I am all about the post office living on. I live in a rural area and my mailing address is a PO box because we do not have "home" delivery. They tried to shut us down a couple years ago, but all they could manage was to curb some of our hours. It's tough when you get something you need to pick up at the window, but we still have Saturdays and I still have my post office. I'd love for it to do more, too.

I will take an off-the-cuff stab, using my two-fold distinction. While trying not to become distracted by how corporatists have kneecapped, then blamed our POs.

Personal:
Use private courier companies only when unavoidable. Post packages through the PO, even when it costs more and goes slower. If we support our PO financially, it would regain some of it's ability to compete with them on price and speed.
Become friendly with the PO workers. Hear from them about the local PO. Hear their views on "what should be done." Most of all, let them know we support them and will stand by them.
Write letters to our local politicians, federal representatives, LTEs, etc to raise awareness.
Talk with friends and family about the PO and specifically the local PO.

Local:
Create an informal local interest group, similar to the "Friends of the Library" groups in local communities.
Folks who have a heart for restoring public services for the common good.

Oops, time to take Youngest Daughter to kung fu. I be back.
Ok, I'm back: brainstorming button pushed, let's see,

A lot of the Friends of the Library folks would have a similar interest in saving and expanding the local PO. So activists could begin with them: sit down with their members and ask questions about who, what, where, how, why, when, and so on. Then make plans from there.

Next, create a formal "Friends of the PO" group.
Brainstorm with interested folks. At first, all three of them, including you and your spouse :=)
For heaven's sake, make sure to include someone bright from the PO workers. Pick the sharper of the two :=)

- Create an awareness campaign.
Find resources and free media.
Think of your local civic orgs and schools; make presentations to them about the value and potential of your local PO.
Create "Support Our PO" doo-dads, like bumper stickers, lapel pins, school pencils, etc. Ask your local civic orgs - like the Lions, Rotarians, Knights of The Great Pumpkin, etc - to pay for the doo-dads.
Help the PO to create a float in the village's Christmas Parade.
Find speakers on PO/Common Good issues and bring them in. I know; the buggers usually charge a lot. See blackmailing below :=)

- Connect the dots.
Find all the similarly threatened public services in your local community and bind them together.
Join together the Library, the Food Bank, the PO, the public transit, all such into a "Protect the Common Good Here In Our Local Community" movement.
Use the library as the common meeting point.

Involve your local gov:
Do whatever you can to get some insiders onside. How's that for taking all sides?
Find create ways to get some of them interested in the welfare of the PO. Usually this takes food, drink, money, and/or hookers.
Oh, and blackmail, where feasible :=) "Ah, Councillor X, remember when I protected you form all the bullies in primary school? It's payback time."
The brighter ones will see the public good. Some will even care.
find someone who is good at schmoozing local gov. S/he doesn't have to care about the PO, but maybe care about something or someone that would make them help the PO cause.

Find a sugar daddy:
Find an outside organization or a person who can inject money and expertise into the PO project.
(See for example in the resource library the links to the Institute for Local Self-reliance and others who have a heart for the common good, local empowerment, and public service.)

- Work on a handful of pilot programmes that could be "integrated" in unofficial ways into the life of the local PO.
There must be some smaller things that the local municipality or civic orgs could run through the PO.
Think of low-hanging-fruit pilot projects, ones that would not alarm the POs or govs bureaucrats.
I dunno: the provincial health dept runs a healthy food-purchase programme in our rural towns. We pay $10 for a large bag of fresh veggies and fruit every 2nd week. Lovie volunteers for them - packs bags for folks. I also tried to help, but the ptsd made a mess of it. In our village, they left the hockey arena when the bastards wanted them to pay rent. Now they're happy in our local French school. In a similar circumstance, why not offer the PO building? It's maybe not a realistic example, but it gives the general idea of low-fruit projects that would wrap the PO tightly into the civic fabric of the local community.

- Work on longer term plans for the real projects:
e.g. adding a credit union service to the PO.
Make sure never to use corporatist legal frames for PO projects. Always use cooperatives as the base legal frame.
Add a free wi-fi service to the PO. Get the town to pay for it.
Draw in outside expertise on removing or bypassing the legal, financial obstacles.
Build sound, flexible plans with defined action steps and responsibilities.

Well, that's all I could come up with off the top of my head. I hope it is somewhat helpful :=)

In one of the many PO streamlining efforts (to save $$), that little office was slated to close, leaving a zip code without its own PO. There was local pushback, the PO is still open, with at most 2 staff, open for limited hours. But it's still there. A tiny, free-standing building. Probably not large enough to accommodate more.

At least some Post Offices in the US (Ithaca being one) now does "last mile" delivery of packages from UPS and FedEX. I have no idea how that final routing decision is made. The Ithaca PO also does Sunday package delivery, unlike UPS or FedEx. Always a shocker when I get Sunday packages in my mailbox, or in the Garbage Can marked for deliveries at the bottom of my drive. This is a PO truck rural mailbox delivery. I know the (female) driver. It was she who asked me to place a can at the end of the driveway, for some reason the %^&$* UPS drivers have not yet mastered that concept. FedEx delivers to my door (900' drive).

The Main Ithaca PO, near the airport, has extremely pleasant and helpful staff. A joy to visit, ample parking. The old stone downtown branch has 2 street parking spaces, nice planning for cars.

from France. First a bit of an ad: the idea that government-run organizations can't innovate or change quickly is bunk. When the French PO system sees an opportunity to participate more and provide additional services, they jump on it. So here is a list of what we have heard of so far:

-- Bank * which works especially well in very rural or less wealthy areas; -- Cell phone provider * it's not top of the line, but a good alternative for those who can't afford the bells and whistles; -- Checking on Grandma and shut ins as part of regular rounds. * The carriers consider it a duty...family and friends are relieved; -- Delivering daily bread. * In France it is a necessity. In rural areas or for shut ins it provides an essential part of daily life; -- Blood draws for people with health conditions which need regular checks. * Part of the delivery system as well as medically-trained staff to conduct the draws.

For the US: we first need to unburden the Postal System from the 75 year pension in advance law put in place by Republicans. Secondly, revive the parcel post: rural areas are desperate for better parcel delivery and take away, including medical clinics and pharmaceuticals. Let them be a store for stationary, pens, stamps, envelopes more than they are today. Solar power on the roofs; lots of native green space including the parking lots; gathering areas in case of weather events - the Postal carriers know the people on their routes; IDK, there must be more, much more.

I looked at some of the threads on the US Postal Service and wasn't sure I saw a clean list of possibilities. I'm probably repeating some and missing a lot of opportunities. People love their postal workers.

Thanks for the resource library. I would like to add the category [people] who have skills which are disappearing but we might need. Some countries like Japan have people designated as heritage workers or artisans. Not sure the official title. There are many people doing great work for social justice, sustainability, organizing for different things. Reinventing the wheel takes time we may not have. There are folks out there doing things quite successfully we could learn from.

The Teaching Company uses top of the line university lecturers taped and then their courses available for download. It's a great way to learn something like music, history, art, and so on.Teaching Company.

I'll stop now.