This is a time of both great possibilities and challenges. It is imperative that the catalog industry rise to the occasion. ACMA is convening a broad discussion opportunity to consider what is happening and create a plan of action to make sure the catalog industry has a fighting chance. Last year’s First Annual National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum included participation by Postmaster General John E. Potter and Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Dan Blair. Given what has happened since, this year’s ACMA Forum, to be held in Washington, DC, May 20-21, 2009, will be even more dynamic.

You have been very helpful in the past helping ACMA get the word out and re-distributing information about our activities and events. I would like to call on your help again to get information about the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum to your network. Material provided here can be copied and pasted as is or may form the basis for your own personalized communications. The ACMA Membership Committee recently debated whether it was counter-productive to have multiple channels communicating essentially the same message and its conclusion was that we need to hit people from as many angles as possible so some of the message gets through to everyone.

The preliminary agenda is on the ACMA website under the NCASF information, as are extensive travel suggestions and a special hotel rate for the event provided registrations and payment are received by April 29th (the website currently states April 24th but we have been able to secure an extension from the National Postal forum and Marriott Washington Metro Center so this will be changed soon).

While it has not yet been publicly announced, the following resources are confirmed so far: Postmaster General Jack Potter, PRC Vice Chair Nanci Langley, USPS President Bob Bernstock, SVP Customer Services Steve Kearney, Mailing and Shipping Services Marketing Manager Tom Foti, among others. As you know, getting time from these Officials is always difficult and represents a major accomplishment that speaks volumes about their commitment to cataloging. I was told last week that “fixing catalogs” is now a top five priority for the USPS. We now need to do our part and get the industry to show up and get active. Your help on this is greatly appreciated.

There are clear signals that other interests are intent on keeping the catalog industry from mobilizing and taking its rightful place in the national policy debate. If you read last month’s Postal Regulatory Commission’s Order 191, you undoubtedly noticed that another large price increase for catalogers is looming on the horizon. You may recall that the Postal Regulatory Commission issued an erringly similar public notice in 2005 foretelling of the 2007 disaster. You may have noticed Bank of America’s attack on catalogers when the USPS suggested a lower than average catalog rate increase for May 2010, or saw mailing giant Val-Pak’s public call for another large increase to catalog postage because ‘catalogs do not produce enough profit.’ You probably also know that the currently accepted way to calculate catalog delivery cost has been established over the last 15 years without any cataloger participation, or that this cost allocation methodology created the punishing 2007 rate hike that put cataloging in a tail spin. Well before the economy also started to take its toll, this single development fundamentally changed cataloging and has reduced employment across an entire industry while evaporating sources of equity funding needed to grow.

While you know these things, based on my discussions with industry leaders, I am pretty sure a majority of your readership does not. They certainly do not understand that the time to address this set of challenges catalogs face is right now.

I expect you are also noting several positive changes at the Postal Service, generally, as well as how the USPS manages cataloging, specifically. The “Summer Sale” is but one example of the significant work ACMA has been doing in Washington over the past two years. ACMA has learned a lot about what influences national postal policy. ACMA has defined many additional opportunities available right now if, as an industry, catalogers and postal officials choose to take advantage of them. The USPS is clearly aware that the catalog industry is in turmoil and is demonstrating its willingness to partner with catalogers to address the situation. This is the set of opportunities catalogs face right now.

By every perspective from those involved in Washington, ACMA has had terrific success in its short history. Curiously, only a small group of 65 catalog companies and suppliers are actively engaged. ACMA lacks the critical mass necessary to address fully the enormous number of offensive and defensive moves necessary in the next twelve months to “fix cataloging.” Unless the industry mobilizes we will fall short of what we are capable.

You will notice on the website that a special discounted admission has been extended to a variety of associations that have catalog members in an effort to generate greater participation across the industry. Like ACMA membership, the Forum is open to any company with substantial economic interest in cataloging. Members of any of the following groups qualify for this special discount: DMA, MGA, NEMOA, NMOA, NRF, We will also apply the full fee to attend to the first year’s dues payments should any attendee join ACMA and make a dues payment within 60 days of the Forum, effectively allowing new members to come to the event free of charge.

We would appreciate your help in publicizing the important industry-wide meeting in Washington next month. I hope we will see you there as well and I would appreciate your effort to “bring a friend” that is not involved with ACMA so they can come to understand first hand what we must do to protect our future. Thank you for your consideration and support.

Sincerely, Hamilton

Hamilton Davison
Executive Director
American Catalog Mailers Association
www.catalogmailers.org
Email: hdavison@catalogmailers.org
Direct telephone: 1-401-529-8183

Attend the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum, Washington, May 20-21, 2009

Some of the above has been recently sent to trade media with a request they provide coverage of the event. Also sent to the trade media was the following:

The success of our trade media is squarely aligned with the future of cataloging.

I need your help to raise the awareness and to get the details out about what ACMA is doing to affect both the upside and downside risks and opportunities we face. Please consider taking the following action:

• Use your considerable industry reach to help drive attendance at the 2009 NCASF in Washington. A discounted registration is available until April 30th. Registration on-site after this is available. There are over 15,000 catalog companies in America. ACMA is talking directly to only a few hundred of these. Your website and print media reach a far wider audience. We really need your help to get the word out so industry executives can learn in more detail what is going on.


• Send one or more editors, reporters or publishers to the ACMA Forum next month. ACMA will waive the attendance fees for both the ACMA Forum and admission to the National Postal Forum that is being held adjacent to our event. We would appreciate your covering the news that will result from top industry executives engaged in dialog with top officials in Washington

A press release is attached from which you may draw, and more information is available on our website, www.catalogmailers.org. I am happy to provide back up information for all of the assertions above or address any questions you have about ACMA, what is happening in Washington or the event itself.

This is not a special interest effort for a portion of the catalog community or something from which any one company or person is profiting. This needs to be an industry-wide effort. ACMA is solely a nonprofit association completely and fully controlled by catalog interests. Participation and membership is open to any company or individual with a demonstrable interest in the catalog industry. I know your space is always at a premium but I also know your company has been affected by the carnage in cataloging that to some degree is remediable if all of us, as an industry, unite to take action. I hope you will take action to cause positive change that will benefit the millions of Americans who derive their income from a wholesome industry hundreds of years old that has become a part of the very fabric of America.