[20272] in APO-L
Re: bulk mailings
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bob Amick)
Sat Mar 6 19:38:24 1999
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 17:38:31 -0500
Reply-To: Bob Amick <amick@SPOT.COLORADO.EDU>
From: Bob Amick <amick@SPOT.COLORADO.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <19990306234852.17144.qmail@hotmail.com>
Chris,
You might want to consider an e-mail list-server, since many
folks have e-mail. It is probable that your school has a
list-server or you can find a private company who will host
your alumni list for little or no cost.
Similarly, you might want to set up a website for the alumni association
which can maintain information for the association such as calendars
for events/activities, alumni news, etc.
Community Networks often will host these at no charge for non-profit
organizations as well.
Or, it may be that you can get your school ITS to host a
website for your alumni association as well.
If you choose the bulk mail route, you can get a bulk mail
permit for non-profit organizations, but each mailing usually
has to have a minimum of 200 pieces (check with your post office
for particulars). However the rates are considerably better than
for first class mail. You will have to pay a one time fee for a
non-profit bulk mail permit. You may also want to see if
your school mailing services office has a bulk mail permit and if
they may be able to send your mailings out for you under
their permit. Similarly, the local Scout Council may have a
bulk mail permit they will allow you to use; however any mailings
have to be done by them from their local post office under
permit guidelines. You will need to pre-sort your mailings by zip code
and bundle them accordingly.
You may want to get computerized mailing labels for each subscriber to save
time addressing. Several formats for mailings are acceptable:
you can fold the mailing in half and staple it; or you can put it
in envelopes, but either way, the bulk mail permit number must be
imprinted where the stamp would normally go in a box with text that
reads something like "non-profit organization, permit number XXX."
Bulk mail is subject to postal rules for delayed delivery, which
means that they have up to three or four weeks to deliver the
mail; although sometimes it gets delivered rather quickly, so
you will need to take that into account if you have time-critical
information you want your alums to receive. For urgent information,
pre-sorted first class mail is less expensive than regular first
class, and will get there just as fast as regular first class.
Bob Amick, Advisory Chair
Gamma Theta Chapter
University of Colorado at Boulder
At 03:48 PM 3/6/99 PST, you wrote:
>Hello. Our chapter is trying to create an alumni association, and we
>have a large list of alumnus, so our next step is bulk mailing. Does
>anybody have the guidelines to do this, or how much it costs? Do
>Non-profit organizations get any sort of discount price based on their
>non-profit status?
