eMail, Facebook No Match for a Card in the Mail Says Retiring Du Quoin Postmaster
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[You can eMail. You can text on your cell phone. You can Facebook™, You can Twitter™. You can fax, phone or skype.
But, there's NOTHING like getting a handwritten birthday card, a "thank you" or a letter from home with a stamp on it in the mail.
You didn't have to spend $1,200 on a computer, modem and router or another $165 for a printer and $300 for a desk to set it all on. You just need 10 minutes and a 47-cent stamp and a walk from your home or car to a mailbox.
For that reason retiring Du Quoin postmaster Jim Davis believes the future of the U.S. Postal Service is secure--but changing--because our culture is changing.
It's a world that's a far cry from 1969 when Jim Davis took father-in-law Sylvester Ritter's advice and took the test for a job at the post office. Those were the wild and wooly days of political patronage when how you voted meant as much as what you knew about the mail.
For Davis, who has a business background, he retires with three postmaster assignments in Steeleville, Pinckneyville and Du Quoin to his credit and a lifetime of friendships because of his gift as a great communicator and his attention to service.
"We are the one federal agency that touches peoples' lives daily," says Davis, who was the focus for more than 40 colleagues, family members and friends at a Du Quoin post office reception Tuesday.
"People complain every time a first class stamp goes up two cents, but every time the price of gasoline goes up a penny it costs the postal service another million dollars a year. Except for the military, we have the largest fleet of vehicles in the world," he says.
UPS and FedEx can't touch what the postal service spends on equipment to serve its customers.
"I never look at it as someone complaining about their mail. I look at it as people helping me do my job," says Davis, a Du Quoin native who fortunately for all of us served the last five years of his career back in his hometown. "People just need to vent."
In fact, the postal service has an outstanding record of service and delivery and has the ability to track their work.
People talk about the cost of postage, but the national average on private stamp purchases is only $15.10 a year per person. That gets the regular monthly bills paid and some cards and letters sent.
"The postal service is mandated to at least break even and still provide service on a daily basis," he said. The service keeps looking for ways to do that. He said the time may be here to drop Saturday delivery--although postal employees don't relish having their hours changed. "A lot of businesses are no longer open on Saturday. I have delivered mail to homes on Monday where the mail was still in the box from Saturday."
He said it may "make sense" to end Saturday delivery because of the savings and because of our lifestyles.
Davis says our culture is changing. Grandmothers don't send you a handmade quilt very often. They send you gift cards. You pay bills online because. for many, you forgot to write out the check and mail it.
Jim's career began in 1969 in Pinckneyville as a part-time flexible clerk carrier. Woodrow Herrmany was the postmaster. You learn the entire postal system that way. He worked there for 14 years, moving to Pinckneyville in 1971. His home is still there. He served as postal supervisor from 1983 until 1998, then was appointed postmaster in Steeleville from 1998 to 2001, Pinckneyville postmaster between 2001 and 2007 and postmaster in Du Quoin between then and now.
Obviously the technology has become "mind boggling" with much of the local mail sorted off-site. Most of the day's mail goes "straight to the street."
The postal service, its employees and certainly Davis command a lot of respect. A town's postmaster is the federal government's representative in a community. It is the hallmark or Holy Grail of service to a community and Davis still believes that.
Like all things, the postal service has to be about marketing and new ideas, but at its core is the same commitment and discipline and attention to the law and the detail as much as it ever was. He's the last word--certainly--but has always told his staffs. "I'm not your boss. We work together." That has made all the difference.
Jim has always taken his oath of office seriously. It was framed and has hung on his office wall in the Du Quoin post office during his tour here. It was home. He worked Monday night until midnight with his son to change some wiring and software on a new system. Tuesday morning his grandchildren hid under his desk and surprised him during our interview. Jim made 62832 his second home and he took care of it well.