My mother didn't want her children going through life with nicknames. Her son Charles wasn't Charlie; Deborah wasn't Debbie, and I wasn't Barbie, Barb or Babs. In my 30s, I had one close friend who called me Barb, a practice I neither criticized or encouraged. I ignored it as we drifted apart.

When I joined Hammock Inc. in 1999, I began to travel to printing plants in Wisconsin and Minnesota regularly. In the Midwest, I quickly learned, everyone named Barbara is Barb. Although I am the client, no one at the plants ever asked before posting a sign:

Welcome
Barb Mathieson
to (insert name of printer here).

This week, I traveled to QuadGraphics to press check MyBusiness magazine. The chauffeur, who drove me from the airport to the Quad Plant to pick up my car, told me that the car reserved for me had my name on the dashboard:

Yes, it did. It had my exclusive Midwestern name, Barb.

Editor's Note: If an abrupt monosyllable nickname isn't bad enough, I recently read that Barbara is included in those names of women who are "of a certain age." No one under forty is named Barbara, unless you're my coworker Barbara Logan, who was named after her mother: a woman, of course, of a certain age.

Each year between March 1 and May 31, Keep American Beautiful sponsors the Great American Clean Up to encourage community involvement in keeping America Beautiful.

According to the kab.org website:

In 2007, Great American Cleanup volunteers collected 200 million pounds of litter and debris; planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs; cleaned 178,000 miles or roads, streets and highways; and diverted more than 70.6 million plastic (PET) bottles and more than 2.2 million scrap tires from the waste stream.

This Saturday, May 17, some of us from Hammock Inc. have volunteered to clean up along McCrory Lane and Charlotte Pike in western Davidson County.

Here a news item from America Business Media about publisher's letters mailed with periodicals:

In addition to the [postal] pricing changes, there is one content rule change affecting the periodicals class: a modification to the "loose enclosures" rule change to permit the enclosure of unbound "publisher's letters" with a periodical.

As many ABM members may know, there are very strict rules covering loose enclosures in bound publications, and if you run afoul of those rules, the enclosure is treated as a separate Standard mail piece (unless you mark it as or can talk USPS into treating it as a "ride-along" piece). Therefore, a "publisher's letter" dealing with issues such as frequency or content of the publication has been deemed to be a publisher's own advertising and thus not a permissible Periodicals insert. Through the Periodicals Advisory Group (in which ABM and several members are active participants), the industry and the Postal Service reached a reasonable resolution.

According to the USPS's new ruling, "mailers are now entitled to include a publisher's printed letter, including facsimile signature, as a permissible loose enclosure with a Periodicals publication, provided the printed letter is limited to the publisher promoting the publication; or announcing or describing changes to the publication (e.g. title, format, frequency, terms or conditions of a subscription); or other business of the publication, as long as the printed letter includes no other advertising for the publisher or any other party."

Because there were immediate concerns about whether mentioning a Web site would be considered permissible "other business of the publication," or impermissible "advertising," David Straus, ABM's Washington counsel, obtained clarification from the Postal Service for ABM members.

According to that clarification, there are four typical scenarios in which a Web site might be mentioned:

1) Visit our Web site at www.XXX.com

2) www.XXX.com

3) "Go to www.XXX.com to subscribe or renew your subscription"

4.) "Visit www.XXX.com to see our other products or services"

The Postal Service now says that options 1, 2 and 3 may be included in the letter, while option 4 may not. There would first have to be a publisher's letter, of course, about the publication, then 1 or 2 would be ignored as innocuous. Scenario 3 would be considered related, while 4 would be advertising for other business of the publisher.

Above is an illustration from the postal document E8-8621 about the addressing changes for periodicals and other automated flat mail. The new address changes take effect March 29, 2009.

I find it somewhat confusing as the address appears to be upside down on the front cover of the magazine. My understanding is that with the equipment recently purchased by the United States Post Office, the address is actually right side up and correct for the equipment. Visually, it's upside down for the reader, not the postman.

I contacted Sean Stiewe, our postal service representative at QuadGraphics, and asked him if I had interpreted the rules correctly. Sean replied, "It looks that way as of right now, I am waiting to see how Quad is going to handle this with the post office. I will look further into this for you."

Currently, the delivery address is right side up on the front cover. We'll keep you posted on this issue as March 2009 nears.