Newsletter No. 19

CUHK Newsletter No.19 June 1991 Make t he Most of Your Post To contact a colleague or friend on campus, a simple phone call will suffice. Even written messages and complex data pose no problem, for there is always the fax machine. But what if you want to send an official document that may need to be signed, or memos that have to be circulated round different parties? In such cases, you can make use of the University's internal mail service, which is efficiently run by a team of regular University staff. Those who are familiar with the system can use it to send documents to their colleagues in the shortest possible time. Unfamiliarity may breed delay, but you can rest assured that the documents will eventually reach their destinations safe and sound. Of course, if the document is vitally urgent, you should always use the service of a messenger. AMiniature of the Government System The internal mail system on the campus resembles a miniature Government system, with a 'General Post Office’ at the centre of a network of branches and sub-branches spread throughout the campus. The Mail Room, which is located on the ground floor of the John Fulton Centre, serves as the nerve centre, coordinating all incoming and outgoing mail. Branches and sub-branches are located in various districts and units according to geographical conditions and local needs. While each of the four colleges naturally has its own ‘post office', the University Health Service, the Department of Extramural Studies, the Marine Science Laboratory, and the Fong Shu Chuen Building have also been designated as special dispatch/ collection points, owing to their relatively ‘remote’ locations. How the System Works Mailing within the Same District Every day at regular intervals, an office assistant collects all the outgoing mail from the office and takes it to the district ‘post office’ for handling. All such ‘post offices’ contain a series of pigeon holes, each of which is labelled with the name of a department or office in the same district. The office assistant then distributes the outgoing mail to the appropriate boxes, collects any incoming mail which might have been posted into his office's pigeon hole, and then returns directly to his office to distribute the mail. This is a fast, direct method of distributing mail within the same district on campus. All that is needed for a letter to reach its destination is one simple exchange at the district ‘post office'. Mailing between Different Districts Sending letters to another district, however, is not so straightforward. District ‘post offices' have to sort the letters according to their destinations and place them in separate post bags bound for specific districts. All such post bags are then taken to the ‘General Post Office' in the John Fulton Centre for distribution to various district ‘post offices'. Since the campus is so large, the post bags are transported by a small van, which makes daily trips to and from various collection/dispatch points for all incoming and outgoing mail. The Faculty of Medicine is an exception in that it has its own post van, which makes daily trips between the Prince of Wales Hospital and the Choh-Ming Li Building for the Basic Medical Sciences. Ensuring a Speedy Delivery As with any system governed by the usual constraints of manpower and other resources, it is necessary to use it with maximum efficiency to ensure optimum results. This entails knowing the exact times of collection of outgoing mail from the office in order that letters can be prepared in advance, as well as knowing the schedule of the post van, in order to catch its earliest visit. The Post Van Always Calls Twice The post van leaves the 'General Post Office’ in the John Fulton Centre six times a day and follows different routes each 6