From May 29-31, 2001, more than 400 representatives from publishers, printers, fulfillment houses and others met in Chicago with top postal officials, including new Postmaster General Jack Potter, to address the present and future of Periodicals service and rates. The meeting, co-chaired for the industry by Joyce McGarvy (Crain Communications), was well attended by ABM member companies, some of whom, along with ABM Postal Counsel David Straus, addressed the group. The Postal Service stressed that the same attention that has produced cost reductions for letter mail processing is now being paid to flat-shaped mail and that we have already begun to see the results. Nevertheless, they insisted, the Postal Service's financial situation remains irrevocably dire, and there appears to be little chance of avoiding another rate filing this year. The only good news is that there will be some delay in the rate increase request, which was originally forecast for July 2001. Now, October 2001 seems more probable. Rates would increase about a year later.