Are you concerned about catalog industry costs?
We want to remind you once again about a very important event, taking place in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 26 and Friday, June 27. The American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) has organized a groundbreaking forum that will bring together key officials of the U.S. Postal Service, the Postal Regulatory Commission and members of Congress for face-to-face discussions with top-level executives of the catalog industry.
Let’s be clear: the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum is an unprecedented occurrence. ACMA Executive Director Hamilton Davison has put together a schedule that gives catalog decision makers one-on-one access to the very officials who control our industry’s single largest cost center. And Davison pulls no punches about what is at stake: “We as an industry are facing a real risk to the profitability of our businesses in the short and longer term,” he says. “If you are responsible for managing the P&L of your business, why would you not be there?
Davison continues, “this industry does not have a relationship with the Postal Service or the Congress, and we need to have a relationship. Some of the biggest companies already have individual relationships, but I suspect they really want to have all the rest of us in this dialogue—because you can’t have a healthy industry with only a few players.”
ACMA has already gotten some leading catalogers involved, including Crate and Barrel, Gardeners Supply, Williams-Sonoma, Appleseed’s (Orchard Brands), Vermont Country Store, Plow & Hearth, Miles Kimball, Ross-Simons and others, along with many on the supplier side. But to have even greater impact, this forum needs to attract YOU. “We’re going to have a really great turnout from the powers that be in Washington,” Davison points out. “We should really have more senior level industry folks turn out. You can have one-off conversations over a glass of wine—and they’ll get it. We need to make them understand that if we choose, as an industry, to get out of the mail system, this is a preventable event—but the USPS will lose 20 billion pieces of mail and all other mailers will face substantially higher rates if this is not addressed now right now.”
Take a look at the Forum Agenda, and you’ll see just how impressive this event truly is.
National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum
Preliminary Agenda
Thursday, June 26, 2008:
11:30 am Registration open
12:15 pm Lunch served
12:30 pm Introduction and agenda review
12:45 pm Do Not Mail & Catalog Preference Requests panel & discussion
Participants:
Crate and Barrel
Gardeners Supply
Catalog Choice
Direct Marketing Assn
US Postal Service
2:00 pm Afternoon Break
2:15 pm Anita Bizzotto, Chief Marketing Officer, USPS*
3:00 pm Steve Kearney, Vice President, Pricing, USPS*
3:45 pm Marie Therese Dominguez, Vice President Government Relations & Public Policy, USPS*
4:15 pm ACMA Legislative Overview
4:30 pm Dan Blair, Chairman, Postal Regulatory Commission*
5:30 pm Evening Break
5:45 pm Dinner reception for members of the USPS & PRC
9:00 pm After-hours event
Friday, June 27, 2008:
7:30 am Board bus for trip to Capitol Hill
8:00 am Legislative breakfast with Members of Congress
9:30 am Return to hotel
10:00 am ACMA Annual Business meeting & strategy presentation
10:45 am Jack Potter, Postmaster General and CEO, USPS*
11:45 am Pat Donahoe, Deputy PMG and COO, USPS*
12:30 pm Lunch discussion: next steps and plan for further action
1:30 pm Adjournment
* Presentation & Discussion
I urge you to consider attending, and have a direct impact on your company’s—and our industry’s—financial future.
For more information, visit www.catalogmailers.org or contact:
Executive Director: Hamilton Davison
hdavison@catalogmailers.org
Direct telephone: 401-529-8183
Assistant to the Executive Director: Cathy Roden
croden@catalogmailers.org