Union administration

Secretary-treasurer

Nicole Rhine

Nicole Rhine

Secretary-Treasurer

Nicole R. Rhine was reelected secretary-treasurer by mail balloting of NALC members in 2022. Full bio

The secretary-treasurer keeps the records and accounts of the union and assists branch leaders with complying with their responsibilities.

The information on this page is designed to help local branch officers fulfill their duties.

Holding NALC branch office involves serious financial and administrative responsibilities and duties

Local NALC secretary-treasurers comprise the union’s administrative backbone. For them, doing the job right is absolutely essential—not only because of the legal requirements concerning accounting, taxes and reporting, but also because they maintain the NALC’s integrity and financial health.

NALC calls upon local secretary-treasurers to do a host of difficult tasks, none of which are learned on the letter carrier’s job. Local secretary-treasurers need to keep financial books, produce financial statements, keep the financial and other branch records in order, file detailed reports with the Labor Department and Internal Revenue Service, and make sure everything they do is timely, well-organized and 100 percent accurate.

Along with secretary-treasurers, all local branch officers take their financial and administrative responsibilities very seriously. They are on the front line, representing members interests before USPS management; they take care of branch administrative and financial business; they lead branch members in a myriad of community service projects; and they organize new letter carriers even as they motivate current active carrier members and retirees to participate in branch activities.

Hot topics and quick links

  • NALC's Group Exemption Number is 0685.
  • Did your branch lose its tax-exempt status? Click here
  • Need the IRS ‘letter of determination? Click here.
  • Importance of checking branch roster: CCAs, codes and allotments. Click here
  • Click here for other important resources and documents

Installing internal controls for branch finances

A Postal Record article on ways that branches should establish internal control of their finances can be found here.

Changes of officers

Please notify the office of the national secretary-treasurer in writing on official branch letterhead as soon as possible after a change of officers in your branch or state association. New officers will not begin to receive their mail from headquarters until NALC is notified of their names, titles and addresses. NALC’s membership database stores the names of branch and state presidents, secretaries and treasurers, and information in the database is used for mailings.

Changes of address

Please notify both your local branch and the office of the national secretary-treasurer as soon as possible after a change of address so NALC’s membership database can be updated. The Postal Record, the NALC Bulletin and other NALC publications and official mailings use the membership database to keep members informed about important letter carrier issues and official union business.

Call 202-662-2836 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Transfer membership from one branch to another after retirement

Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution for the Government of Subordinate and Federal Branches covers the requirements:

(a). Any regular branch member in good standing in his/her Branch, moving his/her employment to another city, or retiree in good standing in his/her Branch moving to another city, may transfer membership to the Branch located in such city.

(b). The membership of an active member shall be transferred in accordance with procedures established by the Secretary-Treasurer of the National Association.

(c). In the case of a retiree member seeking to transfer membership, [h]e/she shall make an application to the Recording Secretary of his/her Branch, who shall ascertain from the Financial Secretary if all dues and assessments charged against him/her on that date are fully paid; if so, it shall be the duty of the Recording Secretary to announce at the next regular meeting of the Branch that the application has been received and all obligations discharged. There being no objections, the Recording Secretary will at once forward to the Recording Secretary of the Branch with which affiliation is desired, a letter of recommendation. The letter shall be read at the first regular meeting of the receiving Branch held after its receipt and the transferred individual shall be considered a member at that time. The Recording Secretary of the Branch shall then notify the Recording Secretary of the original Branch that the transferee has been received into membership.

Branch bylaw changes

See the assistant secretary-treasurer’s page for information on submitting proposed by-law changes to NALC Headquarters.

Dues changes

Dues corrections or changes can only be made at specified times.

Branches can suspend dues for members called to active duty

Any branch desiring to suspend the dues for members of the union called up to active duty should send a request to the NALC secretary-treasurer’s office at NALC Headquarters.

Application and instructions for branch mergers

For branches looking to merge with another:

Guide to conducting audits in small unions

 Branch trustees can use this guide as a resource for conducting audits within their branches.
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