We had a pizza party send off for Amy at Burns. After 16 years Amy is going off to a new chapter in her life. Amy started as our bookkeeper and when the Mailing Manager’s job became available she asked to be put in that position. She had a lot to learn but because she is a quick learner she caught on fast.

We will miss her but her new position is just two doors down from us. Hope she visits frequently.

Burns is a distributor for Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI). and I got some good news this morning. ASI is reporting that promotional product sales tie pre-pandemic record of $25.8 billion. It is reassuring that some things are coming back to normal. “ASI’s findings tell a remarkable comeback story, driven by the agility, resilience and ingenuity of distributor entrepreneurs who powered through a historic downtime to match record sales in record time”. “ASI research shows sales jumped 11.4% year over year, stoked by demand.”

Here at Burns, our promo sales has continued to grow and demand seems to be increasing. Over the last year, our Promotional Product Manager has set up a company store for a large health care company. We stock the items that they select and store them here until authorized employees go to the company store and order them, we then ship them to the various locations. We stock scrubs, backpacks, pens and various other items that this company has selected.

Our sales at Burns has mirrored the ASI trend, especially in promo items for teams, such as this logo and shirts for this team, the Spuds. Our graphics team can create any logo for your company. We offer apparel, embroidery on name brand shirts and much more. Give our Promotional Manager, Suzanne McCarter a call at 865 584-2265 or email her at suzanne@burnsmp.com.

Alexia Georghiou passes the happy rock to Phyllis Burns at the transition meeting in December 2022. Alexia is the outgoing president.

I consider it an honor to have been selected as President of The Knoxville Association of Executive Women for 2023. Knoxville Association of Women Executive Women (KAWE) provides accomplished women in a variety of professions and businesses with opportunities for social and professional networking, professional support and leadership development. We meet each month at Cherokee Country Club, where we have an accomplished women speak to the group. I have made so many friends in this group and am inspired by their accomplishments.

Recently my Home Owners Association put out an email warning residents of people stealing mail out of the boxes. Early morning walkers discovered mail in people’s yards. The United States Post Office warns that this type of thing is on the rise. Thieves look for flags up in a neighborhood because the mailbox may have out going checks. Thieves will then wash the stolen checks with a basic household chemical that can dissolve many kinds of ink. This allows them to make the check out to whomever they want, change the dollar amount and then forge the signature of the victim.

How do you keep your mail secure? The safest thing is to take your mail to a USPS office or put the mail in the box as close to the time of pick up as possible. The problem with that is the pick up time may not be consistent each day. If you do put mail in the mailbox for pickup, don’t put the flag up. Sign up for Informed Delivery with the USPS as you will know what to expect to be delivered that day. It is free and you can go to USPS.gov to sign up. If the mail that is on your Informed Delivery notice does not show up, report it to your local USPS office. If you are going to be gone use the USPS Hold Mail service and the USPS will hold your mail until the day that you want the mail to start back up. If you don’t do that you may want a trusted neighbor to get your mail while you are gone. Keep a close watch on your bank account to spot for possible fraud and finally when you make out your checks make sure that the line where you are writing the amount goes all the way across the line so that it makes it harder for them to change the amount.and make sure the numeric amount fill the box on the right side of the check.

On July 1st, National US Postage Stamp Day recognizes the ease and simplicity with which we can send and receive mail. The United States issued its first postage stamp on July 1, 1847. At that time, stamps were not required. A letter could be mailed without a stamp and delivery paid for by the recipient. In 1855, the postage stamp became mandatory. 

This morning was a strange morning. Everything was going great until the power went out in Cedar Bluff. I thought it would come back on in just a few minutes, but no. I check with my neighbor and her power is out too. This is a problem because it is supposed to be in the 90s today with a heat index of 100. I told her I was going to work where it is cool and she said can you get your garage door open by yourself. I could not, so she came over and helped me lift it up. I pulled my car out of the garage and went back in the house and low and behold the power was back on. What does this have to do with my Grand Puppy? Well, I was not sure that the power would not go back off again so Lincoln came to work with me today. He is enjoying all the attention and pets from everyone.

I haven’t posted for some time now. Things have been strange over the last couple of years and I think most people would agree with that. In the spring of 2020, I went to Mexico with my family. We arrived in Isa de Mujeres on Saturday and it was beautiful. The COVID pandemic was just being talked about and as the news got worse, we decided to fly back to the states on Tuesday. As we were in the taxi, the taxi driver told us that the Mexican government was shutting down the country on Friday. Whew! that was close. After we got back, with no vaccine available, I talked to my employees and ask them if they thought I should come back to work. They all thought I should work from home because of my age and the possibility of catch COVID.. So that is what I did for a year. It was very strange not getting out of the house. When I did go to the grocery store, I would wipe the groceries with sanitizing wipes before I brought them into the house. After I had received two vaccines, I went back to work in April of 2021. It was good to be out of the house but we all wore mask in the office and were very careful around each other. I am happy to be back at work with no mask required.

My daughter has been studying Spanish for several years and her dream had been to live in Spain for several months. So at Christmas of 2021, we all went to Madrid Spain. It was a great time to celebrate in Madrid, we went to Christmas Fairs and had Churros with hot chocolate to dip them in. After about 10 days I flew back into Nashville and picked up my daughter’s dog.. In February, I went back to Spain to stay with my Granddaughter, who is going to school there. I stayed 3 weeks in Spain and it was wonderful. I don’t speak Spanish but I had a translate app on my phone and I had to use it a couple of times. The Spanish people are friendly, helpful and a lot of them speak English.

Keeping the dog has been an experience. Within the first 10 days that he was with me, he got sprayed by a skunk. That is an experience I will not forget. It took multiple baths and time for it to go away. He is a sweet Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. His breed of dog is so loving and calm.

Things are going well at Burns Mailing & Printing, and I have to thank my wonderful employees, who kept things going. I am looking forward to a great summer and spending time with family. God has blessed me in many ways and I am grateful for my family, friends and my work family.

We just received news this week about the new feature for Informed Delivery. If you are familiar with Informed Delivery, you know that the USPS scans each piece of mail and send you an email with what is coming in your mailbox. With the new feature, we can set up for our customers a link that when their mail piece is scanned it give the option to click on a link and it takes the viewer to a site of the mailer’s choice. For instance, if I mailed a post card and created a link when the person receiving my post card can click on that link and it would take them to my website http://www.burnsmp.com. The recipient must be signed up for Informed Delivery. This could be a GAME CHANGER for political candidates, restaurants, non-profit organizations and anyone wanting have an additional marketing tool for their organization. The ultimate tool for combining direct mail and digital marketing.

If you want to know more about the Informed Delivery tool, email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com or call 865 584-2265