by MØOIC - QSL Bureau Manager

RSARS QSL BUREAU
6 GREENLAND CRESCENT
CHILWELL
BEESTON
NOTTINGHAM NG9 5LB

Lists (updated monthly) of RSARS QSL BUREAU USERS are available from our E-LIBRARY

Issue No. 42 - 1st September 2010

Here we are again, another month gone by and I am sure that they have reduced the gap between months? Maybe to do with the need to reduce spending in the UK but no such reductions in the RSARS for QSL cards have still been arriving, albeit in thinner envelopes.

Bureau Workings - Part II

Since the production of Newsletter No. 41 I have continued to add cards received against the relevant member shown on The Management List. Each time this is done, which is most days, it gives me the opportunity to keep an eye on quantities of cards held within the Bureau and to decide whether to send out a few cards to the odd member or two. There is no exact science to this sending of cards, and I try to follow what I know, or think. members would prefer. A small number of members have said "Only when my envelope is nearly full" another "When I reach six cards" and there are other similar requests. For the remainder I do my best in making an assumed guess and follow requests that are received by email, requests by telephone around 9pm, or later! [fortunately these have reduced somewhat

] and from listening to members during nets. I get to know and recognise the award chasers and how near they are to their next claims and I react accordingly. Members such Dennis GW4XKE and others with SES stations and our overseas travellers are very easy, for their compartments get filled very quickly. I already have six cards for XV2LC (mentioned below) so I look forward to sending two batches to VK towards the end of next month.
Ron VK6RV is the QSL Manager for VK/ZL members and I always plan to get his envelope to arrive with him in good time for the last Sunday of the month. This is the day each month when those close enough to Ron meet up for a meal and chat and he always enjoys dishing out the QSL cards. As I expect Mal to have the same, or more than the group, this time I will send his direct.
So having covered receipts of cards last month I will bore you now with how I get rid of them.

Starting at Page 1 of the Management Sheet, remembering my last Bureau clearance date and the wishes of members, I proceed down the list checking, against index cards when necessary, until coming to a member who is due to be sent his cards, or has requested them. The cards plus the individual record card are removed from the drawer. They are checked for correctness (incorrectly filed? - it could happen) and counted. This total is recorded, with member number and date, onto to a blank Bureau Covering Letter. (A copy was shown with Newsletter No. 41) The computer is already up and running the Bureau database within Microsoft ACCESS. The blank data page for cards sent is brought up and the member number, say 1916, is tapped into the keyboard. This brings up the account for Dennis GW4XKE (who in fact often receives up to five sets of cards covering various SES) showing his current stamp balance and three empty boxes. Moving to the empty date box I press keys on the keyboard CTRL—: which adds today's date to this box. I then move to the Cards Sent box and input actual quantity of cards being sent, before moving to the stamps box where the quantity is changed to reflect the use of a stamp. This final key press adjusts the database stamp account and records the number of cards sent which is of course used to provide activity statistics. These statistics have been published every month since taking over the Bureau and are available in archives. Whether this is worth publishing I know not but I am aware of three members who read them plus one guest - there could be more?

Occasionally members may receive an additional small piece of paper, folded, and containing one or more cards. This is the Card Returned Form which gives a brief explanation of why your card has been returned. The main reason for this is the simple fact that this card, or cards, that you have sent to me has nowhere to go. The Bureau accepts and forwards cards for RNARS, RAFARS and RSARS members only for those members who use the RSARS QSL Bureau. The most recent Bureau User List is published on the 1st day of every month on our website. It has been available for members since soon after I took over the Bureau. It is hoped that those members with this facility may check this list prior to sending cards to the RSARS Bureau for otherwise cards for non-Bureau members will be returned. Cards are not accepted for forwarding to the RSGB. Since taking over I have received one rather full envelope for various non-members in Europe and that was from a non-RSARS Bureau user! Maybe an error of course. Obviously he caught me on a good day for these were returned to him at Bureau expense. Bottom line: if the card is for a non-Bureau user or none of our sister Societies it will be returned to you at your expense.

The number of cards sent, including those returned, and stamp balance, now reduced by one, is recorded on the Bureau covering letter. Importantly, the same information is also recorded on the member's Bureau record card which is placed back into the drawer ready for the next time. An envelope is prepared with the address as taken from the RSARS database. It is sealed then checked against my Royal Mail information sheet, and put through the measuring stick to confirm again that it is correctly covered stamp-wise. The rubber stamp RSARS QSL BUREAU Chilwell is then stamped on the reverse of the envelope so that it knows where to come back to if there is a problem - I await my first.

Final action required for member 1916, in this case, is to pick up my eraser and bring his Management Sheet record back to nil, leaving plenty of space ready to start over again when the next card arrives. My postbox is within walking distance so despatch, after checking to make sure all are sealed and correctly stamped, is quite swift. I do receive the odd strange look when emptying my bag of envelopes into it the postbox following a Bureau clearance.

I make a 100% Bureau clearance at the end of June each year having allowed the cards produced as the result of the May Activity to arrive and be filed ready for forwarding. I also do this on other occasions as needed, for apart from chasing spiders around the card drawer it also allows me to carry out a 100% check of compartments to ensure that cards have not been missed. You may have read this before but when checking your cover note showing balance of cards held and you are at "NIL stamps held" please send with your next batch of cards 5 x Second Class stamps. The Bureau will retain one of those stamps to help cover other Bureau expenses, paper and ink among others and provide four stamped envelopes for you. Although your card account strictly drops to Nil I leave you in the computer database showing 1 stamp for if I reduce you to Nil on the computer you disappear from the Bureau User list which I am sure would not be welcome.

I mentioned extracting the ever-changing Bureau statistics, well here they are as at 1st September 2010:

Statistics

MONTH	CARDS RECEIVED	CARDS SENT

August 2005	762	612
August 2006	561	499
August 2007	388	308
August 2008	297	314
August 2009	169	18
August 2010	165	94

Any questions please ask. If I am sending cards to you too frequently, not frequently enough or you have a specific Bureau wish, you know how to get in touch. Your wish is my command - within reason, and ignoring the 30th June Bureau clearance. Clearance means just that - the Bureau is emptied no matter your wish at the time.