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SLAC Mail Services: The Life Cycle of a
Letter
By Matt Howard
Not very many people understand how the Mail Room works, but everyone
uses it. You may use mailing services to send and receive work-related
documents, books and correspondence. Processing the large amount of mail
moving through the Lab can be daunting, and there are things that you
can do to help.
Located in the A&E Building (Ext. 2380, Room 138), the Mail Room is open
from 7:30 a.m.-12 Noon and 1:00 -5:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday. The
door is closed while staff make deliveries (9:00-10:30 a.m. and 2:00-3:30 p.m.). There is a drop off slot for your use during these times.
Typical Mail Cycle
Mail arrives at the Mail Room via the post office or Stanford delivery,
in boxes with a ton of letters, publications, periodicals and junk-mail
scrunched tightly together. The mail is then sorted into the respective
mail stop box, bundled together and prepared for departure generally in
about two and a half hours.
There are three mail stop routes. The first route covers the A&E and
Test Lab buildings. The second, called ‘the outside route’, covers
buildings and mail stops throughout the site and the third route is the
Central Lab building. These three routes combined serve a total of over
100 mail stops. In addition, mail is picked up from all mail stops and
taken to the mail room for both internal and external distribution. The
average time it takes to complete each route is two and a half hours,
making the total time to complete the mail cycle around five hours.
The three people who work the mail routes are Darnell Clay, Rod Harrison
and Gary Remerata (all BSD). Each person is assigned one route for a
day, and they switch routes every day. This assures each of them knows
the three routes for complete site coverage. Although this may seem like
a lot of work, they still find it enjoyable.
“You basically meet and interact with the whole site, so you always have
to be friendly no matter what the situation is,” Darnell Clay said about
going around on the various mail routes.
Use SLAC Street Address
The most efficient way to get your mail is to use SLAC’s street address
(2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025) and your Mail Stop number.
Mail addressed to SLAC’s old campus post office box (P.O. Box 4349) is
no longer accepted. If a post office box address is absolutely
necessary, use the current campus address (Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, P.O. Box 20450, Mail Stop Number, Stanford, CA 94309). The Post
Office Box option will result in delays, so its use is discouraged.
Periodically, you should review materials from your group or department
that include mailing information (such as web sites, forms, e-mail
signatures, business cards and office supplies). Please do not use
outdated supplies (envelopes, letterhead, mailing labels, etc.) with the
old campus box number or mail will be returned to sender.
Always Include Your Mail Stop
Please make sure to include your mail stop in all your correspondence.
The Mail Room staff tries to locate mailstops for incomplete addresses
using the phone directory. This time consuming task is only done for
first-class mail. All third-class mail without a mail stop in the
address is either returned to the sender or placed in the recycle bin.
Because of the large number of mail stops at the Lab, sometimes it can
get very confusing and frustrating for mail room employees. To help mail
services run more smoothly, for example, be sure someone changes your
mail stop number when you make an office move. Otherwise, mail may not
be properly delivered.
“If you have any questions pertaining to mail, just ask,” says Rod
Harrison, who’s been delivering the SLAC mail for over 20 years. “If I
don’t have the answer in my head, I’ll find out and get back to you as
soon as I can.”
For more information, see:
www-group.slac.stanford.edu/bsd/Mail_services/Mail_service.html
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