Ladies and gentlemen: If you noticed the down tick in January's VE revenues or hear complaints about slow VE response the reason is mail and the Newington Post Office. Maria's crew is on them every day but the Post Office is...well, the Post Office! We have return alternatives but the are extremely expensive. Please see below. Gallagher 2/25/17 Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: Kent Olson <qtipf16@q.com<mailto:qtipf16@q.com>> Date: February 24, 2017 at 6:33:28 PM EST To: "Tom Gallagher, NY2RF" <tgallagher@arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>> Subject: Re: VE Mail Times Hi Tom; Wow, this is not good and will probably continue. I can't believe it's a one-time event, and with the Govt. hiring freeze, the Newington PO could be affected. I agree that this would be good to share with ODV as there may be some who are or may be getting some questions regarding the processing times. Enjoy your weekend! I'll be up at 4:30 to drive ~200 miles to a hamfest tomorrow morning. 73 Kent KAØLDG ________________________________ From: "Tom Gallagher, NY2RF" <tgallagher@arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>> To: "Kent Olson, KA0LDG, (Dir, DD)" <qtipf16@q.com<mailto:qtipf16@q.com>> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 3:49:04 PM Subject: VE Mail Times Kent: I followed up with Maria Somma concerning the delays we are experiencing with the return of VE packages from the field. I confirmed that over the past 30 days, the return time between senders and ARRL VE reached four weeks or more (as measured by the sender’s post mark and the received ARRL mark). This delay is entirely due to inadequate staffing at the Newington Post Officer, according to Post Master. However, the log jam broke on Wednesday and on Thursday we received and processed more than 1,000 licenses, accounting for 90% of the new licenses issued that day. In fact, the log jam accounts for the budget variance we have noted in VE’s financials, so it explains why VE revenues were off in January. I want to advise you, however, that there is no assurance from the Post Office that we will not experience a similar situation again. However, as we are now aware of the problem, we can take whatever steps are necessary to call it to the PO’s attention when we suspect that mail is being delayed. You may wish to share this with the PSC. I imagine Maria has shared it with the VEC system wide. Unless you object, I thought I would advise ODV since there may be complaints arriving from members. Thanks, Tom Tom Gallagher – NY2RF Chief Executive Officer ARRL Headquarters ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio™ 860 594 0404 cell 704 907 7158 tgallagher@arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>