By Kenneth Stalberg
How did the newsletter in your hand find its way to you? It’s a long process involving many dedicated volunteers. As the BCF mailing coordinator, or “Mailing Maestro” as I’m listed in the BCF Newsletter, my job begins after all the articles have been written and edited and the newsletters have been printed.
The first step is finding a board member who’s able to host a mailing party. The newsletters, about 2,200 of them in seven or eight heavy cartons, will be delivered to his or her home. On the evening of the mailing party (the date is chosen months in advance) somewhere between six and 10 people will gather to work and chat. We take thousands of mailing labels (expertly printed by David Chase) and affix them to the newsletters.
The newsletters are then bundled in bunches of about 50 with rubber bands and placed in large polypropylene sacks from the post office. We fill seven or eight sacks for each mailing, depending on the length of the issue. There are three categories of addresses, and we have to be careful not to mix them! The sacks go in the trunk of my car for a trip, usually the next day, to the USPS Bulk Mail facility in Waltham.
Each mailing requires paperwork, of course! I fill out a USPS form listing the number of items going to each of the three address categories, and then calculate the postage cost. At the Waltham Bulk Mail unit my helpful friend Dennis checks the BCF account to make sure there’s enough money to cover the postage (around $650—thanks Radha!), and weighs 10 newsletters to calculate the total weight of the shipment (usually about 250 pounds). I unload the sacks from my trunk at the loading dock and drive away, happy knowing that in a few days, thousands of people in Belmont and beyond will be receiving their copies of the newsletter.
You may be wondering why I’m called “Mailing Maestro.” In my real life, I’m a professional violinist and violist. I play with five orchestras in Boston, including the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, and Boston Lyric Opera, and I teach violin and viola privately at my home. Helping the Belmont Citizens Forum gives me another way to have a positive influence on our community.
Kenneth Stalberg
Kenneth Stalberg has missed only one mailing in his years as Mailing Maestro. On that occasion, he handed the reins to his son Nathaniel, who took over the supervisory and delivery duties.
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