Help me decide

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Today, I received an invitation to attend a local church’s New Year’s Eve service. I’d just toss it, but there are a couple of things bothering me about it, and I’m debating whether to make a fuss or not.

First of all, it was sent MPS, military postal system (I think thats what it stands for), which is postage-free. Service members and their families can send mail from base to base overseas by just writing “MPS” in the corner. It’s a nice benefit and really saves a lot of money, especially if you have a family member deployed in Macedonia or something. I don’t think it was meant to be used for this sort of thing.

Plus, I don’t even know the people who sent it! My parents (who live here, too) got one as well, so I think this is a mass mailing. I believe this is an abuse of the MPS system, and I plan on asking at the PO tomorrow to make sure.

The other thing that bothers me is that whoever sent it somehow got my husband’s name and address (and my parents). We don’t know these people. I don’t know where one would buy a mailing list of service members stationed in the Heidelberg/Mannheim area, so all I can think is that somebody who works in V Corps (where my husband & father both work) copied a list from work. I’m not sure what the rules are regarding this, but it just doesn’t seem like it would (or should) be allowed.

I’m not sure whether I should complain about this or not. I don’t know if I’m more bothered about the abuse of the system, or the fact that this came from a church. I’m pretty sure that the people who sent this mean well, and think that they are doing me a favor by inviting me to their service. On the other hand, I’m pretty adamant about following the rules and not abusing priviledges. Part of me thinks I’m being petty by even worrying about this…please help!

2

If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, call them and ask. Explain that they must not understand how the MPS works, etc. Perhaps they got some kind of permission? Also inquire about how they got thier mailing list.

No need to be nasty, but that is what I would do. If their answers weren’t satisfactory, I would complain (more about the postage then anything).
Zette

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3

I’ve been a military family member for 14 years, and have been overseas for 10 of them, so I
'm pretty familiar with the MPS system. I’ve seen organizations use it before, i.e. the boy scouts sending out monthly newsletters to members, but I’ve never seen unsolicited mail arrive from a church before. In my opinion, this is an abuse of the MPS system, and while you might contact the church as a courtesy, I would also contact the officer in charge of the post office on your base.
There is a reason soliciting (religious and otherwise) is banned on military posts, and this amounts to the same thing.

4

A church will often ask congregation members to help out with things like mailings.

Certainly it counts as abuse of the system, but perhaps a member of the church thought he was doing a good thing by grabbing a handful of their invites and posting them from the base. Even the poorest of ministers would likely think twice about deliberately using the MPS.

In any event, I doubt the situation merits much of a squawk – I’d just the package the whole thing and post it anonymously to the base C.O., then let him pass around the obligatory ‘WTF’ memo.
Dr. Watson
“Anybody can master necessity. It takes an artist to master random chance.”