The total amount of additional postage the Boy Scouts of America may have to pay the United States Post Office to mail a catalog the USPS has decided does not meet the requirements for non-profit rates could top $700,000.
During a review the Post Office conducted of the claim that the BSA’s catalog deserved to be mailed at a non-profit rate, the USPS decided not only that the current catalog did not meet the standards for the reduced postal rates, but also that the catalogs from the two previous years did not meet those standards. In a letter sent to the BSA’s law firm, Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, New York, on January 7, the USPS claimed there was an additional $485,000 postage due.
According to a spokesperson for the Scouts, an appeal has been filed with the USPS.
The Boy Scouts had filed a lawsuit against the Post Office for the difference between regular postage and non-profit postage the Scouts had to pay for its 1999 catalog, mailed last fall (see DIRECT Newsline, 4/20/99). The lawsuit is for the $218,000 difference between the two postage rates, plus court costs.
At issue is whether the Boy Scout’s catalog offers items that are not substantially related to its organizational purpose. In the January 7 letter, the USPS asserts that “the reproduction of a BSA emblem on an item that is primarily utilitarian, would not necessarily make that item substantially related to the organization’s primary authorization.”
The Post Office refers to the Scout’s primary purpose or authorization as “educational.” The USPS maintains that while uniforms, merit badges and the like do relate to the BSA’s mission, mugs or chairs with the Scout’s fleur de lys do not. The items are not specific to scouting and are used primarily for non-scouting purposes, the Post Office maintains. The law says even one item that isn’t “substantially related” invalidates the entire catalog for a non-profit rate.
The catalog is distributed to 4.5 million members, including Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explorers, Scout Masters and adult volunteers.
