Fwd: {{ruralcarriers@rootsweb.com}} NJ Postal and Rural News, Issue 27-NJ, V.1, Dec. 6, 2007 (List 12)
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From: <hier...@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, Dec 6, 2007 at 5:35 AM
Subject: {{ruralc...@rootsweb.com}} NJ Postal and Rural News, Issue 27-NJ, V.1, Dec. 6, 2007 (List 12)
To: Hier...@comcast.net
Cc: Ruralc...@rootsweb.com
NEW JERSEY POSTAL AND RURAL NEWS
Issue 27-NJ, Vol. 1 December 6, 2007 Thursday Hier...@comcast.net
Issues of the New Jersey Postal and NRLCA News are now posted and available on the following website: http://groups.google.com/group/rlc_onliners_pub?hl=en
DISCLAIMER: I have no affiliation with USPS or the NRLCA and as such any information that I pass on is unofficial and constitutes advice and/or suggestions for your consideration. You may be advised to double-check with official sources before depending on its use and while you are doing that ask why is it that someone without official contacts has this information and is passing it on and its not coming from official sources.
Note: These email messages are being sent to the entire NJ State Board and almost all of the senior stewards in New Jersey. There should be no concerns about this being done secretly.
**If you know any rural craft employee who would like to receive this dissemination, please send email address, and office of employment to Hier...@comcast.net.
**If you do not wish to receive these disseminations, please notify Hier...@comcast.net and request removal from dissemination list.
**Please address all comments, submissions, stories to Hier...@comcast.net and be sure to mark it as confidential or note if it is OK to share.
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
In Defense of Diane Irrgang and Joanne Connor
By John Amtsfield
Is there a more thankless union job in New Jersey than to be the editor of the NJRLCA state newspaper? On the board of the NJ RLCA are two former editors who have very definite ideas about what constitutes a good state union newspaper and are firmly convinced they can do it so much better.
Also you have eight board members, half a dozen appointed officers (chaplain, provident guild, insurance rep, legislative rep, PAC rep., historian, etc.) 14 senior stewards, district presidents, vice-presidents, secretary-treasurers and executive committee members, auxiliary officers, junior officers and convention delegates who are all required or supposed to submit articles for the newspaper which was published six times a year and is now only published four times a year.
When it comes time for a newspaper to go to press, few of the required officers submit articles for printing and even less of those supposed to do. If an article is submitted, it is often a very bland, milque toast article of little interest to any living person. With a long lead time for publication, the articles are often out of date or obsolete by the time they reach carriers.
This is the challenge that faces those who choose to be editor and it all has to be done by creating the page layouts, fitting to size for publication, filling blank spots, putting in accurate and correct contact information, trying against all odds to add interesting features and informative articles that will still be informative 4-5 weeks later, cajoling officers to submit articles that are better than a moment’s afterthought, making all of the arrangements with the printer, doing the galley prints and proofreading, and supervising the mailing.
In New Jersey, the editor does all this on an out dated computer with limited memory, no printer, no union internet access, no dedicated fax line for $300.00 per issue and 3 days of union time for each issue. Then once a newspaper is printed and distributed, there is no input from anyone. All of the board members and some of the senior stewards pick the newspaper apart as a spectator sport behind the editor’s back and savage the poor editor unmercifully. It is a regularly scheduled item that happens every single time, no matter how good the newspaper is. The president or some other sadist is then delegated to communicate all of the criticisms to the poor editor.
The NJ state board wants a totally non controversial newspaper with no criticism (all letter to the editor must be approved by the State Board and must be signed: a policy which given past retaliation ensures almost no letters to the editor), that is basically a commercial for the state officers and the state board. The perfect newsletter, just like PRAVDA!
Diane Irrgang, a dedicated and committed union representative who genuinely cares about rural carriers took on this hopeless, thankless task. She was probably a good choice since she was friends with a lot of the important board members. Like anyone just starting out, it took a little while before she got the knack of things; but, once she did, she was publishing a vibrant and interesting state newspaper. She turned out to be a great editor.
Unfortunately, she was putting too much information in the newspaper. State Board Members became increasingly upset that highlights of board meetings were a little too detailed, that secret information was being published to the membership such as written state board policies. Articles appeared that were interesting and at least borderline controversial. Well, the end result was that Diane Irrgang was fired as editor of the state newspaper, ironically for printing too much information.
When the issue of appointing a new state editor was raised, a board member had recruited a carrier who knew nothing of what the editor did by telling her that it was a snap. “You just have to put articles in order and take them to the printer, it’ll take no time at all and you get $300 an issue.” The NJ State Board confronted with a choice of two former editors who had printed excellent newspapers voted overwhelmingly to appoint a novice, Joanne Connor.
I know Joanne Connor, she is a very talented, very energetic and very committed rural carrier. She was my sub in Pennington and when I retired, she became a full time rural carrier. She is active in QWL/EI and is an academy trainer. I have seen a lot of very talented, energetic and committed rural carriers try to work to help rural carriers in my decades with the Postal Service and in New Jersey, I have seen so many embittered and disillusioned by the pettiness, the mendacity and the selfishness of the NJ State Union. Joanne Connor deserves far better.
She should not be used as a tool to simply publish the milk sop that the state officers want published. She should not be a tool for getting pictures of the state union officers sent out to all the carriers in New Jersey. She should not be used and abused simply because she wants to help rural carriers. If the State is going to pay $10,000-15,000.00 to send out a state newspaper; let it be something else then commercials for union official on the state level who are just advancing their own agenda. Let it be a beacon to the rest of the country (the newspaper goes to others outside the state) instead of an embarrassing tribute to state union officials who are basically getting the membership to pay for a dubious effort to put lipstick on pigs.
No more ten thousand dollar love letters from state officers to state officers that the membership gets. Diane Irrgang deserved far better and so does Joanne Connor.
RURALC...@ROOTSWEB.COM MAIL LIST.
FOR DISCUSSION OF POSTAL AND RURAL CARRIER RELATED SUBJECTS.
STEWARD CONTACTS
http://www.nrlca.org/stewards.html
NRLCA CONTACT INFO.
National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
Fourth Floor
1630 Duke Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3465
Phone: 703-684-5545
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to RURALCARRI...@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
From: <hier...@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, Dec 6, 2007 at 5:35 AM
Subject: {{ruralc...@rootsweb.com}} NJ Postal and Rural News, Issue 27-NJ, V.1, Dec. 6, 2007 (List 12)
To: Hier...@comcast.net
Cc: Ruralc...@rootsweb.com
NEW JERSEY POSTAL AND RURAL NEWS
Issue 27-NJ, Vol. 1 December 6, 2007 Thursday Hier...@comcast.net
Issues of the New Jersey Postal and NRLCA News are now posted and available on the following website: http://groups.google.com/group/rlc_onliners_pub?hl=en
DISCLAIMER: I have no affiliation with USPS or the NRLCA and as such any information that I pass on is unofficial and constitutes advice and/or suggestions for your consideration. You may be advised to double-check with official sources before depending on its use and while you are doing that ask why is it that someone without official contacts has this information and is passing it on and its not coming from official sources.
Note: These email messages are being sent to the entire NJ State Board and almost all of the senior stewards in New Jersey. There should be no concerns about this being done secretly.
**If you know any rural craft employee who would like to receive this dissemination, please send email address, and office of employment to Hier...@comcast.net.
**If you do not wish to receive these disseminations, please notify Hier...@comcast.net and request removal from dissemination list.
**Please address all comments, submissions, stories to Hier...@comcast.net and be sure to mark it as confidential or note if it is OK to share.
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
In Defense of Diane Irrgang and Joanne Connor
By John Amtsfield
Is there a more thankless union job in New Jersey than to be the editor of the NJRLCA state newspaper? On the board of the NJ RLCA are two former editors who have very definite ideas about what constitutes a good state union newspaper and are firmly convinced they can do it so much better.
Also you have eight board members, half a dozen appointed officers (chaplain, provident guild, insurance rep, legislative rep, PAC rep., historian, etc.) 14 senior stewards, district presidents, vice-presidents, secretary-treasurers and executive committee members, auxiliary officers, junior officers and convention delegates who are all required or supposed to submit articles for the newspaper which was published six times a year and is now only published four times a year.
When it comes time for a newspaper to go to press, few of the required officers submit articles for printing and even less of those supposed to do. If an article is submitted, it is often a very bland, milque toast article of little interest to any living person. With a long lead time for publication, the articles are often out of date or obsolete by the time they reach carriers.
This is the challenge that faces those who choose to be editor and it all has to be done by creating the page layouts, fitting to size for publication, filling blank spots, putting in accurate and correct contact information, trying against all odds to add interesting features and informative articles that will still be informative 4-5 weeks later, cajoling officers to submit articles that are better than a moment’s afterthought, making all of the arrangements with the printer, doing the galley prints and proofreading, and supervising the mailing.
In New Jersey, the editor does all this on an out dated computer with limited memory, no printer, no union internet access, no dedicated fax line for $300.00 per issue and 3 days of union time for each issue. Then once a newspaper is printed and distributed, there is no input from anyone. All of the board members and some of the senior stewards pick the newspaper apart as a spectator sport behind the editor’s back and savage the poor editor unmercifully. It is a regularly scheduled item that happens every single time, no matter how good the newspaper is. The president or some other sadist is then delegated to communicate all of the criticisms to the poor editor.
The NJ state board wants a totally non controversial newspaper with no criticism (all letter to the editor must be approved by the State Board and must be signed: a policy which given past retaliation ensures almost no letters to the editor), that is basically a commercial for the state officers and the state board. The perfect newsletter, just like PRAVDA!
Diane Irrgang, a dedicated and committed union representative who genuinely cares about rural carriers took on this hopeless, thankless task. She was probably a good choice since she was friends with a lot of the important board members. Like anyone just starting out, it took a little while before she got the knack of things; but, once she did, she was publishing a vibrant and interesting state newspaper. She turned out to be a great editor.
Unfortunately, she was putting too much information in the newspaper. State Board Members became increasingly upset that highlights of board meetings were a little too detailed, that secret information was being published to the membership such as written state board policies. Articles appeared that were interesting and at least borderline controversial. Well, the end result was that Diane Irrgang was fired as editor of the state newspaper, ironically for printing too much information.
When the issue of appointing a new state editor was raised, a board member had recruited a carrier who knew nothing of what the editor did by telling her that it was a snap. “You just have to put articles in order and take them to the printer, it’ll take no time at all and you get $300 an issue.” The NJ State Board confronted with a choice of two former editors who had printed excellent newspapers voted overwhelmingly to appoint a novice, Joanne Connor.
I know Joanne Connor, she is a very talented, very energetic and very committed rural carrier. She was my sub in Pennington and when I retired, she became a full time rural carrier. She is active in QWL/EI and is an academy trainer. I have seen a lot of very talented, energetic and committed rural carriers try to work to help rural carriers in my decades with the Postal Service and in New Jersey, I have seen so many embittered and disillusioned by the pettiness, the mendacity and the selfishness of the NJ State Union. Joanne Connor deserves far better.
She should not be used as a tool to simply publish the milk sop that the state officers want published. She should not be a tool for getting pictures of the state union officers sent out to all the carriers in New Jersey. She should not be used and abused simply because she wants to help rural carriers. If the State is going to pay $10,000-15,000.00 to send out a state newspaper; let it be something else then commercials for union official on the state level who are just advancing their own agenda. Let it be a beacon to the rest of the country (the newspaper goes to others outside the state) instead of an embarrassing tribute to state union officials who are basically getting the membership to pay for a dubious effort to put lipstick on pigs.
No more ten thousand dollar love letters from state officers to state officers that the membership gets. Diane Irrgang deserved far better and so does Joanne Connor.
RURALC...@ROOTSWEB.COM MAIL LIST.
FOR DISCUSSION OF POSTAL AND RURAL CARRIER RELATED SUBJECTS.
STEWARD CONTACTS
http://www.nrlca.org/stewards.html
NRLCA CONTACT INFO.
National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
Fourth Floor
1630 Duke Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314-3465
Phone: 703-684-5545
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to RURALCARRI...@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
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