Greenville Postmaster Sandra Brown received notice recently that she is being transferred to St. Louis to assume the responsibilities of supervisor of accounting in the postal service center located there.

&uot;Like any other organization, the postal service is going to automate many operations, which means they are eliminating positions,&uot; Brown said. &uot;Some of those positions will be the accounting offices on the local level. Those accounting services are going to be electronically transmitted to the service centers in San Mateo, California, Egin, Minnesota and St. Louis. I will be in charge of those accounting services in the St. Louis service center.&uot;

Brown said that the move is a good one for her because she has an accounting background.

&uot;I was the accounting manager for the post office in Birmingham before I came here, so I’m just going back to my roots,&uot; Brown said.

The Tuscaloosa native has been Greenville’s postmaster for the past 10 years. She has served as the vice president of the National League of Postmasters, a postmaster organization, and she served as area coordinator, representing postmasters in five states.

Brown said she’s feels it is her experience working with other postmasters that qualified her for the new position.

&uot;This is an opportunity to get the postmasters into a transition mode,&uot; she said. &uot;Everyone hates changes – in your house, your church or wherever – they hate it. I think that if they have a familiar person helping them with it, it will make the transition easier.&uot;

The postmaster said the transition is especially difficult when it comes to finances.

&uot;Finances is one of the few things that you can get fired for with the postal service,&uot; she said. &uot;So postal employees are very reluctant to turn that over to someone else. They fear it will get messed up, and they will be blamed for it.&uot;

This fear accounts for most postmasters’ reluctance to convert to the new automated system, Brown said.

&uot;The new system is a point of sale system that will allow the postal service to account for every item that is sold at a post office,&uot; she said. &uot;It won’t let the postal worker proceed to the next screen until they ask the customer if they want certain services. It’s similar to the gas pumps that ask you if you want a car wash or a receipt, and you have to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ before it will move to the pay screen to process your payment. So the employees have to offer the services to the customer, and once the sale is made, the sale is recorded and sent to the center.&uot;

Brown said this system should improve the post offices’ customer service.

Cleveland Minor is the manager of postal operations for the Mobile area, of which Greenville is a part. He will make the decision about who will take Brown’s place as postmaster of the Greenville Post Office.

&uot;No decision has been made yet because the position won’t be posted until Brown leaves on Friday,&uot; Minor said. &uot;I will have to appoint an officer in charge first, and that should be announced by next week. I will be accepting applications for the position, and I will have to review those.&uot;

Minor said that they would consider naming someone currently employed at the Greenville Post Office if there is someone qualified there that applies.

&uot;We would certainly take that into consideration,&uot; he said. &uot;But if someone not employed there is more qualified, that would make a difference.&uot;

Brown said Greenville’s only qualified candidate for the position is Supervisor Jeff Daniels. She was unsure if he had applied for the job.

Brown’s last official day as Greenville’s postmaster will be Friday, April 4.