[12881] in APO-L
Alumni Addresses & Bulk Mail
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Scott Begin)
Thu Oct 5 20:55:32 1995
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 19:50:00 EST
Reply-To: Scott Begin <0005555440@MCIMAIL.COM>
From: Scott Begin <0005555440@MCIMAIL.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Graham Mehl asked about Alumni Addresses, and William Turner replied
that what he had gotten from National weren't any good but they went to
their local alumni office.
I think you have indicated where to start, however, getting decent
addresses from the National Office is not impossible. Below is
information I compiled based on my experiences. I have posted it here a
few times, but there are always those who haven't seen it (or didn't pay
attention to it previously). This also deals with finances of sending
newsletters or other mailings.
I would send it out to the person who asked for it, but I usually get
5-6 additional requests for the information (and it costs me to send
each individual message). The file isn't real long (8k).
Alpha Phi Omega
Alumni Address Information
by Scott A. Begin
5555440@mcimail.com
Epsilon Beta Alumni, 1991
Permission granted for redistribution, provided above header is included
and the entire file is distributed.
Last Updated October 1992.
Minor additions / clarifications, March 1994.
Information Updated on WP60, updated post card mailing cost, October 1995
The National Office will provide you with a list of chapter alumni. You
need to request one (in writing is better). It will cost you $5. The times
I have requested them, they took about 2-3 weeks to get it back to me.
Be sure to ask for a computer list of chapter members. When I first requested
this two years ago, they sent me a photocopied list which didn't include
current addresses. Since that time, they have improved their computer
database. The last list I requested (May 1992) included all members inducted
since our activation in 1947. One copy was sorted alphabetically, the other
by when the person joined (with a few transfer members out of place).
A majority of the members had addresses listed, and the list indicated
wheither the address is believed to be valid or not (based on how recently
mail was sent to a person). The mailing I did using addresses from national
(and cleaned from other sources) was pretty good for the limited number I used
(20 sent out of 600 members, 1-2 returned).
A better idea is to cross reference two lists. Check with your alumni office.
At Central Michigan, the alumni office kept track of which organizations
alumni belonged to, assuming the organizations updated the office. You may
need to let them use your list of names from the national office to look up in
their records. Do not let them have the addresses (phohibited by National
Bylaws -- a letter describing this comes with each list). They may have
regulations on letting you have the addresses, such as having to see what you
mail to them, not giving full addresses, etc...
If you send stuff out, use any returns to update records, yours, Nationals,
and the Alumni Offices, for bad addresses or address changes. To reduce the
number of returns, verify local addresses using a phone book if possible.
Get addresses before a member becomes an alumni. Get their home address,
preferably at activation or pledging and keep it updated while a member is in
school. Usually this will be a parents address, so anything mailed should
still get to them for a while. It also saves you the trouble of trying to
track down addresses from people trying to leave town for a job or
unemployment after graduation.
Keep addresses current by letting members know that if they know of someone
who has moved, they should get you an address. Old roommates and other good
friends usually get notified of address changes much sooner than the chapter
will be.
Keep addresses current by mailing stuff to people, newsletters, invitations,
etc... First class mail gets returned with a forwarding address if it has
been longer than 12 months since someone moved. This will only happen if
the recipient filled out a change of address card with the post office.
After 12 months, the piece is returned with the forwarding address. If
the recipient has moved without a forwarding address, the piece is
returned with a label indicating this.
To cut mailing costs, use bulk mail. You need at least 200 identical pieces
sorted by zip code to recieve a discount. Cost is roughly 30% of first class
postage. Your school may have a permit that you can use. If not, cost is
about $60 for the permit plus $60 per year. Even with these costs, it takes
about 300 pieces to break even, If you mail more than that, you save.
Additional discounts are available for Zip+4 sorted mail (about 1 cent per
piece). National uses the Zip+4 sorting where possible. Further
discounts are available for pieces bear a US Post Office Bar Code (used by
sorting equipment to route mail). WordPerfect 6.0 (DOS) will allow you to
create this type of bar code (I have tested this, it works well, although
it will take some set up to use the mailmerge feature), as will many types
of database and address list management software (check features before
you buy, especially supported printers).
To take advantage of the Zip+4 and barcode discounts, you address lists
must contain Zip+4 information. As much as possible, the addresses from
National will contain this information. The post office will have a Zip+4
directory for your state that you can look up addresses. Some states have
more than one directory and all volumes will not be available in all post
offices. I have heard that the Post Office will clean your address list and
bring it up to Zip+4 standards (not only filling in the zip and zip+4, but
also scrubbing, or standardizing addresses (abbreviations, spellings,
checking for valid city names, zip codes, etc..). I have not looked into
this, but the cost may be phohibitive. The Post office (as well as
others) will sell Zip+4 databases, usually on CD-ROM. I have not looked
at what the Post Office offers, but one private company bundles address
scrubbing software with it's CD-ROM database for about $120. Again, you
may have access to this through your school.
Since Bulk Mail goes 3rd class, it doesn't get returned or forwarded. The
post office does offer Address Correction. You get a permit (similar to the
bulk rate) which allows you to have address corrections sent to you if your
bulk rate mail would not be delivered due to a forwarding address. The cost
is 30 cents per returned address. This works better to maintain an up to date
list. First class mailing would be cheaper for "testing" a list.
Larger mailings are cheaper per piece than smaller ones. Some print shops
will give a discount for quantity. Kinkos will give you half price after 100
copies of the same original. Buying your supplies in bulk saves as well.
Office Max (a discount office supply store) has 250 envelopes (#10 9" x 4")
for about $3. You should be able to get 5000 computer feed mailing labels for
under $15 (Office Max or K-Mart). If you don't have a chapter return address
stamp, you can even make your own return labels. These labels require
access to a Dot Matrix printer. If all you have access to is laserjet
printers, you can buy labels for them as well, although they are more
expensive. Don't buy your supplies through the school just because it's
one place you can use your funding, it may be cheaper elsewhere. I have
also sent postcards instead of letters to announce our summer
Adopt-A-Highway date and our Activation. They only cost 20 cents to mail
first class, and can be sent bulk for less. By using computer feed cards,
a first class mailing only cost 23 cents per piece including card, stamp,
and 2 labels.
You may not need all the supplies mentioned above. Envelopes can be
dispensed with in some cases. Triple fold the piece, place the stamp,
return address, and recipient's address in the correct place and
staple. However, at Central Michigan, in order to use the bulk rate stamp
from the university, you had to have everything in envelopes. I know it
wasn't a regulation from the Post office, since the Placement Center
listings come just folded, stapled, and with the bulk rate stamp pre
printed on them. [above paragraph added based on a reminder made by Jim
Demmes, Zeta Sigma Chapter after the initial posting of these suggestions.
SAB]
By all means, do as much as possible on computer. Using dBase III/IV, making
mailing labels is pretty easy, even if you have to print them in zip code
order. Printing on post cards doesn't take that much effort using a good
wordprocessor (WP51/60). The biggest problem may be finding some of the
supplies at a good price: I mail ordered (as part of my bi-annuall supply
order) mailing labels and post cards. I got a better price on both, but I
also had a hard time finding those supplies in the quantities I needed to
get a price break in Mt. Pleasant. In a larger town, your results may be
different.
Even if you do stuff on a computer, you need to be sure to back everything.
There is nothing worse than getting ready to run labels for the activation and
finding out the computer can't read your disk. The extra cost of a second
(or third) disk for backups is well worth it.
{end of Alumni Mailings Info.}
YiLFS,
Scott A. Begin Epsilon Beta Alumni, Central Michigan University
5555440@mcimail.com Zeta Gamma Advisor, Valparasio University
