Briefing
Paper:
Mailbox
Service
Briefing
Paper:
Mailbox
Service
A number of our clients would like to use the CCM office as a mailbox – a place where they can have their post delivered, and where it will wait for them until they pick it up.
We do not have the resources to operate such a service for everyone, but sometimes when we are helping people the only sensible option is for post to be delivered to us. This document describes what we can do, and the conditions under which we will do it.
Occasionally volunteers ask to have post addressed to the CCM office. The situation for volunteers is exactly the same as for clients, as are the conditions, but we will always try to help a volunteer in this way if they ask us.
These are the conditions under which we will accept and hold items of post for people who are not current members of staff.
We will only accept post when it has been arranged in advance, and a specific member of staff has agreed to hold that post.
We will only accept post that has been addressed correctly, ‘care of’ the member of staff who will hold the post, as follows.
Client Name
c/o Member of Staff
Crisis Centre Ministries
12 City Road
St Pauls
Bristol
BS2 8TP
We will only accept post for a specific purpose. We must know why we are being used in this way, and if we suspect that any item of post does not fall within the agreed purpose, we may open it to check. It should be obvious that we cannot risk being involved, for example, in delivering illegal substances to people!
We will only accept post for a limited period of time. Normally, six months would be the maximum we would agree to.
When an item of post arrives and we have agreed to hold it, it will normally be placed in the pigeonhole of the relevant member of staff. They will find it when they next check their pigeonhole. They will then try to remember to tell the person it is addressed to when they next meet.
We cannot take responsibility for ensuring that people are informed when post arrives for them. Since only specific items of post will come to us, the person concerned will know it is due to arrive and should check with the member of staff until it has been delivered.
If there is a cost involved – for example, if insufficient postage had been paid – we would expect to be repaid before we pass it on to the person it is addressed to.
Any post we receive that does not fall within these guidelines will be treated as any other mail we receive that is not addressed to a current member of staff.
Please note that we may open it, even if it is marked ‘private and confidential’ because we sometimes receive post that is intended for us but has been addressed to the wrong person and is marked as ‘private and confidential’ for some reason. If we open it, we will take reasonable care to maintain the confidentiality of any information it contains.
Whether or not we open it, one of the following three things will happen.
· We may destroy it.
· We may return it to the sender as ‘not known at this address’ – even if we do know the person it is addressed to.
· We may forward it to an address where we believe the person it is intended for can collect it.