In a public forum with collectors, acting Stamp Services chief Mary-Anne Penner was told that collectors need to be better educated about what stamps are available, and what collectors want when buying stamps. Penner replied that that is one of the top goals in 2016 for Lori Mazzone, who is now in charge of products and exhibitions for Stamp Services.

“We recognize the fact that training is needed,” Mazzone said. However, actual sales in post offices come under the Retail department, not Stamp Services. Penner says she is working with the VP in that area.

Penner also floated the possibilities of single-stamp sales and soakable stamps.

For the past year or so, post offices have been allowed to trade stamps with each other.

One of the first changes she made upon becoming acting director of Stamp Services, Mary-Anne Penner said, was dropping the phrase “limited edition” from marketing and promotion for USPS philatelic products. To her, a “limited edition” is in small quantities and probably sequentially numbered.

“We need to have stamps that we can sell singly, and there will be [some] in 2016,” said acting U.S. Postal Service Stamp Services chief Mary-Anne Penner in a public forum with collectors at APS StampShow 2015 in Grand Rapids.

In a public forum with collectors, acting Stamp Services chief Mary-Anne Penner said her department is looking at producing more soakable stamps. The collectors applauded. She cautioned that it won’t be every issue, and there won’t be huge numbers of these stamps.

In a public forum with collectors, acting Stamp Services chief Mary-Anne Penner revealed that the USPS now only works with two “security” printers: Sennett and Ashton-Potter. CCL is no longer one of the contractors for stamp printing.

[press release]
Canada Post Proposes 2016 Postage Rates

Canada Post is proposing to increase postage rates in 2016 as declining mail volumes continue to have a significant impact on its financial situation.

Canada Post proposes to increase the postage rate for Domestic Lettermail^TM items weighing 30 grams or less when purchased in a booklet, coil or pane to $0.90 from the current rate of $0.85. The price of a single stamp would remain $1.00. The rate change would take effect on January 11, 2016 and replace rates that will have been in effect for 21 months.

Lettermail volumes have been declining for almost a decade. In 2014, Canada Post delivered 1.4 billion fewer pieces of Domestic Lettermail than in the peak year of 2006. Some of the biggest declines have occurred in 2015, accelerating the erosion of Canada Post’s core business. As mail volumes fall, the number of addresses served also rises every year, affecting Canada Post’s cost of doing business.

The Corporation is taking every action necessary to secure postal service for all Canadians and to avoid becoming a drain on taxpayers. It is proposing these new postage rates to help achieve its long-standing mandate of remaining financially self-sufficient.

Canada Post estimates the average Canadian household purchases fewer than two stamps a month, while the typical small business purchases fewer than 250 stamps per year.

Canadians can avoid the cost increase by purchasing Permanent^TM stamps at the current rate of $0.85 in advance of the proposed rate changes coming into effect. Permanent or “P” stamps always retain their value and are valid postage regardless of when they were purchased.

Canada Post is also proposing to increase rates for other domestic Lettermail, U.S. and international Letter-post items and Domestic Registered Mail^TM.

The rate changes are one of several actions the Corporation is taking to achieve financial self-sufficiency. In December 2013, Canada Post announced its Five-point Action Plan to transform its business and preserve postal service for all Canadians. As part of the Plan, Canada Post introduced a new tiered pricing structure for Domestic Lettermail that provided discounts to customers who purchase stamps in booklets, coils or panes.

The current proposals were published July 11, 2015 in the Canada Gazette Part I.

Maybe that mailman who landed his gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol lawn was ahead of his time!

The Postal Service is looking at suppliers for its next generation of delivery trucks — and one of the proposals is for an electric truck that doubles as a drone launcher.

That bid has already made the first cut, so who knows?

There’s more on the story at The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The photo is from the University of Cincinnati, which is working with The Workhorse Group on the electric van and Horsefly Drone.

Updated April 22nd: Now confirmed by the USPS.

Career postal employee Mary-Anne Penner will be the next manager of the U.S. Postal Service’s Stamp Services department, which develops, designs and produces the agency’s postage stamps.

Penner’s Linked In profile picture is shown here.

The story was first reported by Bill McAllister in Linn’s stamp News, It was then confirmed from another source by The Virtual Stamp Club.

According to Penner’s Linked In profile, she has worked for the USPS her entire career, starting as a clerk and carrier in the Washington, DC, area in 1984. She moved into management in 1987, and has now been Manager, Strategic Account Analystics (National) for four years.

During that period, she says, she had three “detail” (temporary) assignments: Manager, Stamp Development; Chief of Staff (Stamp Services & Corporate Licensing); and Social Media Operations Team.

On Linked In, Penner says ” I am responsible for leading a team who can identify trends, and recommend changes to retain revenue and improve service, reduce operational costs, and grow products and services.”

Linn’s says members of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee were informed of Penner’s selection at the panel’s meetings earlier this month. There is no official confirmation yet from the USPS.

Penner succeeds Cindy Tackett, the interim manager of Stamp Services, who is retiring next month after 42 years with the USPS. There has been no official confirmation of that, either.

On Tuesday, February 24th, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved  the U.S. Postal Service’s request to raise some postal rates, effective April 26, 2015. The PRC press release:

A third federal appeals court has ruled that sculptor Frank Gaylord is entitled to a royalty of more than half a million dollars on the U.S. Postal Service’s use of a photograph of his sculpture on a 2003 stamp.

The USPS paid the photographer for the picture of the Korean War Veterans Memorial, but not Gaylord.

Gaylord did not seek a percentage of stamps sold and actually used for postage, but only of stamps sold to collectors. The courts figured that revenue was $5.4 million, “which was almost pure profit” and awarded Gaylord 10% of that amount, or $540,000 “plus prejudgment interest,” which one online law publication says brings the total to $570,000.

Gaylord, now 89, first brought his suit in 2006.

The USPS has never agreed to a per-stamp royalty, but instead paid flat fees to artists and photographers. However, the three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals said on Wednesday, February 4, 2015, the sculpture was the best choice for commemorating the sacrifices of Korean War Veterans, and the USPS “would have agreed to a per-unit license.” Therefore a royalty was appropriate.

“The Postal Service knew, too, that past military-themed stamps had performed well with collectors, and it expected the Korean War Veterans Memorial stamp to sell well, as evidenced by its choice to print roughly 50% more of the Memorial stamps than was typical for its commemorative stamps,” says the opinion by Judge Richard Taranto.

The decision can be found at here. It was first reported by the National Law Journal, although registration is required to read it.  PatentlyO has a story written by University of Missouri law school professor. Linn’s Stamp News also has a story, by Bill McAllister.

There is no word on whether the USPS (or the Justice Department, on its behalf) plans to appeal further.