[UK-CONTEST] RSGB Move & QSL

[Dave Cree]

It has been suggested that if the operation of the Bureau is out-sourced 
the Members would not notice any difference.

As a regular visitor to the bureau (about every 8 weeks to collect & 
deliver my cards) I beg to differ.
Although I am sure all members of this forum annote their outgoing cards 
with QSL routes / managers were appropriate, I can assure them that the 
vast majority of cards sent to the bureau for DX stations have no such 
annotation. The ladies who staff the bureau have an encyclopaedic 
knowledge of QSL routes, "vias", managers, etc., which has built up over 
many years. This will be lost if the work is outsourced.

Also, I wonder if an outside Commercial operator of the bureau would 
tolerate the very high percentage of envelopes which arrive at Potters 
Bar with the cards in random order - neither sorted alphabetically nor 
even by Country. If you can't believe this happens, try visiting the 
bureau for a morning and  opening the incoming envelopes....

Jan and her "girls" truly have the patience of  Job, allied to a steely 
determination to ensure that the cards all finally reach their targets.

BTW, for the last couple of years, I have taken to hand-carrying all the 
outgoing cards from the UK Bureau to the Islands that I frequently 
visit, where I deliver them to known active amateurs, as there are not 
many Caribbean Islands with functional bureaux.

73 Dave    (heading for Potters Bar tomorrow morning with another box of 
outgoing reply cards)