>Paying the bills and opening other official looking mail from the past week, I just got a smile from this one. It is from the U.S. Census Bureau and warmly addressed to "TO RESIDENT AT...." Wait, it gets better. This is not the new census form, which I have read will be much less time consuming than earlier ones. No, this is just a heads up. Here is the beginning:
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>"Dear Resident:
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>"About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly."
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>And then more like that, with many translations on the lower half of the page. The part that amuses me is that no response is requested or needed, just letting me know something will be up about one week from now. A herald of sorts.
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>The less amusing part is that presumably one of these letters went to every household in the United States. I wonder what the postage added up to?

I had the same initial reaction, but I've run across several possible explanations for why those were sent:

1) Note the other languages at the bottom. They may have been to ensure that non-English speakers know what to do when the census form arrives.

2) Dry run for the mail merge process.

3) Sending this may increase overall response, thus cutting down on the cost of sending census workers door to door.

Tamar