Engagement Nominations Due Aug. 7

         

The Postal Service has extended the deadline for Engagement Leader of the Year Award. Nominations are now due Sunday, August 7.

The Postal Service is introducing the award to honor leaders who are involved, enthusiastic and committed to improving their workplace environments.

The awards will honor leaders at the district, area and headquarters levels.

 Awards will be given at the district, area and headquarters levels, culminating with a final honoree who will receive a national award in January.

Nominees must be Executive Administrative Schedule (EAS) or Postal Career Executive Services (PCES) employees in leadership positions and have employees who report directly to them.

The awards will be given in three rounds, beginning with 67 district-selected awardees. During the second round, seven area and 22 headquarters awardees will be chosen, followed by a third round of 10 finalists selected by the Executive Leadership Team.

From these 10 finalists, a single winner will be chosen for the National Engagement Leader of the Year Award.

The Employee Engagement LiteBlue site has guidelines and a nomination form.

Source: LINK

Kudos at Palmetto Park Carrier Annex

Boca Raton Postmaster Carlos Rodon, Jr. (right) presents Palmetto Park Carrier Annex Letter Carrier Yolanda Miralla (left) with her 30-Year Service Award and Pin. Photo: Jacqueline San Lucas 

Boca Celebrates Career Milestones

Boca Raton Postmaster Carlos Rodon, Jr. (right) presents Boca Downtown Station Sales and Services Associate Sarah Matchett (left) with her 30-year Service Award and Pin. Photo: Jacqueline San Lucas

Boca Raton Postmaster Carlos Rodon, Jr. (right) presents 30-Year Service Award and Pin to Boca Downtown Station Mail Processing Clerk Raymond Collins (left). Photo: Jacqueline San Lucas

Literary Arts Series: Henry James

The U.S. Postal Service honors Henry James (1843–1916), a towering figure in American literature, with a non-denominated three-ounce-rate stamp. The stamp, priced at 89 cents, is the 31st entry in the Literary Arts stamp series .

In novels and stories that often explored the complex interplay between Americans and Europeans, James sought to portray the intricacies of society and the inner lives of his characters with exquisite realism, an intellectual and artistic achievement that earned him a reputation as one of the greatest writers the United States has ever produced.
 
The stamp features an original painting by artist Kate Sammons of Los Angeles under the art direction of Antonio Alcalá of Alexandria, VA. On the left is a portrait of James based on a 1906 photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn. It shows the author in profile looking to the right, his left hand on his chin in a gesture of contemplation.
 
On the right side, behind James, is a vignette showing a man and a woman in a small boat; the man holds an oar, while the woman shades herself with a pink parasol. This vignette is an artistic interpretation of the climactic scene from The Ambassadors, James's 1903 novel in which a middle-aged American is sent by his wealthy fiancée to Europe, presumably to rescue her son from a woman she believes must be bad for him – the two people represented in the boat.
 
Even though James was born in New York City, he traveled extensively and resided in a number of different places in Europe, giving his writing a distinctive international flavor. James's literary output was prodigious: 20 complete novels, more than 100 shorter pieces of fiction, several plays and hundreds of shorter works and articles, including travel observations, literary criticism and theater reviews. Two of his most well-known stories include Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw. His other works included The American, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, The Wings of the Dove and The Art of Fiction, among many others.
 
During James's lifetime, readers were often drawn to his novels and short stories for their accounts of passionate friendships, love affairs, and marriages that were unhappy and rife with conflict. His contemporaries also admired his realistic and thoughtful portrayals of women, especially strong, autonomous heroines failed by men and betrayed by other women. His eye for human nature has stood the test of time; interest in his work surged in the 1930s and continues to this day. His novels and stories have inspired numerous stage and radio adaptations, followed more recently by major television versions and Hollywood films, confirming that our distance from the bygone cosmopolitan society he described makes the human conflicts he explored no less relevant, illuminating and engaging.  
   

Retiring to Kentucky after 31 Years

Fort Lauderdale Sales and Services Associate Judith Burke (left) is moving to Kentucky after 31 years of postal service in the same building --- the Fort Lauderdale Main Office. A/Manager, Customer Service Operations West Gwen Branch (right) presents Burke with her Retirement Certificate. Photo: Fort Lauderdale Customer Relations Coordinator Kelly Worthman

'Phishing' Without a Pole is a Scam

Have you received an unusual or suspicious email?

If so, it could be a phishing scam.

These messages often express urgency and contain suspicious hyperlinks or attachments. They often arrive from an unknown sender.

If you receive a message like this, follow these guidelines:

• Evaluate. Don’t open any attachments or follow any links embedded in the email.
• Prepare to send. While viewing the message, press the “Control,” “Alt,” and “F” keys simultaneously to create a new email with the suspicious message attached.
• Remember CyberSafe at USPS. Type CyberSafe@usps.gov into the “To” line of the new email and hit “send.” The email will be sent to the CyberSecutiry Operations Center.
• Delete. Delete the suspicious message from your inbox. Don’t respond to the sender or forward the message to anyone else.

The CyberSafe at USPS sites on Blue and LiteBlue have additional tips.

Source: LINK

Fort Lauderdale is 'Out of this World!'

From left, Youth Services Director Lisa Jackson, Fort Lauderdale Postmaster David Guiney and Planet Enthusiast Sophia Maritato admire the "Views of Our Planets' stamps at a special dedication at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARL&CC) in Fort Lauderdale. Photo: Fort Lauderdale Customer Relations Coordinator Kelly Worthman

During the modern era of space exploration, the planets of our solar system have been viewed with increasing clarity, thanks to the distant voyages of unmanned spacecraft and the development of ever-more powerful telescopes. 

With the pane of 16 stamps, "Views of Our Planets," the U.S. Postal Service showcases some of the more visually compelling images of the planets. 

Fort Lauderdale Postmaster David Guiney and Youth Services Director, African-American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARL&CC), combined efforts to present an “Out of this World" experience for the community. 

During the grand opening of the "Discover Space: A Cosmic Journey" traveling exhibit, Guiney dedicated an  enlargement of the 16 “Views of Our Planets” stamps. Eleven-year-old planet enthusiast Sophia Maritato flew in from Pittsburgh, PA, to participate in the special dedication. Maritato recalled looking at the stars, planets, and moon with her father at a very early age. In fact, at two years old, her first sentence was "the moon is white!" 

 

The “Views of Our Planets” stamps feature eight truly beautiful images of the planets in our solar system — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Each image was obtained during an extraordinary era of space exploration. 

Some of the images, like the one of Saturn taken by NASA’s Hubble space telescope, and the one of Neptune taken by Voyager 2, show the planet’s “true” colors — what we might see with our own eyes if traveling through space. 
 
Other stamp images are color enhanced to highlight certain planetary features based on sensor readings. For example, the view of Mercury, from the Messenger spacecraft, uses various hues to show different rock formations on the surface.  

And the Venus stamp provides a simulated view of the planet's surface based on radar reading from NASA's Magellan spacecraft. Then we have images that used near-infrared spectrum to show things that can’t normally be seen by the human eye. For example, the Jupiter and Uranus stamps appear in pastel colors based on images taken by the Hubble telescope.