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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, March 13, 1980
Page 7
A Typical Example
Let's illustrate how a letter or WATS call would be fulfilled in terms
of time:
1. A letter request for the Crime booklet is mailed to us on the
first day of the month, say a Wednesday.
2. It takes three to five days to reach us, arriving on Sunday, the
5th. Or, in the case of a WATS call, we receive Lt on the 5th.
3. The request is processed into the computer usually the same day
or the next. In this example, since our MPC offices are closed
on the weekend, the processing could take place on a Monday or
Tuesday, the 6th or 7th.
4. In order to save additional postage costs, we often try to mail
in bulk shipments (sending a certain number of booklets at a time
to get volume rates). This is achieved by generating address
labels from the computer only once a week, usually Sunday night.
Out of necessity this requires that requests be held from two
days to a week, depending on whether the request letter arrives
at our offices the Friday or previous Sunday before our "label
pull." In this example, the Crime booklet could be addressed and
mailed about Tuesday, the 14th.
NOTE: Even though booklets are frequently held a few days for
these bulk rate mailings, tests have shown that travel
time is shorter, and these bulk parcels will often arrive
at their destination city in as short a time as booklets
which are mailed individually.
5. Now, the Crime booklet in our example will take about two or
three weeks (normal U.S. Postal Service delivery time) before it
arrives to the person asking for it. In our example here, it
would be near the end of the month, or during the first week of
the month.
All in all, it would have taken four to five weeks from the time the
person wrote to us until his literature arrives. We realize that this
is not ideal, but it is unavoidable.
It would be optimum if all our literature could be sent via the faster
route of First Class mail--rather than Third Class or being held for even
lower bulk-rate mailing. However, postage which now costs the Work
over $1,000,000 a year would skyrocket to over $5,000,000 per year if
we were to try to mail all literature First Class! As you can under
stand, costs are simply prohibitive.
NOTE: We are able to send occasional literature requests First Class
to people whom you contact in ministerial visits. Just have the
people use the special yellow envelopes and request cards--or have
them tell us you want them to receive certain booklets by First
Class mail. (Normal literature requests, however, will come Third
Class.)