An account of rare turmoil within the secretive stamp committee at USPS.
According to Linn’s Stamp News Bill McAllister
Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC): “staged an unprecedented protest at their September 23 meeting” in Washington; voted to suspend the meeting; and all 13 members signed a three-page letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe requesting a meeting to speed “clarifying our process and getting back to work.”
The CSAC suspended the meeting after it became apparent of tensions between the committee and USPS stamp services management. The article stated that the letter did not name either USPS marketing chief Nagisa Manabe or the executive director of stamp services Susan McGovern but two Postal Service sources told Linn’s that “the committee is upset with both women, and what they see as a diminished role they have given CSAC in the stamp selection process.”
The letter in part said:
Quite Simply as it is run, this committee no longer represents the collector, both avid and amateur, the child just discovering the wonder of stamps… There is rarely any communication between committee meetings….
The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) evaluates potential subjects for U.S. postage stamps and reports its recommendations to the Postmaster General, who makes the final decision. The committee includes a former Postmaster General and a former USPS Board of Governor who recently joined the group.
Here are excerpts from the Linn’s Stamp News article:
A Harvey Milk commemorative stamp? You have got to be kidding!! The guy is/was a sexual pervert!! There must be more deserving people who could be commemorated! Please–eliminate this stamp!
Do that many people collect stamps anymore to expend money that the postal service does not have. The world has moved on. Kids nowadays have more other activities to do. Not likewise I was a kid that I had to keep myself entertained.
Wonder if this had anything to do with the “Let’s Move!” stamp debacle? Wonder how many thousands of sheets they printed before they noticed the “unsafe acts” depicted on three of the stamps.
Donahoe said “we don’t need a board of overpaid retirees to tell us which stamps to print”, so they threw a hissy fit and went home. Of course they are still being paid while not doing anything.
How about we get a group of children together and let them decide?
Ask the $500, 000 “futurist” we hired anything concerning stamps