1 ntcKcom 36ukc uniuGUsity ccntcR VOLUME 18, NUMBER 25 JULY 2, 1971 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA They Get Letters Med Center Mail Room Big Operation MONDAY DELIVERY Postal worker K. E. Nicholson unloads the first U. S. nnail delivery for the week. All the mail on that truck was addressed to the Medical Center! {staff photo) CHECKING THE DELIVERY— —Postman W. H. Moore unloads bags of mail while mail room manager Ruth Wagner checks his cargo, (staff photo) They don't usually have to contend with the rain, snow, heat, or gloom of night or even the angry dogs most postmen have to face. But even so, the ladies who operate the Medical Center mail room are just as dedicated to getting the mail delivered. All most people see of the mail room are the 1,000 little boxes spread along the walls and the ladies at the window taking packages and selling stamps. But behind the walls are employes who spend their day sorting and distributing thousands of pieces of mail. "On an average day," explains Mrs. Ruth Wagner, mail room manager, "we probably receive 5,000 to 6,000 pieces of first-class mail and 20 to 25 large bags of third class mail and packages." That's a lot of mall to distribute. But, added to the routine U. S. mail, the Medical Center office receives and sorts between 3,000 and 4,000 pieces of inter-campus mail every day. The inter-campus mail is delivered to the Medical Center twice daily from the main Duke University mail room and also two times a day from outlying medical buildings. It's distributed to the mail boxes continuously. The mail room sends out U. S. mail from the Hospital through a metering system. This permits departments to take mail to the mail room without stamps. A code identifying the department is noted on each envelope and the mail room runs the letters through a postage meter, keeps track of the charges and bills the department monthly. These charges run between $8,000 and $9,000 each month. One of the biggests jobs the ladies have to deal with is getting mail delivered to patients. "So many of our patients are here juSt a few days," Mrs. Wagner says, "and by the time their friends start sending them cards, they're already back home." The mail room then checks with the Admitting Office records to get a forwarding address. (continued on page three) SORTING TIME—Margie Wilkins, right, Virginia Whitman, center, and Helen Russell, left, sort first-class mail arriving at the mail room.(staff photo) FROM THE INSIDE Geneva Westbrook of the mail room distributes letters to the post office boxes most of us see only from the outside, (staff photo)

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