Oddly, a second May 2010 Chess Life arrived in my mail today. Both had the correct information on the label. It is the first time in 30+ years I’ve received two copies of the same month.
John Baldwin (Phoenix)
Odd indeed, I have no explanation for it.
Were the labels identical?
it’s the morning of may 11 and i haven’t gotten mine yet. my mail is always slow. Glad to hear that it’s a little delayed, so i’ll probably get it today or tomorrow. i do look forward to it by the way. I recently renewed my USCF membership after a year not belonging, and the magazine seems to have improved greatly in that year’s time i wasn’t reading it.
May CL arrived today, 11 May 2010
Russell Miller
Camas WA
I checked that and the labels were identical and they arrived within a few days of each other. I wondered how many people got two issues this month. It is not a problem for me but for the USCF trying to save money it could be a problem.
John
mine arrived yesterda, 5/11/2010.
I’ve checked with Daniel Lucas, neither of us have any idea why you got two copies, some kind of glitch at WorldColor (formerly known as Quebecor) seems the most likely explanation.
We haven’t had other reports of this. Daniel says he’ll mention it to our WorldColor rep, just so they’re aware of it.
Chess Life magazines are shipped from Minnesota. That’s weird, I live in California and received my May issue on 5/8/10
One of the major factors is how many copies are being sent to the same place, ie the same ZIP code.
If there are enough copies for a direct bundle, that saves several intermediate processing steps, each of which can take one or more days.
The USCF also participates in a co-bundling group, copies that don’t qualify for a direct bundle are grouped with other publications to make up a direct bundle.
I received my June issue on June 5.
I received my on June 5th or 8th. The cover of the july 2010 issue is very simplistic and appealing. On of my favorite so far!
The art is fine, but the headline is a reach – unless Anand has been routinely referred to as “Tiger” in the past, and I just missed it. (Which is entirely possible.)
That being said . . . for all the criticism I have of the design and editorial decisions in Chess Life, I recently saw some issues from four or five years ago, and all I can say is, wow. You’ve come a long way, baby. Redesigning the magazine wasn’t just a good idea, it was lifesaving surgery.
Yup…you completely missed it.
As for missing things, it’s 8/29 and still no August issue for me in Colorado. Address change isn’t an issue as I received last month’s issue just fine.
Thanks to assistance from Mike Nolan, found the problem. For those who move permanent addresses, USPS only forwards periodicals for 60 days. Depending on when the address change happens, an issue can be sent with the old address past the 60 day mark b/c of when the mailing labels are printed.
Mailing labels have to be printed fairly early in the month, usually on the Monday or Tuesday after the rating supplement is generated (the first Friday of the month.) Thus the labels for the October issue will most likely be generated and sent to World Color (formerly Quebecor) next Tuesday, September 7th.
Because it takes time for the magazines to get to the postal facility where the change of address is on file, and it can also take several weeks for an address change or non-delivery notice to get back to the USCF office, by the time the USCF has that address change (or notice of a bad address) the label for the next issue has probably already been generated.
Thus we strongly encourage USCF members who are moving to let the USCF know their new address as soon as possible.
A postal facility is next to South Station in Boston. One time I found a bundle of periodicals, all the same issue, addressed ti various persons, in a waste barrel there. I brought it home, called the Postal Inspection Service, and delivered the bundle to the local post office to be called for. There was another time that I found such a bundle but it hadn’t been discarded yet as waste, so I knew I would not have been demonstrably in the right to take it.