Last week the information about the reorganisation regarding post offices in Switzerland was communicated and widely discussed by politicians, unions, post office staff and the public. Many small and not so small villages will loose their post office and the people fear that village life in small villages will suffer unduly, once the postoffice has gone.

At ETH we only now realise that we have long been spoiled with the way we could use the mail service. Since we were never payed for work that the specialists of the state-owned PTT could do better, we were spared it. We simply took letters and parcels with us and dropped them in the local mail-bag or in the official yellow box on the way home. Such boxes are conveniently placed on the way from ETH to the main railwaystation. One could drop a letter until 6pm and be sure that it would arrive at its destination in Switzerland the next morning.

No weighing, no measuring length, width and thickness of letters and small packages, no figuring out the amount to be payed, no licking of stamps. Once every few years a count was made of what ETH sent out and, "magically", an agreement between the Post and ETH seems to have been reached about some lump sum or flat rate payment.

As privatisation and progress arrived, this simple procedure was discontinued at New Year 2001. Outgoing mail from many "out-places" now has to go via the ETH-post office in the Main Building. It is brought there from the local collection point several times a day. In our case (NO-building) the mail leaves the building before 8am, after 9am and around 2pm. If we want to send letters out later and we want them to arrive the next day, we are now encouraged to weigh them ourselves and figure out with which stamp to decorate them and subsequently get the required stamp from the nearest secretary's office.

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