Buffalo-Niagara PCC News Briefs

New Lead Executives in Western New York!

USPS has announced the appointment of Kathleen Burns as the new District Manager in Western New York, succeeding Kimberly Peters, and Robert Cintron as the Senior Plant Manager, succeeding Ms. Burns.

Kathleen Burns, District Manager, Western New York Kathleen Burns started her postal career in 1978 as a clerk in New Brunswick, NJ. As a 32-year postal veteran, she has accumulated extensive experience in both mail processing and customer service. Kathleen’s first management promotion was to the position of industrial engineer in Harrisburg, PA. She continued as an industrial engineer in Dayton, OH and also served as the Management Sectional Center (MSC) director, operational services. Additional management assignments include manager, distribution operations in Harrisburg; manager, Remote Encoding Center in Lehigh Valley, PA; manager, distribution network operations for the Eastern Area in Pittsburgh; manager, Pittsburgh Bulk Mail Center; and senior plant manager, Western New York District. In her position as Western New York District Manager, Kathleen is responsible for the collection, mail processing, and delivery of 1.4 billion pieces of mail annually and serving 2.8 million customers in a 12,000 square mile radius. She oversees 6000 postal employees and operations generating approximately $600 million in annual revenue. Kathleen is a graduate of Purdue University.

Robert Cintron, Senior Plant Manager, Western New York Performance Cluster Robert Cintron began his postal career in 1984 as a Rochester, NY distribution clerk. He accrued extensive postal experience, having held key managerial positions including: plant manager, Stamford, CT; manager Logistics and Distribution Center, manager in-plant support, operations support specialist and directory analysis specialist in Rochester, NY. His previous assignment was as the area manager in-plant support, Northeast Area in Hartford, CT.

As the Western New York District senior plant manager, Robert oversees three mail processing facilities, approximately 1500 employees and the handling of 1.4 billion pieces of mail annually. He is a graduate of the Postal Service’s Advanced Leadership and Processing and Distribution Management Programs, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Management.

USPS Officer Briefing

Coming in May (or June), we’ll be hosting a “lunch and learn” meeting with USPS Officer Megan Brennan. Ms. Brennan is the VP Area Operations, Eastern Area, to which the Western New York District now reports following an area realignment. We’re working out a date to coordinate with her availability, so stay tuned. We’ll be sending out the date and location information as soon as we’ve got confirmation. As with other USPS Officer briefings we have hosted, you should make every effort to attend because Ms. Brennan will be discussing all the key mailing industry issues that concern PCC members – especially the future of USPS - and the event gives you an opportunity to meet her, ask questions, and discuss your concerns.

MQC Training

Recently, some members have been asking about the availability of the Mail Quality Control (“MQC”) training program we’ve given before which certifies those who pass the exam as a “Mail Quality Specialist.” FYI, USPS is currently revising the entire training program because of the numerous changes in barcoding requirements (the “Intelligent Mail Barcode”), Move Update requirements, folded booklet and tabbing requirements, and other mailing requirements. USPS hopes to have the revised course ready for the National Postal Forum in mid-April. As soon as the course is ready, we’ll let you know our plans to offer it to interested members. Part of the PCC mission is to provide educational opportunities for members to become mailing professionals – and no matter what role you play in the industry, you benefit by becoming a USPS-certified MQC specialist!

The National Postal Forum

Speaking of the Forum, if you haven’t registered yet, you can visit the NPF web site (www.npf.org) for complete information on registration, hotel arrangements, course descriptions, and social events. This year’s Forum will be held April 11-14 in Nashville. It’s the biggest event of the year in the mailing industry, and we encourage you to attend. Our industry co-chair, Coleen Lacina from Pitney Bowes, will represent our PCC once again this year and will participate in the “PCC Leadership Track” of seminars. Not only will Coleen bring back some great ideas and “best practices” from other successful PCCs, she’ll also keep our award-winning PCC highly visible at the national level for the outstanding programs we conduct here.

Postmaster’s Town Hall Meeting

Postmaster's Townhall Meeting On February 17, Buffalo postmaster and Postal Co-Chair Jay Phelan hosted his first “Town Hall Meeting.” Industry Co-Chair Coleen Lacina from Pitney Bowes welcomed the crowd and introduced panelists that included Phelan, District Manager Kathleen Burns, Sr. Plant Manager Robert Cintron, and Manager of Customer Relations Laura Lewis. PCC members got a chance to hear briefings from each postal executive about delivery, mail processing, mailing requirements and national issues, and following that a lively question and answered period provided the kind of dialogue that keeps our PCC active and nationally-recognized.