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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 12, 1985
PAGE 5
UPDATE FROM MAIL PROCESSING
Worldwide Mail Counts Available for the First Time
With the assistance of the international offices, we are now able to obtain
current worldwide mail counts each month. Heretofore, it was nearly impos
sible to get a complete picture. But now, with the help of the computer, we
can do this on a consistent and regular basis.
We were pleased to discover that in the first five months of this year an
other new all-time record was set. A total of 3.8 million letters and cards
were received worldwide. The U.S. accounted for two-thirds or 2.5 million
pieces.
Worldwide mail counts for the January-May period of the past four years are
shown below:
Year
U.S.
Rest
of World
Worldwide
1982
1.6 million
0.8 million
2.4 million
1983
1.5 million
0.9 million
2.4 million
1984
1.9
million
1.2 million
3.1 million
1985
2.5 million
1.3 million
3.8
million
Decline in
Postal Returns Saves
�45,000
Although our incoming mail is breaking all records, the postal return cate
gory has dropped substantially. This has saved the Church a considerable
amount of money.
When The PLAIN TRUTH cannot be delivered, the post office sends a postal re
turn, which notifies us that the person has moved and, when possible, in
cludes his new address. Now, because of a recent change in regulations,
magazines like The PLAIN TRUTH must be forwarded for a period of 60 days be
fore the postal return is sent. Thus, a subscriber continues to receive the
magazine and is given more time to notify us of his change of address.
Through May of this year, we received 138,947 postal returns, which was 52%
below the same period last year (292,039). Since we are charged 30 cents
for each postal return, this decrease in undelivered magazines has saved
over $45,000.
Surprising Number of Teenagers Now Contacting God's Church
An increasing number of our letters and calls are from young people. Many
indicate a remarkably mature interest in and understanding of the things of
God. Faced with a frightening future, they are finding hope in our message
of God's purpose and plan for mankind. Following are a few letters we re
ceived recently:
I would like to thank you for having such a great magazine. You
couldn't imagine how much it has affected my life, and that of my
brother. My brother picked it up at a store for the fun of it,
but once we finished reading it from cover to cover, we realized
it wasn't a fun magazine.