Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, 1 Kepakemapa 1983 — EDIT0R'S NOTE: Ka Wai Ola's Mailing List [ARTICLE]

EDIT0R'S NOTE: Ka Wai Ola's Mailing List

The number of registered voters in Hawaii increased considerably in 1982 as a result of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs" second Trustee election. OHA's efforts to register new voters saw new members in the High Schools and large Hawaiian communities throughout the State. The new number of registered voters is 63,950, up from 54,083 with 42,390 (66.2%) actually voting in the election last year. One side affect of the increased number of Hawaiians voting has been more newspapers of Ka Wai Ola mailed out. Right now there are 45,000 copies of Ka Wai Ola being printed four times a year. At least 42,000 of those copies are sent to the Post office to be delivered throughout the State. The remaining 3,000 copies are brought to our Honolulu office to be distributed to government agencies, libraries and island community centers, such as our neighbor island offices. Our mailing services are handled by a private business contracted by our printers, Hawaii Hoehi, and we receive those computer mailing labels found on posted newspapers, from the State's computer system. When someone registers to vote for OHA's election, their name and address is kept on "record", now a computer reel, whieh is fed into our mailing list. However, to keep the cost of production down, as well as mailing, whieh runs about 9!^c per

newspaper, the State computer system is programmed to use one name for every address found whieh means only one newspaper is sent to a Hawaiian family instead of eaeh voter in that household. This does save valuable monies whieh ean be used for other programs in OHA, but it has brought about some problems for our beneficiaries. One of the worst "problems" is updating the computer mailing list, especially when people move or change addresses. As it is estimated to cost S20,000 to revise the listing, we have not sought to do so unless there are a lot of names to justify the expense. One revision was done after the recent eleetion by the State and hopefully resolved some of the complaints we have received about mailing. There are some other problems that we have not yet resolved including adding on names that we receive here at the offices. One way, but it is getting expensive, is to send newspapers by first class mail to those requesting them, especially Hawaiians on the mainland. If mailing costs eontinue to rise that practice may have to end. Our staff is now working with the State computer system to prepare a revision list as there will be an election upcoming next year. Perhaps then we may improve our mailing system and find other.ways to help defer the rising cost of production.