61 PDIs. To date, I was able to get $19811.55 in grievance payouts for carriers.
I attended my first National Convention in September, as a delegate, and was able to get the full experience of what it means to be a Union member.
I was part of one MOU 25 for the Longmont Station which resulted in getting management to address a hostile work environment that was being fostered by a supervisor there. I also attended two Labor Management Meetings with the District Manager, myself, and Greggie Byrd.
I have certified seven Local Stewards and conducted four Local Steward Enhancement Trainings this year.
I have also attended multiple District/State Booster and Board Meetings to get as much information to the membership as possible.
Moving into the rest of 2023 and 2024, my focus is getting carriers as much information with regards to RRECS as I can. It has been clear that local management isn’t getting carriers the information and training they need to make sure they are maximizing their route’s evaluation. We are also focusing on building up our Local Steward roster to be able to promote more Area Stewards to the District.
Lastly, I want to focus on Union membership. Stewards have always had the right to solicit membership into the Union, and it is important, now more than ever, that we get as many carriers to join the Union as possible to help with the transition to RRECS. I am planning to attend as many employee orientations as I can to educate new employees as to the benefits of becoming a Union member and using that membership to vote on important issues for upcoming Contract negotiations.
I want to thank the National Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve the membership, and I hope I can continue to do so as an ADR moving into 2024.
Theresa Mecom
Assistant District Rep, CO/WY
Stauffer - PART TIME ASSISTANT DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE (ADR)
This is my second full year as a PT ADR for the NRLCA working on the western slope of Colorado. Last year we dealt with Covid and the inability to hire. This year we continued fighting to get new carriers hired and ushered in the RRECS evaluations.
I filed 42 grievances, 36 that I closed at step 1. Seven of those were class action grievances. This year I started doing step 2 grievances and I closed 9 of those. Through the grievance process I was able to help carriers reclaim $16,832.57 back in lost wages. I assisted carriers with 17 PDI’s and conducted several labor management meetings. I had the opportunity to attend labor management meetings at the district level also.
Training new stewards and retraining local stewards has become something that I really enjoy. I have trained 2 new stewards with LSCT and retrained 2 existing local stewards with LSET. I was also involved with the dual training for the RRECS classes for management and stewards. During times that I had to travel, I stopped in offices and talked to carriers and managers about the RRECS when I was in their area. I have had the opportunity to mentor new stewards and to help them with their first grievances or two. I truly feel that the training and time we give the new stewards really shows in the files we get from them.
Going forward I hope to help carriers and stewards as we learn to navigate the new RRECS system and to hopefully ensure that the carriers understand what their responsibilities are, push managers to fulfill their responsibilities and make sure that this new system is fair.
Thank you for allowing me to work with and learn from a great District Representative, Greggie Byrd and a talented ADR like Theresa Mecom.
Amelia (Amy) Stauffer
CORLCA ANNUAL REPORTS OF ELECTED OFFICERS AND APPOINTEES
Aldridge - PRESIDENT
This is my annual report as President of the Colorado Rural Letter Carriers’ Association.
This is my second year of a two-year term as President. I attended the 2022 National Convention in Orlando in September as the national delegate from Colorado. The national office assigned me as a member of the Credentials I Committee, which required me to be in Florida a couple of days earlier than the rest of the delegation. Prior to that convention, I assigned positions as listed in the CORLCA Constitution (e.g., State Editor, State Historian).
I called five board meetings and presided over every one of them. The board again looked to return some of the members’ dues, since our financial position was still in the black. We decided once again to offer gift cards to our members and stewards.
I attended the Western States Conference held in San Diego, CA, in April. While there, I announced that Colorado will be hosting next year’s WSC in Cripple Creek. Tammy Smith has been the Convention Chair for years and has now been voted in as Vice-President of the Conference.
One of my duties as President is to hold district officers training for presidents and vice-presidents. Due to other circumstances, few officers attended the training. Because it’s an annual requirement to train district officers, I hosted l couple of Zoom meetings to host the training of our district presidents and vice-presidents.
I attended the booster meeting held in District 7. The meeting had a few members, whose main concerns were the progress of RRECS.
I created a committee to look at our 7 districts and directed them to consider realigning them, or possibly the elimination of the districts. Cortney Clark was the head of the committee and presented a recommendation that will be submitted to the members attending the convention in June.
The Department of Labor finally held an in-person training session on the financial paperwork required by labor unions to submit and when they are due. Part of the training that I attended they held on March 7 included an overview of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (L-MRDA).
I flew to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Colorado Senators and Congressmen as part of the Legislative Seminar. My Vice-President, George Halcomb, and I were able to visit 9 of the 10 of Colorado delegation’s staff face-to-face, with the last one requiring a Zoom meeting. Last year, not a single meeting included the Representative or Senator; we met with staff members only. This year, we were able to meet with two Congresswomen. Oddly, or maybe not so odd, the two were our newest representatives.
Finally, I look forward to presiding over this year’s state convention in Loveland and the completion of my two-year term as your President.
Halcomb - VICE PRESIDENT
So the end of 22-23 year and what has happened. Kind of an interesting twist in what was important in the last two years. First, it was being treated decent at the office, then it was getting time off, and now it is the mess that is RRECS. Not that the other two have gone away, but that is the way the wind is blowing.
What has the last year held for your Vice President? A lot of this stuff is not just as CO Vice President, but as head Gofer. That is my other job as spouse of the National Auxiliary President. I have made efforts to combine the two, so we can have different ideas as what to do and several times what not to do.
So the year started after the CO state meet. On the subject of the state meet, that was a real good convention that no one went too. Hopefully, the attendance will be better at this year’s. After CO, we went to AL to attend that convention. When you have several times as many people you can sure do a lot more things. Then off to WI for their convention. I was busy there as they needed some help with the Juniors and off to fun parks and pirate boat rides, before going back and doing business things. Next, we were off to MN, where the highlight for them at least, is that we were asked to dress like pirates for their banquet, but apparently this message was not passed on to members. So there were Lesa and me all dressed up, but none of the members were.
National was next. We got there a week early and did auxiliary stuff, until the others rolled in. Nice, but awkward at National, as we had three years work to do. With Lesa being elected National Auxiliary President, Ruby being National Juniors’ President and all the stuff for the members it was quite a blur. As if there wasn’t enough stuff to, I went to the National Retirement-Pioneer Club Meeting to see what it was about and left as the president.
In September, we went to the District 1 booster meeting. Then in October, we went to the Kansas Booster Meeting. In the beginning of November, Lesa had her first board meeting as president and time to do Gofer stuff.
On a break until after the holidays. The next thing was a trip to Texas in early January for SWAC. Two weeks later, a trip to Atlanta for SAC. We arrived a couple of days early for an auxiliary board meeting and more Gofer stuff. End of February and another Kansas Booster Meeting. In the end of February, we had our most important CO Board Meeting, as we decided on Western States Conference 2024.
In March, we have a 5 day auxiliary meeting in Grand Rapids, MI, at the site of this year’s National Convention. This gives me a chance to scope out the area for local food and entertainment, for when everyone arrives at this location. Then off to Eastern States in Portland, Maine.
Finally, we have Western States in San Diego in the middle of April. A week later we are in Kansas City for the David Heather and Clifford Dailing retirement party.
Beginning of May, it is off to Wichita, KS for Mid-States. Now, am off to DIA early tomorrow morning to go to the Legislative Seminar with the CO president in Washington, DC.
I did miss a couple of in person state board meetings, but did attend at least part of each of them online. A lot of the things I attended were not just for my job as Vice President, but for other things. I tried to use the time wisely and make connections and find out information that could help with our state.
Nix - SECRETARY-TREASURER
ATTENDANCE: I attended all called board meetings, but left the January 2023 meeting early to attend my grandson’s age 2 birthday party. I authored articles for all CORLCA papers, and provided the additional reports (financial, membership, election, etc.) required of the state S-T for the CORLCA paper.
I attended the 2022 NRLCA convention in Orlando, Florida as a delegate representing the state of Colorado. At the convention, I served on the Tellers’ Committee, which ended up being a lengthy process due to the number of ballots required for the election of NRLCA officers for us to count. This was the first national convention since 2019 and was welcome as these conventions are our opportunity to bring forward ideas (resolutions) from our membership to the national organization.
I did not choose to attend the 2023 Western States Conference in San Diego, even though I would like to have gone. My Mother passed away in February, which has necessitated my presence in other places, including a delayed memorial service at the end of March, etc.
Earlier in March I attended the District 2 annual spring meeting in Ft. Morgan as the CORLCA board representative. District 2, like the rest of the state, was anxious about the pending implementation of RRECs – how accurately mapping had been done, how numbers would be verified, etc.
CORLCA Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Les Hawkins and I attended the NRLCA S-T training held in Alexandria, VA in January 2023. This was the first training held since November of 2019, and was also the first training held with new NRLCA S-T Tommy Turner presiding. It was well attended, and was a very productive, well-prepared and well-presented training session. Of all the NRLCA trainings I have attended, the S-T trainings have always been the most thorough and informative.
ASSISTANCE: At the June 2022 convention I conducted S-T training for only 3 of our District Secretary-Treasurers. We have scheduled the District Officer training differently this year in the hope that more will be able to attend.
Again this year I assisted the District 6 S-T via telephone with the filing of the D6 LM report (which was filed timely), and attempted to assist her with the 990n. She ran into an obstacle and was unable to timely file the 990n, which complicates the process. I conferred with Rich Mozier at the NRLCA office about how to proceed and he has advised that D6 will now have to file the 990EZ, as they were not timely with the 990n. Failure to file the required 990 will eventually result in the loss of non-profit status to the District, so it is essential that it be filed ASAP. Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Les Hawkins attended the D6 spring meeting in February as the CORLCA board representative and agreed to provide assistance to D6 for the filing of their 990EZ.
NEW PROJECTS: As recommended by the CPA who has conducted the past few partial audit/agreed upon services reviews of CORLCA finances, I have started the process of creating a “job manual” for the CORLCA Secretary-Treasurer position. The first step has been to begin a calendar of annual responsibilities, month by month. My plan is for the second step to be a detailed “how-to” section with contact references, etc. for each duty. Some of these already exist as created by the NRLCA, and may only require some personalization for CORLCA, but others are specific to us and will need some detailed guidance. Our QuickBooks consultant was enthusiastic about helping me put together some primary guidelines for new QB users who, like me, may not be fluent in QB. We have already reviewed the chart of accounts with the objective of eliminating some of the unnecessary files developed over the years. This project will continue and hopefully will move forward more quickly as Assistant S-T Les Hawkins is able to take on more responsibilities, thus freeing me to spend more time on the manual.
ASST S-T BOARD POSITION: Unfortunately we have moved too slowly (in my opinion) with the training and development of the Asst S-T position. I take responsibility for this sluggishness. I was trying to be very frugal with membership funds, and so, since Les has long distances to travel, was only scheduling work sessions for a couple of hours prior to and/or after board meetings. I am now realizing that this is an error for many reasons. We recently had a full work day planned prior to the May board meeting, and when I explained the cash member renewal process to him and asked him to take care of it, we discovered that Les still did not have his union computer completely set up to be able to work efficiently with the NRLCA database. Hopefully we have now rectified that situation and we are scheduling more “work-days” so that he can get the hands-on experience he needs.
FINANCES: We were able to, again in December of 2022, provide Kroger gift cards to each CORLCA member, which we mailed along with the traditional calendars we send to members each December. Because of the consolidation of mailings, we were able to offer the cards without any additional postage expense, and due to the bulk purchase of gift cards, we were able to purchase the cards at a slightly reduced rate. In my opinion, we will not be able to continue this project in 2023, as we have successfully been able to return dues money to members through this project, but have now used up the majority of the excess money accumulated through COVID cancellations of events.
The board agreed to purchase one new CD in the amount of $25,000 to effectively utilize our remaining excess COVID funds. We believe we now have fully adequate reserve funds for the CORLCA.
As some of our existing CDs matured, we closed some and purchased replacements at a higher interest rate. One of our smaller existing CDs is actually the “left-over” funds from when CORLCA hosted the Western States Conference many years ago. That CD will soon be turned over to WSC Vice President Tammy Smith for use with the funding of our up-coming 2024 WSC to be hosted by CORLCA in Cripple Creek, CO.
RECRUITMENT: Recruitment of new members is always the responsibility of all of us, but is handled primarily by our Rural Carrier Academy trainers in Rural Carrier Academy training. However, it has been brought to our attention that since we are no longer sending someone to New Employee Orientation, we are missing a contact opportunity with new hires.
Toward that end, we are in the process of creating a CORLCA postcard to be handed out to the rural craft employees at orientation. The card will have a QR code leading to our website and our PowerPoint recruitment presentation so they can learn about our union via their smartphones prior to Rural Carrier Academy attendance.
MEMBERSHIP: Unfortunately, our membership is still down. However, we have seen an increase in calendar year 2023. It seems to relate to some amount of increased hiring, but with recent concerns over the implementation of RRECS, we don’t know what to expect.
The CORLCA board continues to try to provide strong support and up-to-date information for the rural craft, realizing that no matter what the future brings, it will always be in the best interest of rural craft employees to have a relationship with their union.
Respectfully submitted,
Dawn Michelle Nix, Secretary-Treasurer
Hawkins - ASSISTANT SECRETARY TREASURER REPORT
- Met with Dawn Nix on several occasions to complete necessary tasks associated with secretary treasurer responsibilities.
- Prepared and presented membership reports at all CORLCA board meetings.
- Prepared and presented financial reports at assigned CORLCA board meetings.
- Attended national training in Virginia in January 2023.
- Assisted in numerous responsibilities associated with the Secretary Treasurer.
Les Hawkins
Assistant secretary treasurer
Gardner – EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
This year as your Executive Board Member, I have attended all scheduled and called board meetings. In 2022, I was one of the board members that attended the District 1 meeting as a Board Representative in Fort Collins and in 2023 I attended the
District 3 meeting in Centennial as the Board Representative.
I have written all articles required of me in the CORLCA paper, including additional articles for Western States Convention as well as the National Convention.
As motions were made during our Board Meetings, I have voted with the Colorado union body in mind. Whether voting for or against the motion.
I have listened to fellow employees concerns and brought those concerns to our Board Meetings. Following through by supplying responses to those that contacted me. I have stood up to all my responsibilities required of me being an executive board member.
Natalie Gardner
T. Smith – EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
I have attended all called board meetings. At these meetings I have participated and voted on items concerning the rural craft. I attended state convention and national convention. I was the board representative at District 1 meeting in Fort Collins. I have worked on getting a venue for the WSC 2024, again. The contract has been sent to CORLCA president for his signiture and to be returned to the Chamonix Casino and Hotel in Cripple Creek. Articles have been written for the paper after all regular meetings and each conference I attended. Thank you for allowing me to work for you.
Respectfully submitted
Tammy Smith
Executive Committee Member
Clark – EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
What a wild ride this year has been! It has been my privilege serving the rural carriers of Colorado for the last 2 years as an executive committeeman. This term has been interesting dealing with the tail end of COVID along with the year of RRECS. This was my first term serving on our state board. I attended all of our board meetings in full in person. I came and brought the voices of rural carriers from northern Colorado to our meetings from my side of the state. I also brought the RRECS topic up at all of our meetings because it has and will continue to be one of the most important topics we have right now. RRECS needs to be at the forefront of all of our minds at every meeting for the foreseeable future. I created a Facebook Group for our Colorado Rural Carrier members to join. It is still in its infancy stages but it exists for us to now utilize for our state getting meeting information out to members in addition to pointing people to our newsletter, website, and national website/app. This last year I attended District 3's fall booster meeting as our state board representative as well as District 7's spring meeting.
I attended the National Convention last September along with all of the members on the board. I know together we brought back a plethora of ideas and knowledge to continue moving our state and union forward to more positive change. I also spoke up for some of our resolutions to defend them on the floor at the convention.
A big part of what I did this last year was help plan our state convention, find a location and communicate with the board about details for it as well. I wrote all of the required articles for our newspaper. I hope you all read them and enjoyed them. I hope that I have helped some people write more resolutions and got the momentum rolling in some minds to create positive change for all of us.
I also helped with the committee for possible redistricting of our state. Since I have become an active member in our union years ago, I never understood why some areas of our state had more members than others. The committee looked into the number of rural carriers we have in each district as well as where rural carriers are at per office and will be presenting our ideas, findings and recommendations at this state convention.
I helped review our financial reports that were given to us at our board meetings along with the other board members.
One thing I have noticed now more than ever that this organization takes all of us working together. I know as a board member I feel as the term progressed we all worked together to communicate even more so. We all have a long ways to go and I still have many more ideas in my head for the future of our state and organization.
Hawkins - EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
- Attended several district meetings.
- Attended CORLCA board meetings.
- Attended booster meetings.
- Accomplished assigned tasks from the CORLCA board.
- paper.
- Drafted articles published in the CORLCA paper.
- Attended the 2022 national convention held in Florida.
Les Hawkins,
Executive Committee Member
Hohn - EDITOR
The past year I have attended all but one of the board meetings; however, due to a lack of hiring at my office, I often missed the Saturday portion of the board meeting.
I edited, designed, created the layout, and mailed five issues of the Colorado Rural Letter Carrier paper to all CORLCA members in the past year—July, September/October, December, February, and May. I continuously worked with the state secretary-treasurer to keep up on changing addresses with our membership.
For the July 2022 issue of the paper, I mailed 1075 copies (-158 from 2021) to CORLCA membership (postage $531.13); September/October issue 2022, I mailed 1050 copies (-150 from 2021 – postage $519.36); December 2022, I mailed 1062 copies (-95 from 2021 – postage $505.45), February 2023, I mailed 1077 copies (-53 from 2022 – postage $554.25); and for the May 2023 issue I mailed right around 1081, (-28 from May 2022 – postage $556.30).
Following an error in the February issue that had the location to send officer nominations to as Loveland instead of Fort Collins, a postcard was mailed to all members to correct the error. Another postcard was mailed out in mid-May to all members to promote RRECS activity scan forums during the approaching state convention.
Our Membership is currently way down compared to 2022 and 2021, but has slowly started to grow in 2023; plus 31 members since October.
The CORLCA continues to maintain a very happy and successful relationship with Sunset Printing
Halcomb - HISTORIAN
So what was the year in history? This has been a monumental year in the rural craft and it would be interesting to know how it is looked back on many years from now. Is this a new beginning or the start of the end?
Who knows? Not me. However, not a lot has happened with the state history this year. We have gone through a lot of boxes filled with stuff and we have extra copies of many things. If any of you would like some vintage state or national magazines let me know and I will see to it that you get some. There will also be some interesting things brought to the state meet, this year, for you to look at.
We have to spend time with our history and that means our people from the past. I would like to mention a lady that I got to meet this year. Her name is Mildred Shell. Fifty years ago, her daughter was president of the NRLCA Juniors. Mrs. Shell is 103 years of age and is still going strong and doing well. If that is not enough, she has Rural Carrier Auto Insurance policy #1.
This photo is of Mildred, with National Auxiliary President, Lesa Routh-Halcomb.
Harrington - Chaplain
This year I have written articles for the CORLCA Newsletter. I have also sent condolence cards for the members, family and friends who have passed away.
We had a number of members who were suffering from illness or injuries and I also sent them “Get Well” or “Thinking of You” cards. I have spoken to a few of the carriers who have been having difficulties at work – hoping to encourage them. What a year it has been for problems at work!
I will continue to keep all of the members and their families in my thoughts and prayers.
Respectfully Submitted,
Anne Dee Harrington
CORLCA State Chaplain
Hawkins - PAC CHAIR
This has been quite a year. The closure of a worldwide pandemic and the implementation of RRECS. With that said, it seems like PAC has understandably taken a back seat. PAC numbers have decreased substantially from previous years simply because of the before mentioned issues. However, with the new normal we now face, now is the time to re-focus on getting the word out and educating our national leaders of the current issues we now face.
- RECEIVED AND PROCESSED PAC FUNDS
- FUNDS SUBMITTED TO NATIONAL OFFICE
- PENS ORDERED AND DISTRIBUTED TO CONTRUBUTING MEMBERS
- PAC AUTO DRAFT INSERTED INTO PAPER FOR PUBLICATION
Respectfully submitted,
Les Hawkins , PAC Chair
P. Smith - NATIONAL GENERAL INSURANCE REP
To all the carriers whom have called at received quotes I Thank you for helping me get to the quotas.
I also want to give a special Thank you to the academy instructors for helping and sharing the information with the new hires.
We are doing a good A great job at getting money for the CC.O.R.L.C.A.E MAIL
Since July 1, 2022 to May 25, 2023, we have received $19,697.18 coming close to the last years $20,528.16.
This last year I have wrote an article for every paper.
I also attended the breakfast seminar at the 2022 national convention.
Pam Smith