Green Cove Springs Post Office takes marketing postal products to a new level

Green Cove Springs Post Office Supervisor Rocky Bolin put his marketing talents to work to promote postal products comparable to the month of June.  Bolin partnered with other employees at this unit to create an impressive wedding display fit for a queen in the lobby.  Since June is the favorable month of weddings, a mannequin was dressed in a beautiful floor-length wedding gown complete with bouquet.  Included in the display is a ring bearer’s pillow, beautiful vase of white roses, photos of a wedding cake and white roses, and all the bells and whistles to set the stage for a perfect wedding.  This awesome display will assist in promoting the purchase of the wedding stamp.  Is that a wedding ring on the mannequin's finger?

Good News - Valdosta GA Post Office

Valdosta Post Office Postmaster William “Bill” Spangler and MPOO 2 Ron Jarrell recognized Tony Hall and Vanessa Plair for their recent promotions to Supervisor, Customer Services.   Mr. Hall began his postal career as a manual distribution clerk on Tour 1.  His last assignment, prior to being promoted to Supervisor Customer Services, was Lead SSA.  He also was honored with a 25-year service award.   Ms. Plair began her career with the postal service in 2005 as a distribution clerk at Valdosta Main Post Office.  Later, she accepted assignments as Sales, Service Associate and Passport Clerk.  Congratulations to both employees!

L-R:  Valdosta Postmaster Bill Spangler, Supervisor Tony Hall, MPOO Ron Jarrell

L-R:  Valdosta Supervisor Tony Hall, Postmaster Bill Spangler, Supervisor Vanessa Plair

L-R:  Valdosta Supervisor Tony Hall and Supervisor Vanessa Plair

Good News - Augusta Post Offices

Augusta Peach Orchard Station Manager Jeannette Harmon presented Sales, Service Associates Barbara Bynum and Hester Dunbar with gold stars for achieving 100% shops. This was Peach Orchard's 3rd consecutive 100% shop.  Congratulations!  Way to go!

L-R:  Sales, Service Associate Barbara Bynum, Station Manager
Jeannette Harmon, Sales, Service Associate Hester Dunbar.

Augusta Postmaster Paul Steele recognized clerk Valerie Dickerson with her 25 year Service Award and pin. Val's co-workers joined in congratulating her.

L-R:  Postmaster Paul Steele, Sales, Service Associates Pam Davis,
Valerie Dickerson, Gloria Brown and Carin Tichgelaar.

Augusta A/Manager James Lloyd and A/Supervisor Customer Services Johnny Fowler recognized Sales/Services Associates Carin Tichgelaar and Valerie Dickerson with gold stars for their recent perfect shops. The Augusta Main Office has had 8 consecutive perfect shops.

L-R:  A/Manager James Lloyd, Sales/Service Associates Carin Tichgelaar,
Valerie Dickerson, and A/Supervisor Johnny Fowler.

Good News - Jacksonville BMEU

Bulk Mail Tech Jan Powell was recognized with a Letter of Appreciation for her continued success in the Valdosta BMEU and detailed assignment to the JAX BMEU.  The Valdosta BMEU just recently passed with a 100% on an Area Audit, making this their fourth straight year of perfect 100s.  Over the past four years, sales have averaged $1,900,000 a year with 16 area audits and 8 district audits.

L-R:  Manager Valdosta-Northside Station Ken Stakich, A/BMEU Manager Amy Hicks,
Sales, Service Associate/Bulk Mail Tech Linda Combs, Bulk Mail Tech Jan Powell,
Valdosta Postmaster Bill Spangler, and MPOO 2 Ron Jarrell.

Bulk Mail Tech Jan Powell (sitting) and back up tech Linda Combs, both hard at work!!

Hardwick Postmaster educates customer

When a customer approached Hardwick Postmaster, Mary Brokenburr, for post office box rental information, the customer mentioned how a friend had been a victim of mail fraud.  Ms. Brokenburr seized the opportunity to discuss with and provide the customer with pamphlets and documents pertaining to consumer protection from mail fraud and fake sweepstakes.  The customer was very appreciative and indicated the information would definitely be put to good use.

Good News - Augusta GA Post Office

Augusta Postmaster Paul Steele was excited to present Main Office Sales/Services Associate Alfreda Hankanson with her first Gold Star for her 100% shop. Paul decided he couldn’t wait for someone to locate a camera and took a ‘selfie’ photo.  Co-worker Carin Tichgelaar was on hand to applaud the honors.  Congratulations, Alfred!  Good photo-op Paul!

L-R:  Augusta Postmaster Paul Steele, Sales/Services
Associates Alfreda Hankanson and Carin Tichgelaar.

Beaming with pride after being presented with her fourth consecutive Gold Star by Augusta Postmaster Paul Steele, Augusta Hill Station Sales/Service Associate Wilhelmenia Scott shared the momentous occasion with co-worker Sales/Services Associate Anita Turner.  This was the Hill Station's 12th consecutive 100% shop.

L-R:  Augusta Hill Station Sales/Services Associates Anita Turner, Wilhelmina Scott

Augusta Postmaster Paul Steele presents Peach Orchard carrier Raymond Pearson with his 30 year Service Award and Pin. Congratulations Ray!

Gulf Atlantic welcomes Dolores Seuwin

 

Since beginning her postal career, Dolores Seuwin has always cherished the opportunity to accept positions with increasing levels of responsibilities to broaden her knowledge of the Postal Service and to improve the quality of service provided to our customers.  When offered a detail assignment to Jacksonville FL, the “River City”, as Manager, Customer Service Operation, Ms. Seuwin wholeheartedly accepted.  Ms. Seuwin hails from the Suncoast District as Manager, Customer Services in Tampa, FL.
 

JAX Lake Forest Letter Carrier Frederick Sapp receives the Million Mile Award

L-R:  Lake Forest Letter Carrier Frederick Sapp, Postmaster Debra Gornik

NALC Branch 53 President Bob Henning and Postmaster Jacksonville Debra Gornik honored Lake Forest Station Letter Carrier Frederick Sapp with his Million Mile Award front of his co-workers.  “Congratulations to Carrier Sapp for 30 years of Safe Driving.  He’s taking care of himself, his customers, and the company by being a safe professional driver!” said Postmaster Gornik.  Lake Forest A/Manager C/S Toni Jackson said she was so excited about his award because he’s such a great employee and person, he cares about people. 

L-R:  NALC President Bob Henning, Letter Carrier Frederick Sapp, Postmaster Debra Gornik

Good News - Food Drive - JAX Kessler Creative

PHOTO – L-R:  Kessler employee Dina Kessler, Jax Mandarin Station Supervisor (A)
Donovan Wright & Kessler employee Charles Flantroy,.

Jacksonville Postmaster and Postal PCC Co-Chair, Debbie Gornik, invited the Jacksonville business community to extend themselves for the 2014 Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive by serving as a food donation drop site for their employees.  “I thought it would be an excellent idea to provide an alternate site for food donations in addition to leaving food at resident’s mail boxes.  In some cases, it would encourage individuals to donate more food; at work and at home,”  stated Gornik.  “There is such a tremendous need to help fill the void of basic food staples for so many households in our communities.”

Well,  Kessler Creative volunteered for the challenge.  Owners Keith and Dina Kessler made the decision to support giving back to the community by serving as a drop site for their employees’ non-perishable food donations.  A USPS container was provided and the Kessler employee team did an outstanding job filling up the container with 100 lbs. of food.  “We appreciate the support of Kessler Creative and value their participation in this partnership,” said Gornik.

Good News - Northeast FL PCC's 9th Annual Golf Tournament

Team Strategy – L-R:  Manager Post Office Operations (3) Ken Brantley, retired GFA District Finance Manager Paul Apolinario, Manager Post Office Operations (5) Keith Pierle, and Manager Post Office Operations (2) Ron Jarrell.

With over 90 golfers, the Northeast Florida Postal Customer Council (PCC) held its 9th Annual Richard J. McKillop Memorial Golf Tournament at St. John’s Golf & Country Club in St. Augustine, FL.  This annual event is sponsored by the NE FL PCC in honored of the third longest serving Jacksonville postmaster, Richard J. McKillop.

A slight rain drizzle kept the participants cool as they maneuvered the golf course.  PCC Industry Co-Chair Dan Lawlor, along with other board members, coordinated a truly awesome and grand event with great networking opportunities for the attendees.  “What was so exciting about this year’s tournament was the surprise visit of Spiderman in recognition of the Postal Service’s Spiderman promotion,” stated Jacksonville Postmaster Debbie Gornik.  “Spiderman was the star of the event.”   GFA District Retail Manager Robin Lang escorted Spiderman to pose for photos with the golfers and visitors alike.  It was never determined if this was the real Spiderman or an imposter because this Spiderman genuinely had the authentic poses and went so far as to cling to a golf cart.  Voila!  Many of the district leadership team and other postal employees joined the many participants from the business community to make this a successful event.

Spiderman w/volunteers – L-R:  Business Service Network Representative Rachelle Gilliard, Business Service Network Representative Karen Bridger, District Retail Manager Robin Lang, Spiderman, Customer Relations Coordinator (A) Dee Carter, PCC Treasurer/Executive Board Member  Becky Frank, and PCC Board Member Muriel Bremer.

JAX Lake Shore’s “Fantastic Four”

From left to right: Debbie Gornik, Postmaster, Richard Meyers , Leonard Graham ,
Ralph Cook, Pat West, and Charlotte Cutlip, Manager CS.

With an accumulation of 11,000 hours of sick leave and 148 years of service between them, Lake Shore's Fantastic Four has earned well-deserved accolades and recognition for maintaining outstanding excellent sick leave records.  "These employees have demonstrated their dedication to the United States Postal Service by providing continuous excellent service to our customers with remarkable commitment.  It is rewarding to recognize each of one them for their exceptional sick leave performance, " stated Jacksonville Postmaster Debbie Gornik.

Their respective sick leave hours and years of service are:  City Letter Carrier Ralph Cook - 33 yrs, 3000 sick leave hrs; City Letter Carrier Richard Meyers - 37 yrs, 2000 sick leave hrs; Distribution Clerk Angela "Pat" West - 37 yrs, 2500 sick leave hrs; and City Letter Carrier Leonard Graham, 41 yrs, 3500 sick leave hrs.  Kudos to the "Fantastic Four."

Savannah’s Oglethorpe Station Passport Fair

Seated- Taquara Johnson (PSE), Kimberly Lloyd-Scriven (204B), Patricia Anderson (SCS);
standing- Jacqueline Berger (SSDA), Harry Lemon (PSE)

Savannah Georgia, Oglethorpe Station - The temperature on the outside was in the low 70s and sunny, but on the inside it was sizzling hot during a recent passport fair.  The Saturday fair, which was held right after normal window hours, generated $3,150 in just two hours. The SSAs processed 96 regular passports and 22 renewal passports, generating $2,400. They also collected an additional $750 in passport photo fees to add to the grand total. 

“It was a golden opportunity to serve our customers and the employees did an excellent job,” said Savannah Postmaster Denise Holguin.

Seated – Taquara Johnson (PSE), Kimberly Lloyd-Scriven (204B), Fay Overton-Lucas (SSDA);
standing – Jacqueline Berger (SSDA), Harry Lemon (PSE)

Taquara Johnson (PSE), Harry Lemon (PSE)

Inverness FL Post Office appreciates Rural Carrier

The Inverness, Florida Post Office recently held a surprise Rural Carrier Associate (RCA) Appreciation Day.  Postmaster Kim Chandler suggested to the regular carriers that she wanted to recognize the RCAs in our office because of their hard work and dedication to do whatever it takes to get the routes covered every day.

When emergencies arise, this often times means that RCAs are moved to routes that they are totally unfamiliar with and yet, they willingly work together to get all the routes cased and delivered. 

In our office of 18 rural routes, we have 11 RCAs who cover all the routes.  The regular carriers all pitched in to provide red and blue goody bags for each RCA filled with cookies, crackers, juice, candy, a blueberry muffin and a little gift - all tied up with red, white and blue ribbon.  Each RCA received their own personalized "Thank You - We Appreciate You" card signed by all the regular carriers.

At a short meeting on Saturday April 12th, the regulars were able to express to the subs how thankful we are for them covering us on our usual days off, our vacation and sick days - and even those early morning wakeup calls at the last minute.  We told them we appreciate their willingness to cover a route that they’re not familiar with, even if they do so begrudgingly - we remember,  cause we were subs once too.  The regulars also appreciate their subs for putting up with the our little “quirks” and the way we like our cases — how we keep our calendars - how we like our boxholders cased (or not) — we know we’re quirky and we appreciate them for putting up with us too.

A group picture was taken and we have it hanging on our wall as a reminder… THE INVERNESS POST OFFICE LOVES AND APPRECIATES OUR RCAs and all they do!

Yulee FL and Marianna Post Offices have perfect RCE scores

The Retail Customer Experience (RCE) process gives the Postal Service an objective view of how well we are serving our customers.

Take a look at top performers in the Gulf Atlantic District from Yulee FL with 20 perfect scores and Marianna FL with 10 perfect scores.

"RCE is used as a real-time snapshot of customer interaction.  It is not just about the score," said GFA Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar.  "However, we have some outstanding achievement throughout our district."

The attributes measure in the Mystery Shopper program should become so commonplace to every day performance that if the program were to end tomorrow, it would not changed the customer's retail experience in any way.

Mystery shoppers record how long they spent in line, how the retail unit looked, how courteous the retail associates were ,and other details about their visit.
 

Jacksonville Postmaster Debra Gornik honored these Yulee FL employees: Contract Cleaner Karen Jenkins, Sales & Service Associates Bridgett Wagers, Joyce Powell, and Brenda Bradley, and  Postmaster Charles Prince, and Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar.

Celebrating Marianna FL's 10 straight perfect RCE scores are (left to right); Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar, Retail Specialist Lauren Leach, Clerk Debbie Calloway, Marianna Postmaster Randy Merritt, Clerk Amanda Hasty, Clerk Cerita Land (holding plaque), Supervisor Customer Service Sherry Raper, Manager Post Office Operations Todd Smith and Clerk Milinda Harrelson.

Tallahassee SSA publishes children's book

During a recent visit to the Lake Jackson Station in Tallahassee, Florida, Consumer and Industry Contact Manager Tony Joy was made aware of a new author on staff.

Sales and Service Associate Carrietta Spraggins wrote a children’s book recently published called “The Food Ate My Shirt.” Many of her co-workers have purchased it.  

Manager of Customer Services Tammy Hearn said, “We are all very proud of her and wish her much success.” 

The book is available at Amazon.com.

Jacksonville employees honored for service

Jacksonville - Pottsburg

Manager Customer Services Terry Atkinson (left) is congratulated for 40 years of service by Jacksonville Postmaster Debra Gornik.

 
Jacksonville

Clerk Gail Mills is honored for 30 years of service by Jacksonville APWU President Doris Orr-Richardson (left) and Jacksonville Postmaster Debra Gornik.

Sales and Service Associate Brenda Bradley is honored for 25 years of service by Jacksonville Postmaster Debra Gornik (left) and Yulee FL Postmaster Charles Prince.

Gainesville FL, Hinesville GA new Postmasters named

Matt Connelly has been named Postmaster of the Gainesville FL Post Office.
           
In his new position, Matt will oversee all operations for the Gainesville Post Office which includes four stations, 130 routes, 240 employees and 91,664 deliveries. 

Matt is leaving the position of Operations Specialist, HQ Field Performance Group East in Pittsburgh, PA which he has held for more than three years. 

He has more than 11 years of postal experience and has worked in the Western Pennsylvania District and  Postal Headquarters in Washington DC .

Throughout his postal career, he’s held various positions with increasing levels of responsibility, including City Carrier; Supervisor, Customer Service; Manager, Customer Service; and Operations Specialist, Headquarters. 

 Additionally, Matt has worked on several key assignments while at Headquarters.  Matt has  a degree in Marketing from the University of Pittsburgh.

Vanessa Bush (right), a 26-year Postal veteran, was recently promoted to  Postmaster of Hinesville Ga  by Acting Manager of Postal Operations Damita Gaskins.  Bush previous held assignments as Postmaster of Kingsland GA and Townsend GA, Officer In Charge Ludowici GA, and supervisor,  Brunswick Post Office.

Florida Butterflies travel by Priority Mail

Postmasters Deborah Adkins from Melrose FL and Steven Marcus from Keystone Heights FL partnered to represent the USPS at the 2nd Annual Greathouse Butterfly Farm Festival recently held in Earleton, FL.

"We thought this was a great opportunity to showcase the Postal Service's awesome products and special services to the public while also projecting a positive image of community participation," stated Adkins.

More than 80 vendors participated in this event.  The Greathouse Butterfly Farm specializes in raising and shipping worldwide 45-plus species of butterflies native to Florida.  The process includes putting the butterflies to sleep prior to shipping.

"Being a native of this area, I am a lover of butterflies and enjoyed the festival.  An additional bonus was seeing Postal representation at this event," said Wendy Fuller, EEO ADR Specialist.

From left to right: Isaiah Fuller (son of Emory & EEO ADR Specialist Wendy Fuller) visits with Melrose FL Postmaster Deborah Adkins, and  Keystone Heights FL Postmaster Steven Marcus  at the Greathouse Butterfly Festival in Earleton FL.

Orange Park FL Post Office welcomes Girl Scouts

Acting Station Manager Amy Escobar at the Ridgewood Post Office  in Orange Park, FL., was excited when the local Girl Scout (Blue Birds) called and requested a field trip to the Post Office.

The Troop Leaders and parents recently escorted a motivated and well-mannered group of young girls to the Ridgewood PO.

They were able to buy stamps, mail postcards, observe carriers casing mail, and find their own addresses on the carrier case. 

Amy commented, “ We also reserved an LLV for the group to examine . I think we have some future Postal workers among this group”.

Florida Post Offices show consistent customer service success

The Retail Customer Experience (RCE) process gives the Postal Service an objective view of how well we are serving our customers.

Taking a look at the top performers in the Gulf Atlantic District shows some very impressive results.

Callahan-Hillard FL is tied for the fourth best RCE scores in the nation with 33 straight perfect scores in a row.

Left to right: Acting District Manager Mary Sullivan, Sales and Service Associate Phyllis Silcox, Callahan Postmaster Steve Gray, Sales and Service Associate Debbie West, Jacksonville Postmaster Debra Gornik, Acting Jacksonville Area Manager Colores Seuwin and Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar.

"RCE is used as a real-time snapshot of customer interaction.  It is not just about the score," said GFA Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar.  "However, we have some outstanding achievement throughout our district."

The attributes measure in the Mystery Shopper program should become so commonplace to every day performance that if the program were to end tomorrow, it would not changed the customer's retail experience in any way.

Mystery shoppers record how long they spent in line, how the retail unit looked, how courteous the retail associates were ,and other details about their visit.

Here are other Florida offices Bonifay and Panama City Northside with 10 perfect scores in a row.

Bonifay FL

Left to right: Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar, Retail Specialist Lauren Leach, Sales and Service Associates Misty Erickson and Greg Williams, Manager Post Office Operations Todd Smith, and Supervisor Customer Services.Charles Munns.

Panama City Northside

Left to right: Marketing Manager Lucious Sumlar, Retail Specialist Lauren Leach, Station Mgr-Northside Station Chris Cox , Supervisor Customer Service Vanessa Peterson, Sales and Service Associates Chantrella Knox, Randy Holt, and Steve Martin, and Panama City Officer-in-Charge Brenda Johstono

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