NALC is by far the best organized open-shop union in America— 92.5 percent of active city delivery letter carriers are NALC members—that is an enviable figure and a powerful sign of letter carriers' collective embrace of this union.

Yet we could be 95 percent or 98 percent organized. With more than 18,000 possible new letter carriers out there to organize, we could do even better. Seven percent of active city delivery letter carriers still need to be brought into the fold to strengthen our union and add to our abilities to better the working lives of letter carriers and their families.

The following is a summary of helpful tips listed in the NALC's non-member recruiting booklet, How to Get Yes For An Answer:

ASK QUESTIONS. Why haven't you joined the union? What do you think of the union? What do you think of the union's services? Let them do a lot of the talking, so you can find out what is on their mind and answer questions.

LISTEN. You may have answers to all their objections, but you'll never know unless you listen.

SHOW RESPECT. Everyone has an opinion, and most of us are quite proud of our views. Make each person feel important by taking the time to listen to his or her ideas. They'll be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

BE PATIENT. Don't react to anger or hostility. Keep your cool at all times.

BE OPEN. People are interested in first-hand information. Share some of your own experience.

SMILE. Make this a friendly meeting. You may have to come back and try again at a later date. To do this you've got to keep open the lines of communication.

BE POSITIVE. Put your comments in a positive light. Remember, you have to make nonmembers want to join the NALC. Another tip: ask questions in such a way that nonmembers answer "yes" from the beginning.

If your branch is looking for tips on how to sign up new members, How to Get Yes for an Answer, a handy booklet of tips, is available through the NALC Supply Department at NALC Headquarters. Contact the NALC Supply Department for more information.

Once letter carriers join the union, it is time to motivate them to become involved and stay involved in local branch activities.

One clear goal of NALC branch leaders has always been to get as many people as possible involved in union activities. There are obvious, practical reasons why members should participate in the branch—projects get accomplished easier and faster, and leaders are less likely to feel overwhelmed when many people share the load.

But there's a deeper purpose for consciously building a participative branch in which a high percentage of members work together to meet branch goals. Members in such a participative branch feel a sense of community and responsibility to the union and toward each other . By creating ways in which members can get involved in union activities, branch leaders are building the strongest possible organization—one in which people are deeply committed to all the union's goals.

People used to think—and many people still do—that a union is primarily a service organization, something like an insurance policy for workers. Members pay dues, and in return they can call on their union representative to handle their grievances—if they ever have any. People who think about their union in this way rarely have any feelings of commitment or concern about it. After all, do you feel committed to your insurance company or care about what its goals are, as long as your agent takes care of your needs:

But NALC branch leaders have made strong efforts to change members' perceptions of the union as a service organization to that of a participative community, with everyone pitching in to get things done. And these leaders' efforts have paid off in many ways.

In a participative branch, the old adage of "many hands make light work" comes true. But the fact that branch projects are likely to be more successful—and more easily accomplished—is only part of the story.

As people get involved in branch activities, even if only at the level of bringing hot dogs to the branch picnic, they gradually become more sensitive to all other aspects of union work. Their commitment to union bargaining and legislative goals is likely to deepen. These involved members become aware of how the branch is reaching out to the community and to the larger labor movement, and may begin to show interest in those activities as well.

Finally, members of a participative branch are more likely to go to branch meetings, and may well be willing to take on additional responsibilities and even leadership roles in the branch if called upon.

Such a vision may seem far out of reach to many branch leaders, but the truth is that almost any branch can become more participative—with it's members fully involved in the NALC overall mission of improving the working lives of letter carriers and their families as well as making the United States Postal Service the best postal service in the world.

Give members definite time limits for the projects they will work on. Make sure people know that there is a beginning and an end to their volunteer commitment.

Offer choices of jobs to members. If possible, let members decide what part of a project they'd like to work on. Then leave them alone to determine how they will do the job.

Tap into members' expertise. Know what people like to do and what they can do well, and ask them to use those skills for the union.

Make sure people know how their job ties into the project as a whole. People like to know exactly why what they do is important and how it fits into what everyone else is doing.

Encourage questions from participants if they don't understand something.

Keep participants accountable. Don't turn people loose on a project for months at a time—go back and check on progress and make sure things are going well. Encourage meetings of people working on the same project and have those groups report periodically to the membership.

Make sure participants receive appreciation and recognition for their efforts. Ways to express appreciation can include sending personal thank-you notes, recognizing participants at meetings, putting peoples' names and photos in newsletters and giving people the opportunity to go to special training sessions or conferences.

Ninety-two and one half percent of active carriers are NALC members, a number that makes this union proud. While local activists keep up their great work organizing active carriers, it is also important to remember the many contributions retired carriers bring to our local branches and add to our national union's strength.

But fewer of our retired carriers remain in NALC. We have 69,919 retired carriers on OPM dues withholding and about 4,030 more paying dues directly, and 10,048 Life Members. Although we don't have a total figure for retired letter carriers, we do know that too many NALC members drop their membership when they retire.

Why do they leave? Some retirees probably are concerned about finances. Active carriers pay minimum union dues of $18.34 every two weeks. That may seem like a big bite out of a retiree's budget.

Tell them the good news—NALC dues drop for retirees! Just $7.00 a year in national per capita tax. That's 59 cents a month, far less than the cost for The Postal Record! Local and state dues range from small to nonexistent.

Others may believe the union only guarantees carrier rights on the job. But this view of NALC misses half of what we do. We fight for letter carriers in collective bargaining and in the Congress. We have a powerful lobbying organization in Washington, a vigorous grassroots organization and a well-funded political action committee, COLCPE. Our most consistent legislative priority for decades: Keeping our retirement benefits secure.

This union is designed, from our constitutional foundation on up, for retired as well as active members. Our retirement department goes to bat for retirees, solving problems with OPM and answering questions on our 1-800 answer line. We publish free booklets about CSRS and FERS benefits for retirees and survivors. And retirees are full members who can participate, vote and run for office.