Once again, the United States Government has made a decision that was less- than-intelligent. Welcome to the brand new system of postal service, where letters, boxes and packages will now be charged for postage by their dimensions and not be their weight – wreaking havoc on mailrooms across the country.
Starting May 1, if you want to send an 8 ½ X 11 piece of paper not folded, it will cost you $1.50. If you fold that same piece of paper in half, it will cost you $0.60. If you fold it into thirds, that piece of paper will now cost only $0.41. That silly piece of paper, which weighs the same no matter how many times you fold it, will potentially cost three different prices depending upon how good your origami skills are.
What the heck? What in the world were they thinking when they decided that this was a good idea? Must have been one of those late-night decisions made on little sleep and even less brains.
How does this affect us? Most predominately, it will impact every student organization that ever mails anything out. Student allocations are over, and every student organization has already made up their budgets for next year and been allotted money based on those budgets. How are student organizations who have already budgeted for postage supposed to adjust to the fact that their postage could double or even triple, depending upon the size of the things that they mail out?
Where is the money going to come from? The answer; – our own pockets. Extra money that was supposed to go towards different thing like trips and dinners will now have to be used towards postage, lest the mailings no longer go out.
Please, write to your senator and ask them what the heck they were thinking – if you can afford it. Their addresses are below:
Senator Judd Gregg393 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510
Senator John Sununu111 RussellSenate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510