HOME --> ACMA Member Exclusive: Summary of Recent Postal Matters of Interest to You

Four Shapes, dark blue square, red circle, black square, light blue square, used as a background image.

ACMA Member Exclusive: Summary of Recent Postal Matters of Interest to You

A great deal has been going on in postal affairs this summer. Much of it impacts your business, so want to bring you up to date. ACMA continues its aggressive intervention in court, Congress and across the citizenry. Here are the highlights; more detail is contained in the links

  • On July 19th, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approved the USPS rate request using virtually 100% of the new rate authority granted by the PRC.
  • This after multiple assurances by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to Congress and mailers that he would be “judicious” in the use of new rate authority. Apparently “judicious” means raise the rates as much as possible, because that’s what the USPS has done.
  • ACMA and other litigants challenging the PRC decision in the US Court of Appeals continued on July 19th with the filing of our reply brief. Oral arguments are scheduled for September 13th and the Court is expected to render its decision by the end of 2021 or early 2022 unless we file for a stay of this PRC Order. A decision on this will be made shortly. Click here for a more detailed summary by ACMA’s co-litigant, the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers. We’ve also culled from another Alliance report here.
  • ACMA continues work with our mailing industry group, the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service (C21), the mailing industry organization of public and private companies, trade associations (including ACMA) and other industry groups which rely on the U.S. Postal Service to do business. Specifically, the group has done the following:
    • conducted a survey (summary link) (full results link) of American consumers to identify hot button (postal-related) issues; the results indicate that the overwhelming majority of the American public would oppose USPS actions to deprioritize mail service, has little-to-no awareness of the postage increases due to take effect in late August, and that more service delays and postage increases would push most Americans to consider alternatives to using the mail;
    • continuing our digital campaign to provide a simple way for industry employees and regular consumers to send messages to their senators and congressmen pushing postal reform;
    • will be holding a Hill staffer briefing at the end of July to educate lawmakers prior to an anticipated vote by the House midyear and hopefully in the Senate later in 2021.
  • Data from a new NDP Analytics released on July 12th (executive summary link) (full report link) (related infographic link) shows that the USPS is well ahead of its financial budget and has ample liquidity, making an unplanned, mid-year rate increase unnecessary. The report was cosponsored by fellow industry groups, EMA and GCA.
  • The PRC also on July 20th finalized its Advisory Opinion on the change to First Class and Packages service standards, approving the slowdown of these mail products as part of the USPS’s Delivering For America Plan, effectively moving the goalposts on delivery to increase on-time performance. Ironically, this also enables consolidation of process flows allowing potential flat mail cost reductions as recently reported in a previous ACMA communiqué.

Share On Social

Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Tumblr
WhatsApp
Email

Follow Us

20th Annual National Forum Registration Page

Price range: $1,195.00 through $1,295.00

Capitol building photo, taken at night.

Postal Fund Donations

Price range: $100.00 through $1,000.00

Catalog Industry Action Funds

Price range: $100.00 through $250.00

Support ACMA’s Industry Action Funds

You can assist with specific areas of ACMA’s program of work by providing much-needed resources dedicated to a particular issue. Our Industry Action Funds are segregated accounts held by ACMA, made available as a “war chest” to deploy on specific issues that impact direct and remote marketers and their suppliers — eliminating the time and effort needed to raise funds in the heat of battle.


Please note that your contributions to ACMA Action Funds will not be used for any general ACMA “corporate purposes” other than a 5% service fee on funds raised and administered. Non-ACMA members are always eligible to make one-off donations. Such contributions support our network of consultants on whom we depend to advocate for the interests of direct and remote marketers and their suppliers. These funds are only used to pay for out-of-pocket expenses of the specific issues outlined below. Large volume donors may be considered for Steering Committees of each Fund. Click here for more information on how the funds are distributed and used.

SKU: catalog_industry_action_funds Category: Tag:

Description

Restricted Status: Each Fund will be separately administered as restricted under the direction of the ACMA Board of Directors by the ACMA Treasurer and our association accountant. An elected Officer from the Executive Committee or the ACMA Board will authorize disbursements. Details on expenditures will be made available to any material contributor on request. Restricted funds may be released only upon authorization of the benefactor or in the event the contributing entity is defunct, by vote of the ACMA Board.

Use of Funds: Moneys from each fund may be used for hiring lobbyists, economists, attorneys, consultants, public relations or government relations personnel, conducting research or other surveys highlighting positions favorable to cataloging, supporting coalitions or other groups allied to our positions, paying for advertising aimed at influencing elected officials or other stakeholders, organizing grass roots outreach, education or advocacy in support of public policy positions or for other tactics favorable to ACMA policy positions. Money raised will not be used to support any political candidate or political party; these moneys must come from a Political Action Committee.

Lynn Noble

President & Executive Director

New Member Development & Acquisition; Postal Affairs

Lynn Noble is ACMA’s Vice President, Industry Relations, having joined the ACMA in May 2015, following an extensive direct marketing career in private industry as well as the US Postal Service. He is responsible for leading the membership development efforts for the ACMA through new member acquisitions and providing enhanced member value.

Throughout his career, Lynn has held key marketing & sales positions with several leading direct marketers, as well as several high-level management positions with the US Postal Service.

In 2009, at the request of the ACMA, the US Postal Service initiated a new position of Catalog Manager to lead the Service’s efforts to stabilize and grow the catalog industry. Lynn returned to the USPS to lead those efforts and was instrumental to developing a stronger industry partnership between the Postal Service and the catalog industry. Serving as the product manager for catalogs, Lynn helped to raise the awareness of catalog-specific business challenges within the executive ranks of the USPS. During his tenure, the ACMA and catalog companies enjoyed a collaborative and progressive environment that produced more stabilized rates and inclusion in key USPS promotional opportunities.

Just prior to joining the ACMA Lynn was the USPS’s Manager, Strategic Account Operations, leading a team of senior sales professionals who focused exclusively in the Catalog, Mail Order, and E-commerce arena. In addition to his Postal positions, Lynn previously held key positions with leading direct marketing companies, including Cox Target Media, Market Logic, Catalina Marketing, Freesamples.com, and Advantage Direct.

Paul Miller

Vice President & Deputy Director

Association Matters, Marketing / Communications, Membership Relations

Named Vice President & Deputy Director in January 2010, Miller came to the ACMA following a lengthy career of more than two decades following the catalog/multichannel/e-commerce/retail businesses. Reporting to ACMA president & executive director Hamilton Davison, Miller oversees marketing and communications, membership development, and organizes and oversees ACMA’s National Catalog Forum, while working with Davison on most of ACMA’s postal-related efforts.

Miller started his career as a reporter with Catalog Showroom Business, following a form of retailing that was led by the likes of the Service Merchandise and Best Products retail chains.

After several years of editor/reporter roles with business magazines that followed the toy and gift industries, Miller was named associate editor of Catalog Age magazine (now Multichannel Merchant) in 1986. He rose up the ranks at Catalog Age over the next 18 years to be the magazine’s senior news editor.

Beginning in the late ’80s, Miller became Catalog Age’s postal beat reporter, where he’d follow key postal events and pull out the key catalog mail-related issues for readers. During that time, he attended many Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meetings and National Postal forums.

After leaving Catalog Age in 2004, Miller consulted with several catalogers and multichannel suppliers for a time, he was named news/website editor at Commercial Property News. Less than a year later, he was asked to take the reigns at Catalog Success (now All About ROI) where he served as editor-in- chief from 2006 till the end of 2009.

 

Mike Plunkett

President & Executive Director

Washington, legislative, lobbying matters

ACMA appointed Michael K. Plunkett as its President and Executive Director in January 2024, succeeding founder Hamilton Davison. Mr. Davison moved on to own and run a company. Mr. Plunkett brings years of executive leadership experience having been the President and CEO of the Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom) since 2017.  In the newly-formed dual role, he will continue his current role with PostCom and the two organizations will operate separately.

During his tenure, PostCom has continued to lead the mailing and shipping industry on policy and regulatory matters and to work with Government agency partners to advance issues of importance to members. Mr. Plunkett is also President of the Delivery Technology Advocacy Council, a nonprofit launched in 2020 to concentrate on delivery and logistics technologies.

Prior to PostCom, Mr. Plunkett accumulated more than 25 years Postal experience with the United States Postal Service in numerous executive roles in operations, marketing, product development and pricing.  As a leader within the Postal Service’s management team, Mr. Plunkett developed a well-earned reputation for innovation by leading efforts to develop pricing agreements for domestic services and in the development of the forever stamp and the priority mail flat rate box.

Mr. Plunkett has testified on pricing and policy issues before the Postal Regulatory Commission and Congressional subcommittees.  He has authored and presented papers on postal policies, economics, and operations for National and International conferences.

Mr. Plunkett holds Masters Degrees in Business from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He earned a Bachelor Degrees in Economics and Finance from the Pennsylvania State University.