Unique New Service Accelerates Delivery of Mail to Mormon Missionaries and Makes Writing Letters Easier than Ever
PROVO, Utah (December 5, 2000) – VuWorks, a leading provider of strategic Internet solutions today announced that it’s Called2Serve division, the leading provider of online care packages, gifts and other related services to Mormon missionaries, has officially launched PouchMail.com. PouchMail.com, a new web site located at https://www.pouchmail.com, is designed to expedite the delivery of mail to missionaries serving in hard-to-reach parts of the world.
With nearly one-third of the sixty-thousand full-time Mormon missionaries serving around the world living in areas with inadequate mail service, the LDS Church provides a “Pouch” mail service, wherein the parents and loved ones of Mormon missionaries are allowed to send their letters to Salt Lake City to be forwarded to missions located in hard-to-reach areas. The Church mailroom staff then sort the letters into packets for each of the nearly one hundred fifty missions the service is available to, and ships them using a trusted global carrier directly to the mission headquarters of each individual mission. It is estimated that nearly 20,000 full-time missionaries rely on this service to receive mail.
VuWorks identified a disconnect in this process that is intensified for people living outside of the State of Utah. Mail sent to the Pouch from some states can take as long as a week to arrive in Salt Lake and even longer for those outside of North America. The result is fewer people writing fewer letters to their missionaries.
“Letter writing is by nature a painful process, which is why so many people struggle to write to missionaries,” said Rus Rasmussen, co-founder of VuWorks, the company that created PouchMail.com. “Not only do you have to write the letter, but you have to find an envelope and a stamp and track down the address and then wonder if and when it will get to its recipient,” said Rasmussen.
PouchMail.com is intended to eliminate most of the excuses people have for not writing their missionaries. Users of the service simply login to their account with a username and password and they’re ready to begin writing letters. Once the letter is written, PouchMail.com employees print, fold and seal the letters each week and deliver them directly to The Church, just in time to make it on their planes to every corner of the world.
The service costs just $7.99 per month and allows up to six authors to write their missionary as often as they like from any computer connected to the Internet.
“In discussions with customer focus groups, we’re finding it’s all about convenience,” said Jeff Allen, Co-Founder of VuWorks. One beta customer said of the service, “.my son rarely writes letters to his missionary son, my Grandson, because whenever he finds the time to write, he doesn’t have the address, or an envelope or a stamp. But, last night I told him about PouchMail.com and said he’s going to sign up.” Allen said, “.we’re hearing stories like this from nearly everyone who hears about the service.”
After nearly a year of development, PouchMail.com is robust enough to handle tens of thousands of letters each week. And the system is completely secure, so letters written are kept strictly confidential. PouchMail staff is already familiar with this business. Since they pioneered the first Free Express Mail service to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah nearly 18 months ago, they’ve delivered over 100,000 letters to the MTC.
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About VuWorks, LC
Founded in 1997, VuWorks (pronounced “view-works”) VuWorks Consulting helps companies improve their use of the Internet and interactive media to meet their business objectives. VuWorks also owns and operates several web properties, including Called2Serve.com and PouchMail.com.
About Called2Serve.com
Launched in May of 1999, Called2Serve.com was the first and is still only online store that allows people to configure custom care packages for missionaries. Called2Serve.com also pioneered the first free Express MTC Mail service to allow people to write their missionaries letters in the Provo, Utah MTC, and has since printed and delivered over 100,000 letters to missionaries. Called2Serve.com has delivered thousands of care packages to missionaries serving around the world.
2001 Meridian Magazine. All Rights Reserved.