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Many members have requested information on the Mail Design Professional certification course. GREAT NEWS! It’s available online at NO COST and can be accessed at any time.

Below is information from PostalPro regarding the online course and exam. Once on PostalPro, enter MDP into the search bar and click on Mail Design Professional (MDP) Online.

Mail Design Professional (MDP) Online

Mail Design Professional is a self-paced online certification course approved by the U.S. Postal Service®. The course can be accessed at any time and as many times as desired for free. It is estimated at 12 hours for full completion, but this will vary depending on the individual. In addition to the free course material online, if a student would like to become a certified Mail Design Professional, successful completion of the exam is required. Please visit https://imbg.usps.com/mdp to enroll.

This course is ideal for those who wish to maximize their proficiency in designing letter-size and flat-size mail to meet USPS® standards and obtain certification as a Mail Design Professional. The course includes:

  • Postal addressing standards
  • Classes of mail and processing categories
  • Intelligent Mail® and package barcode format and print specifications
  • Designing automation letters and flats (tabbing, polywrap, deflection, flexibility, etc.)
  • Reply mail (Business, Courtesy, Meter, Permit Reply and Merchandise Return Service)
  • Address Information products and Move Update

Learners will also receive information on design standards for:

  • Customized Market Mail
  • Repositionable Notes
  • Election Mail Logos
  • Privately Printed Labels
  • Reusable Envelopes

To become a certified Mail Design Professional, successful completion of the exam is required. You can sign up to take the exam from the MDP website. The certification is good for a two-year period once you have successfully completed the 100-question exam at 80% proficiency.

Please remember that the new exam is completed online on the MDP website.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

USPS National and Illinois News

News from USPS National and USPS Great Lakes Area.
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA — The Postal Service has released a new Christmas stamp featuring a depiction of the Madonna and Child from a painting in the collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. The stamp was issued today without a ceremony.
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NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Postal Service today released its ninth Hanukkah stamp, featuring a colorful digital illustration of a dreidel to honor the eight-day Jewish holiday observed by millions of people in the United States and around the world. A dedication ceremony was held at the Touro Synagogue.
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BROOKFIELD, WI —The U.S. Postal Service today released a set of four new stamps that depicts three of the season’s most adorable critters: the eastern chipmunk, eastern gray squirrel and American red squirrel.
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NEW YORK — The U.S. Postal Service today honored Linda McCartney (1941–1998), with a pane of stamps featuring her still life and landscape images. McCartney had a multifaceted career as a photographer, musician, cookbook author and animal rights activist who was a pivotal figure in the vegetarianism movement. A dedication ceremony for the stamps was held today at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
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NORFOLK, VA — The U.S. Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa, the pan-African holiday observed each year from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, with a new stamp dedicated today at the 111th annual conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
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ILLINOIS — The U.S. Postal Service will observe Memorial Day on Monday, May 25. All Post Office locations will be closed. Regular mail delivery and retail services will resume on Tuesday, May 26.
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ILLINOIS — Saturday, May 9th marks the 34th anniversary of the largest one-day food drive in the nation – the National Association of Letter Carriers' Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive.
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A guided tour of the new Hammond Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC) highlighting updated operations, state-of-the-art package sorting technology, facility upgrades, and Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs). Interviews will be available following the tour.
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ILLINOIS — The U.S. Postal Service is reminding customers in Illinois that Post Office locations will be closed and regular mail delivery will not occur on Presidents’ Day, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026.
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USPS Makes It Easy To Send Something Real This Valentine’s Day
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PostalPro News

News from PostalPro.
A Mail Service Provider (MSP) offers a variety of solutions to prepare and present Full-Service presort mailings. For more information regarding Certified MSPs, please follow this link: https://postalpro.usps.com/full-service-cert/fact-sheet
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Beyond the Mail
PostalPro 10/01/2026 07:00
A suite of additional new addressing & geospatial data products is available to customers with expanded use cases, now including USPS Emerging Roads and USPS ZIP Code Boundaries! Coming Soon: USPS Geocoding API. The United States Postal Service delivers to every address in the nation 6-7 days per week, collecting valuable addressing and geospatial data along the way as part of regular operations. With an unparalleled physical reach and frequency, USPS is delivering "Beyond the Mail" by offering a suite of addressing and geospatial data products geared towards customers with expanded use cases. The data collected by the USPS can...
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This spreadsheet contains the UAA statistics for September 2026.
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