A year ago, I attended the Pitney Bowes Mail Management Seminar at the Aberdeen Woods facility in Peachtree City, Georgia. If you were able to read the resulting article ("Southern Hospitality," September-October 1999), you know how impressed I was by that experience. As a result of the knowledge gained from the basic seminar, I kept thinking about returning for the advanced version, which is billed as a much more thorough and in-depth version of the basic seminar. Being a big believer in the value of training, I was itching to check out the "top of the line."

A Good Investment

Although I cringed a bit at the $995 (plus airfare) price tag, I reminded myself that you needn't pick up much of a new idea to save considerable money when it comes to mailing operations. I figured that even if I learned nothing from the advanced seminar, what I had picked up from the basic one would more than justify the expenses involved. So, based on these premises, I decided to go ahead and enroll. I needn't have worried!

Nothing's Changed

The first thing that came back to me was the overall efficiency of the operation. From registration simple and no hassle to ground transportation upon arrival at the Atlanta airport to accommodations at a first class resort hotel the Aberdeen Woods staff is first-rate the southern hospitality was definitely still there.

At the time of my last visit, I had just started a diet and this is not the place to be unprepared when trying to lose a few pounds these folks know how to treat you and especially feed you. The food at every meal and all meals are provided is absolutely outstanding, both in variety and quality. But this time I was ready for them. Although the food and desserts were too tempting to pass up, I did take advantage of the hotel's complementary bicycle availability for a couple of nice long rides around some of the many picturesque Peachtree City golf cart/bike paths (over 100 miles of paved paths) each evening. Although the diet took a bit of a hit, unlike the last trip, I wasn't completely overwhelmed.

Now for Our Purpose

The seminar teaching cadre of Don Archer, national sales manager, Postal Education, Pitney Bowes, and Denny Durst, national instructor, Postal Education, Pitney Bowes, are outstanding. Both have the knowledge, experience and presentation skills needed to run an effective seminar.

We covered an awful lot of information in just two days. Topics included postal reform, job descriptions, U.S. Postal Service and electronic commerce, hiring quality personnel, negotiating with carriers, USPS automation, mail center security and mail bombs, list management, reply mail options, information sources and measuring productivity.

The seminar included two additional in-depth presentations. One on disaster recovery by Terry Hill, production manager of Pitney Bowes Business Services, and a great participant presentation on merging print and mail by Cindy Larson, director of Printing and Mailing Services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

Hard Savings Not Just Theory

There are tons of great operational as well as great money-saving ideas, not only in the postage area but also in the management and operations areas. It really is quite a handful of information to cover in just two days. The action is fast and furious, and it keeps your attention there's not much time for daydreaming. Keeping a sharp pencil handy is a must.

For example, one of Denny Durst's comments during an exchange with one participant on Express mail has already saved our operation significantly. We were discussing who provides the best Express service for the buck when he mentioned that you should reevaluate the use of next-day services on Friday very few get it until Monday anyway and second- or even third-day service would do just as well. I had never really given it any thought. We just shipped our overnight express everyday, five days a week. We've already saved the cost of the seminar with just that little tidbit.

There was a lot of expertise represented in this seminar. Just sitting around talking about mail with other professionals is valuable add the structure and presentation expertise of this staff and you can pick up quite a bit of valuable information pretty quickly.

The class size of 13 enrollees from various types of mailing operations made information exchanges excellent. It provided a good variety of expertise, encouraged participation, yet made the sessions manageable. On top of all the ideas put forth by the seminar staff, just the knowledge gained from participant exchanges and conversation during the breaks and meals more than sparked enough money-saving ideas to offset the cost many times over.

Now I Want More

To say I got my money's worth would be an understatement. My only regret is that there aren't more of these types of seminars designed specifically to better prepare mail managers for the many facets of running today's mailing operations. Now, I have to convince Don Archer and the Pitney Bowes "powers that be" to develop the Advanced Mail Management Seminar II.

You really can't over-do the training aspect of our job. When it comes to training more is better!

For more information on any of the Pitney Bowes Mail Management Seminars, please visit the Pitney Bowes Web site at www.pitneybowes.com.