New postmaster takes helm of local Postal Service

Bill Brayman's first official day as Springfield's new postmaster was July 14, but he's not new to this area. Brayman, a Nebraska native who has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 21 years, has lived in Springfield for almost a decade.

Prior to being named postmaster for Springfield, Brayman served as the manager of post office operations for the mid-America district, which includes Kansas City but not Springfield. He commuted from Springfield to the Kansas City area, and he was responsible for 10 of the mid-America district's larger offices.

Brayman said although he has a lot of the technical and operational experience that he'll need as postmaster, his new position is more about people, and that difference is reflected in his goals.

"I'm kind of structuring my goals at least for the first 12 months. I want to be more customer-service driven and provide a leadership to the staff and the employees who provide that service, to where we're looking at meeting our customers' needs within the resources that we have the financial resources and the facility resources, and see if we can improve our customer service," Brayman said.

He'd also like to increase consistency in mail delivery times, to level out the lines in the Postal Service's retail units, and to increase the focus on the Postal Service's local work force of approximately 890 employees.

"We're looking at opportunities to improve the ergonomics of the operation, just the overall health and welfare of our employees," Brayman said.

Another goal Brayman has is to "energize" Springfield's Postal Service employees to be more involved with community events, such as the Day of Caring and the annual food drive that the Postal Service participates in each year.

"I think we have an obligation to give back to the community when we're as fortunate as we are. We're a big employer, we have fairly secure jobs, and I just think we have something to give ... to the community," he added.

Brayman said he expects his first "Christmas rush" as postmaster to be interesting, and he added that new equipment should improve processing.

A good thing about Postal Service employees is that they're good about rising to a challenge, he said. Brayman added that the Postal Service plans to hire some temporary workers to help during the holiday rush.

Finances will be among the challenges Brayman will have to handle as postmaster.

He said although many of the Postal Service's financial issues are handled at the federal level, Springfield, like all Postal Service operations, has a budget to meet.

"Expense-wise, we're doing well this year. Revenue-wise, our revenue is down. I don't have the exact dollar amount, but the amount of revenue we're generating is down," Brayman said. "Whether there's a recession in the economy or not, there's definitely an earnings recession with most businesses, and businesses are spending less money," he said.

He added that most of the Postal Service's revenue comes from large-quantity business mailings.

Brayman earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska, and he earned a master of business administration degree from Southwest Missouri State University in 1996.

Brayman's wife, Kimberly, is a human resources manager for Prime.

His oldest daughter, Heather, is a recent SMSU graduate who works with Mazzio's corporation in Colorado Springs.

His youngest daughter, Kristina, is now working on her undergraduate degree at SMSU.

(The preceding article originally appeared in the Aug. 28, 2001, issue of the SBJ Daily Update, a subscriber-only service.)