Mail Services – Procedures

Mail that is addressed to your building using the street address will go to the Shorewood Post Office because the University is in the Shorewood Post Office delivery area. The only mail that the Shorewood Post Office delivers is mail for the Sandburg Dorms. If you use your building street address, your mail could be delayed a week to ten days because the Shorewood Post Office sends UWM mail back to the main Post Office, to be placed in UWM’s main post office box 413.

The reason the Post Office will not deliver mail to the University buildings is that we do not have mail boxes attached to the building. We have held post office boxes for over thirty years, and we pick up the mail twice each day, at 6:30 A.M. and at 11:00 A.M.If your department does not have its own post office box, your mail should be addressed to P.O. Box 413, the University’s general post office box number.

Please note that all capital letters and no punctuation were used in the examples. This is the preferred Post Office form of addressing. There is one exception to this addressing rule. This format is for Post office mail only. If you are using a private courier, such as Federal Express, United Parcel Service, Burlington Express, etc., you must use your street address. Your delivery could be delayed while they attempt to contact you for a street address.

Mail Services needs your help in processing your intra-campus mail. With your assistance, Mail Services will be able to more efficiently sort and deliver the more than two million pieces of intra-campus mail that we handle annually. If you follow these simple instructions, you can avoid delays in the delivery of your mail:

1. Address your mail using the full name of the addressee and their department. You may use building and room numbers in addition to name and department but not in place of this information. Mail Services sorts mail by name and department so location is not needed and may even create confusion, especially if there has been a recent move.
   One exception: The Division of Information and Media Technology has several sub-departments all over campus. In their case, buildings and room numbers would help clarify the delivery destination.
2. Too much information can cause delays. For example, we do not need to know your division name, and we need to know only where you want your mail delivered.

   Here is an example of a bad address:

   Mary Rodgers
   Business and Financial Services
   Auxiliary Accounting

   Why is this a bad address?

   Mary wants her mail in Auxiliary Accounting, but with the first line of the address being Business and Financial Services, it could end up in the division office in Chapman Hall. The division information is extraneous information that could lead to mis-delivery of her mail.

   An example of a proper address:

   Mary Rodgers
   Auxiliary Accounting

3. Please do not abbreviate department names.
4. Print or write as clearly as possible.

Many list formats can be utilized by our mail program. Most word processing programs can format a list we can use to process your mailings. The file types are:

• Delimited File
  The file contains records with the same character separating the fields of the record and CR/LR at the end of each record. The fields must appear in the same order in every record. The most common delimiter is a comma(,).
• Standard ASCII Fixed Length File
  This is a text file with each record the same length. Each field must be the same length and appear in the same place within each record. Please specify the record length when you send the disk to Mail Services.
• Access File/Excel File
  All Access and Excel files are acceptable for the system.
• Dbase File
  Any Dbase file is compatible with the system. The fields must appear in the same order in every record. Make sure there is a “.dbf” extension at the end of the file name.
• Fixed Length Fields with CR/LF File
  The file has fixed length fields with each record terminated by CR/LF(carriage return/line feed), such as a Lotus Print Image File. The fields must appear in the same order in every record.
• 1-up Label Image File
  The file is composed of records formatted as labels. Your label may have as many as 16 lines. The fields must appear in the same order in every record.

Files may be sent to Mail Services in a variety of ways:

• CD
• E-Mail attachment
• pantherFile

• Make sure your piece is properly folded, open side on the top.
• Have a clear address area-try to have at least 4 inches wide.
• If you are thinking of using a postcard and sending it bulk rate use a 6 1/8 inches high x 11 ½ inches wide. The cost is the same as a 3 ½ x 5 card.
• Use a heavier paper for your brochures than normal typing paper.
• The color of the paper should be white or lighter pastels so that you don’t run into a reflectiveness problem.
• Aspect ratio: The length of the piece divided by the width must fall between 1.3-2.5 to be automation compatible.
• Flat-size pieces should have their address blocks formatted landscape rather than portrait so our machines can handle the width. Also, with the recent increases to flat rates, folding a flat in half when possible will save postage.
• If you are using courtesy reply or business reply envelopes or postcards, make sure you have the proper FIM and barcode so the mail piece can go to automation. Artwork is available through Printing Services at the USB.
• If you are thinking of having us do any kind of inserting, please have your pieces folded like a private letter.

In an effort to reduce the volume of undeliverable as addressed (UAA) in the postal system, the U.S. Postal Service has simplified the endorsements used on outgoing mail. Postal endorsements are commonly used for address correction, forwarding and return services.

Mail Services has ink-jet machinery that can correct an improper endorsement or add an endorsement on your mail piece. This can be done for a nominal fee in conjunction with the ink-jet labeling process or as a separate function.

Endorsements are not required. If you elect to use one, however, “address service requested” is recommended for first class mail and “return service requested” is recommended for standard mail (formerly referred to as third class or bulk mail).

In addition to changing the endorsement wording, additional placement locations are now permissible. Placement can be in any of the four following locations:

1. Below the return address.
2. To the direct left of the postage or indicia
3. Directly under the postage or indicia
4. Above the address block.

In all placements, there must be a clear space of one quarter of an inch around the endorsement and the font used can be no smaller that the eight point size.

If you have any questions, or if you need to have endorsements corrected or added, please contact the UWM Mailroom at uwm-mailroom@uwm.edu.

See page 2 of the USPS Quick Service Guide: Ancillary Service Endorsements for a chart listing endorsements, services provided, and cost based on mail class.

• Email your database to the UWM Mailroom at uwm-mailroom@uwm.edu. We will send it through the National Change of Address System for updating.
• When the mailroom receives the update, they will send it back to you with the corrected addresses and the old addresses still available.
• You can import new data for use in your next mailing.
• Your database must have been updated within 95 days of the time your mailing is released to the U.S.P.S.