Donna Jackson Bennett, Secretary
980 Osbon Drive
Aiken, SC 29801
Work: 803-279-2375 or 803-279-0744
Cell: 803-215-1168
E-mail: dajackson33@aol.com
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November 29, 2009
Introducing to my Brothers and Sisters of the South Carolina State Association of Letter Carriers my new baby Girl, Presley Star Bennett!
Pressley is the daughter of Chris and Donna born on Sept. 28, 2009 at 3:21 p.m. She weighted 5 lbs. 15 ozs. and she was 19
inches long. She was in perfect health and more beautiful than I ever could have imagined! We are truly blessed by a pure gift
from God. I wondered throughout my pregnancy what she would look like. When I first laid eyes on her....I can't explain the
feeling. It was though God mad her to look like an Angel from Heaven's above. God is so good!!! We all are doing great.
I thank you all who have asked and called to check on our status. We love you all!
Now let's get down to business. I want to give a quick status on the MIARAP in our Branch. So far we haven't lost any routes.
They have only done the 2 Aiken offices which are level 22 offices. We did lose any routes there either. We represent 11 offices
so I will get you posted on the rest of the offices as the numbers come in. But so far, so good.
We had our Strategic Planning Session in Columbia on November 7th. I will have to say that I think it was a great success and
I believe our members that came learned a lot. I was responsible for the Secretary Training. Just in case you could not send your
branch secretary, I will give you a quick recap of the points I went over.
Make sure you have knowledge of the requirements as outlined in the NALC Constitution, Branch By-Laws, Federal Laws,
LMDRA (Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act), and the Internal Revenue Code.
monies they are paying toward dues. Don't assume these monies are correct. Always check the dues amount to make sure
what you branch pays is correct. There can't be any errors! For example, if your current dues are $22.21 and someone
transferred from Florida that use to pay $24.24 and is still paying $24.24, you may would have to contact the National Office
to correct the amount. Check your dues sheet every time you receive one.
Check dues for retired members through annuity withholding every calendar quarter.
Per Capita tax call for all members who pay their dues through direct payments to the branch are done seim-annually in June
and December.
Check dues for the purpose of individuals who have our Health Benefit Plan are done annually in November.
Keep in mind if you do not have any of the above you will not receive anything from the National Office.
The National sends branches dues checks every 2 weeks with a computer listing of the members names for all active
members. You may get a physical check or some of you now have direct deposit. Regardless you will get a receipt
showing the amount of ues. If you get a check, verify the check amount and deposit it into your checking account. As I
stated above, please verify the dues amount is correct. Make sure all dues amounts are correct from new members,
transfers, and termination of membership. If there are no dues collected, the branch must collect the dues from the
members.
local dues, you will not receive a quarterly listing or check because they require no dues reimbursement.
If yo do receive local dues from retirees, then do the following: deposit and verify the dues. Check for incorrect amounts.
If OPM could not make the deduction for any reason, the reiree will appear on a separte sheet entitled "unsucessfulls".
The check must match with the member and inform the membership department of the member's status. The membeship
department will send a bill to the branch for the per capita tax due from the retired member.
for their national and state per capita tax. There will also be a member roster with 2 copies of a computer listing showing the
names of all of the branches direct paying members and the amount of per capita tax billed to each. One list is for Life
Members and the other is for members wiht missing dues deductions. Once you receive these rosters, branches should
verify, correct and pay if necessary.
Well I know this is a lot of information. I stop here and continue this topic in my next article. Happy Holidays to Everyone!
Donna Bennett Jackson, Secretary
SCSALC
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“Chatting it up with your Secretary”
July 9, 2009
Hello Brothers and Sisters! I just wanted to give everyone an update on what is going on with me and other things
within my office. First, I want to apologize for not writing in a while. I think most of you found out I was pregnant at
the State Convention. To say it’s been a rough ride is an understatement!!!! I have been incredibly sick and trying to
work in this heat hasn’t made it any easier. However, I know in the end it will be well worth what I have been going
through both emotionally and physically. My husband and I found out I was pregnant at the beginning of February and
we were both in shock and ecstatic. We have been trying for years now; so when the home test came back positive I
literally almost fainted because we honestly never thought this day would come. It’s truly a miracle. I am currently about
28 weeks and so far everything has come back that the baby is fine and doing well. I had a sonogram a few weeks ago and
they are saying it’s a girl. They did “guess” but for now we are calling her a “her” and trying to nail down a name. I am due
October 5th. Next Friday July 17th, I will be doing a 4D sonogram and I guess we will be getting a confirmation on this bundle
of joy! We are thrilled and ask for all your prayers during this time for my husband and I. I will keep you all posted on other baby news.
I am currently the Local Contact person with my office regarding the MIARAP adjustments. Our branch currently represents 11
offices and we have only officially done 2 out of the 11. Those 2 offices were the two Aiken offices. In each office we lost one route.
Of course this isn’t good news; however, I know it could have been much worse. I am the junior carrier in my office, but there was a
vacant route in my office so they did not touch my route. I will start the smaller offices next week and our other big office in North
Augusta. I feel confident that the loss will continue. The reality is that those who thought our jobs were safe, this is a true reality
check! Once I know more over the course of the next couple of weeks of the overall process of our offices I will let you all know.
I would like to remind everyone that there are things we can do as letter carriers to help pave our futures. We can continue to support
and promote customer connect. This program has generated millions for USPS and we must use this tool to help ensure future revenue
for the Postal Service. Those of you who are still not contributing to COLCPE I highly recommend you start NOW! We have a lot of
issues out there and your support in COLCPE will help to secure our financial stability on the legislative front. Finally, I ask that you talk
to your customers. They are the ones that are currently keeping us alive. Ask them to mail and use our services when shipping. One
thing I do on my route is leave my customers a personal little thank you note. When I pull more than 3 or so letters out of their box to mail,
I take the time to thank them for their business. I think it’s important to let our customers know that we do care about them and do appreciate
them keeping us in business. I ask that you all take the time to thank our customers for keeping us employed!
Finally, I would like to give a shout out to our President Bill Young. I know he’s been officially retired now for a few days, however, he’s
still President Young to me. I want to thank him for his 40+ years of service to USPS and the NALC. Thank you President Young for standing
up for carrier’s rights and beliefs. I appreciate everything you have done to help pave the road for our new President. Your contributions
and dedication to this great organization will forever be part of history. You accomplished some huge hurdles while serving and I thank you
from the bottom of my heart. You have left a mark on the NALC that will never be forgotten! Thank you President Young. It was an honor
and pleasure to say that I got to serve under President Young. To our new President Fred Rolando good luck and thank you for taking over
the “reins” of the NALC!!! Until next time…I hope you all have a nice summer and please stay cool in this heat.
Sincerely,
Donna Bennett, Secretary
South Carolina State Association of Letter Carriers
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Hello everyone!
I hope and trust you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We have Christmas around the corner. Please be careful! The crowds are already crazy.
I hope you all have a safe, happy, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!I thought I would talk about some news within own Branch (1569, Aiken, SC). First,
we have been fighting some new territory that is clearly on a city route. We were waiting on the decision on if this territory was going to be rural or city.
We knew from the beginning it should have been city, however, you know how that goes when you start thinking. The Post Office made the decision to
give it to the rural carriers, and then guess that they did? You guessed right…they contracted it out! Yes. The contract was signed on 10/24/08, two days
after the National Memorandum was signed. Management, we believe, intentionally assigned this new territory to rural since they do not have any protection.
Management thinks they are smart. Well aren’t they? Ha! Well anyways we have filed two separate grievances. We filed one on the contracting out and the
other on not extending city delivery service. I think we have an excellent chance since our City 11 delivers literally on top of this new subdivision with no
rural carriers in sight. I just thought I would share management’s new game plan to get around the new memorandum.
Yall please keep us on the prayer chain for this one, because one day there will be a lot of deliveries in this new sub-division.
Let’s see. What else is going on? Well currently as of the beginning of December we are waiting on the figures for our routes in all of Branch 1569.
They are adjusting, from what we understand, all routes in the South Georgia District. We were told that all of these changes would be implemented by
January 16, 2008. I have looked over the packet that was sent from Judy’s office on the new interim adjustment process. I suppose it has it pros and cons.
I don’t know about you guys, but we are getting slammed with mail. So I thought if some of these routes get added on too, they are going to be in bad shape
for a while until the volumes slows back down. Hopefully the volumes stay up!!! You never know what the future holds. I haven’t seen all the figures, but I really don’t think
we are going to end up that bad. I know when I first heard about using the months of May and September, I was like “we are in trouble”! However, I really don’t think it is
going to be that bad, especially for the carriers doing their jobs correctly. We shall see though in a few months. I will keep you all posted on our final results which should
be within a few weeks. Remember, if you were not on that route in those months; don’t forget to mention your concerns and problems in the consultation process. I urge
all of you to get with your shop steward if you have any questions.
Finally, I wanted to say change has come. Starting next month we will have a new President leading our great Nation. I personally know not everyone was for
Obama; however, it’s a done deal now. I am asking you to be patient, have faith, stay positive, and most importantly respect our Commander in Chief. I honestly believe
that together as Americans we can be united once again and crawl out of this crunch. Trust me. I know exactly how you all feel. This crunch is affecting me too. All I can
do is be patient and have faith that this Country will be where we are supposed to be. We will rise again as Americans. We will fix our economy. We will continue our fight
against terrorism. We will fix our environmental issues. We will get health care to our Americans who need it. We will continue to fight for good education for all our children.
We will do what this country had done for centuries. We will be one Nation under God with liberties and justice for all. May God Bless America and all City Letter Carriers.
In Solidarity,
Donna Jackson Bennett