Process returned mail

When ASURA sends communications to people in the database via US Postal Service, we may get some letters returned because of a bad address. This is how to process such returned mail.

Determine member status

The steps to process returned mail are different for lapsed members than they are for active members. So the first thing to do is look the person up in the membership database and see what their membership status is. If you need specifics on how to find them, see instructions at the top of this page.

For active members

Presumably we sent USPS mail because we did not have a valid email address. However, if there IS an email address:

Delete the mailing address (street, city, state, zip, country).
If you see a message in a pink box that says "Emailing disabled" for the person, click on it to enable.
Check the "I want to receive" information for the person and make sure the Prime Times Newsletter box is not checked.

If there is no email address, we need to try to get some contact information.

If there is a phone number, try calling the person and asking for both email and mailing addresses.
If there is no phone number, try looking them up in the ASU directory to see if there is useable contact information there.
If these methods fail, look at the payment method used for the most recent renewal. If by check, we may be able to get an address by asking the Foundation to look for an image of that check -- the Financial Operations Manager should help you with that.

If we simply cannot obtain contact information for the person, enter a comment to that effect in the "comment" box and archive the record. Instructions for doing so are on the Add-update Member Record page. If we later obtain contact information the record can be retrieved from the archive and updated.

For lapsed members

If the person's membership status is "lapsed", simply edit the person's record to delete the mailing address (street, city, state, zip, country) and save the record.

Then archive the record.

Specific instructions for both of these processes are on the Add-update Member Record page.

Updated 10 Jul 2026 by Connie McNeill